Out of the Shadows: Shining a Light on Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

On October 3nd, the World Childhood Foundation USA (WCF) together with the Swedish Mission to the UN, and in partnership with The Oak Foundation, the United Nations Office of Partnerships, The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and Together for Girls, will convene leaders from governments, academia, civil society and the private sector to launch a groundbreaking index on child sexual abuse and exploitation. This 40-country benchmarking tool, developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with the support of the WCF and the Oak Foundation, will help to measure progress toward reaching Sustainable Development Goal target 16.2: ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against, and torture of, children.

The participating leaders will discuss how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework is addressing the wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable children, and how it can help to prevent the global epidemic of violence and child sexual abuse and exploitation. Today, more than half of the world’s children are exposed to violence, abuse and neglect, including more than 200 million children who are victims of sexual abuse.

CWT CEO Kurt Ekert will be among the esteemed speakers who will discuss what still needs to be done to end all forms of violence against children in the 12 years remaining to reach the SDG target 16.2.

Recognizing that effective solutions can only emerge by raising awareness about the problem, by attracting multi-stakeholder engagement and through investment in collective actions, what more can the UN system, governments, civil society, and the private sector do to end child sexual abuse and exploitation by 2030?