UNICEF urges Panama to adopt a comprehensive code for children protection

Moderator_02 · July 25, 2018

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UNICEF urges Panama to adopt a comprehensive code for children protection

Wed, 07/25/2018 - 16:47

Panama must adopt a comprehensive code to protect the rights of children, in an effort to promote actions that prevent and end all forms of violence against children, said today the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

The world body said in a public statement that in Panama 44.5 percent of children have been victims of some type of violent discipline, according to national statistical data in 2013.

The special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on violence against children, Marta Santos Pais, said Panama has "the urgent need" to adopt the Code, and that it must include "the legal prohibition of all forms of violence against children, in all settings".

Santos Pais issued these statements during the presentation of the National Multisectoral Strategy for the Prevention of Violence against children and adolescents, Unicef reported Wednesday.

"The implementation of the National Strategy for the Prevention of Violence reiterates the important commitment of the Government of Panama to the rights of children, and is a decisive step to advance in the realization of a vision set out in the 2030 Agenda for the construction of a world free of violence for children, without leaving anyone behind," said Santos Pais.

Unicef said the Strategy is the result of a participatory process in which public institutions, civil society organizations and especially children and adolescents discussed and contributed their vision, experience, knowledge and proposals on the subject.

"I would like to encourage the Panamanian State to continue promoting with determination and ambition the adoption of appropriate measures to prevent and put an end to all forms of violence against children," Santos Pais said.