Today, Saturday, September 9, Costa Rica celebrated another Children’s Day, however, the reality of many children in this country is far from happy.

Costa Rica still faces many challenges when it comes to battling and preventing violence against children.
In average the PANI (Child Welfare Agency in Costa Rica) receives more than 44 thousand calls reporting different forms of abuse or violence against minors.

This institution presented on Friday the “National Action Plan for the development of strategies for the prevention and eradication of violence against children and teens” to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF. This plan is a call for action, to go from the paper to the practice in order for homes, education centers, communities and institutions to act preventing the violence against children and teens that is affecting the country.

The United Nations’ World Report on Violence against children and teens, has confirmed that there is knowledge and capacity to prevent violence and minimize the consequences; the scientific base to formulate prevention strategies and effective therapeutic interventions is growing; the existence of strategies based in evidence show that with enough commitment and investment the focus in creative prevention can generate change and make a difference.

“Protecting children against violence has a huge potential to reduce all forms of violence in a society, as well as the social and long term mental and physical health consequences associated with violence during childhood”, stated Dr. Ana Teresa León, Executive Director of PANI.

During 2016, PANI received 8200 calls reporting physical aggression, most of these cases involve children between the ages of 1-4; a total of 1915 calls were received reporting sexual abuse cases; 78 calls regarding abandonment, 7523 cases on health negligence and 76 for the obstruction of the education rights.

“Costa Rica is up to date with the declarations and conventions oriented towards the recognition of human rights in different dimensions, and in terms of internal legislation it’s made great progress in the recognition of the rights of children and teens; however, in the operational part there is still a long road ahead to achieve the protection of children and teens”, stated Gordon Jonathan Lewis, Representative of UNICEF Costa Rica.