Children's Section

The Observatory team decided to organize academic activities as well as awareness activities with the University Community (12-21 November), to help understand the issue of child abuse in Colombia:

15 November: Radio program by the National University of Colombia. Members of the Observatory shared information about child abuse in Colombia as well as the rights of the child in general. They also invited the community to take part in the activities organized on the occasion of the World Day. It is estimated that about 800’000 people from Bogotá listened to this program.
16 November: Forum-Debate on child abuse in Colombia. Political and academic experts participated and more than 300 people attended the Forum-Debate (teachers, students, professionals, representatives of grass root groups, among others). It made the public aware of the punishment child abusers face and how institutions care for victims of sexual abuse in Bogotá.
17 November: A cultural event for awareness of child sexual abuse took place in a central area that many people pass by from the academic community (teachers, students and administrative employees of the University). This included artists’ performances on prevention of child abuse and the promotion of the rights of the child. They went around campus with placards and the 2000 flyers that the Observatory printed out to educate those that passed by on the World Day.
21 November: Presentation "Contributions to the UN Study on Violence against children: three Colombian Case Study". 1 Child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation: voices of children 2 Training for the promotion of positive education and elimination of corporal punishment 3 Parameters for media coverage of child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation. More than 150 people attended the event.
12-21 November: Mobilization for action. The above-mentioned activities were accompanied with a strong media campaign diffusing articles, e-mail messages and posters displayed in various institutions. The journalist team of the university wrote two articles on the World Day for prevention of child abuse-19 November and published them on Internet.

A video of the 2006 campaign is available at WWSF headquarters.