[This talk contains mature content]
I'm often asked what do I do.
To which I reply,
"I work to end violence against children.
All violence against every child in every country."
There's usually a pause.
Sometimes, depending on the setting,
"Whoa, that's a conversation killer."
And then the questions:
"What sort of violence are you talking about?"
"How much violence is there?"
"Where is it happening, is it happening here?"
And when I answer those questions, people tend to be shocked.
Shocked at the scale of violence,
shocked at the nature of violence.
But I'm always quick to make sure
that people aren't left with a sense of doom and gloom.
I believe we have an unprecedented historical opportunity
in this generation
to end violence against children.
There's a nascent movement building around this.
Governments, national governments, city governments,
provinces and others are joining that movement.
And when we succeed -- and it will take all of us --
we will change the course of human history.
What do I mean by violence against children?
I mean all of the physical violence,
sexual, psychological and emotional violence
that happens to children at home,
at school, online and in their communities.
We work with partners right across the world
and from those partners, we hear disturbing stories
of individual children.
For example, Sarah, age 10.
Raped repeatedly by her stepfather
and threatened with violence if she tells anyone.
Faisal, hit across the knuckles at school with a cable,
shamed and called a donkey,
made to stand outside in the cold when he gets the answers wrong.
And from the partners we work with to make the internet safer for children,
we hear stories like that of Angelika.
Twelve years old,
and forced to commit sexual acts on her uncle,
which are live-streamed to paying adults the other side of the world.
One in 10 girls experiences sexual abuse before the age of 20.
Half of children live in countries
where corporal punishment has not been fully prohibited.
And last year alone, in the US,
45 million reports were made
of images and videos of violent and sexual abuse of children online.
Twice the number the year before.
Now these forms of violence and other forms of violence
roll up into some truly staggering numbers.
One billion children globally every year
who experience some kind of violence.
That's one in two children.
This is a universal issue.
So what gives me optimism?
Let me talk about Sweden and Uganda.
Probably about as different as two countries you might imagine.
If you speak to an economist,
they might tell you that Sweden has a per capita average income
of around 50,000 dollars a year.
In Uganda, it's 2,000 dollars.
A historian might tell you
Sweden hasn't been in a national conflict for about 200 years.
Uganda is still struggling with an insurgency
in the north of the country.
A musician might tell you
that Uganda, the national anthem, "Oh Uganda, Land of Beauty,"
is one of the shortest in the world.
In fact, so short, it's often played more than once.
I believe Swedes play theirs and sing theirs for a little longer.
But more seriously,
Sweden and Uganda have made a commitment,
they have a common bond and shared purpose,
a commitment to end violence against children,
and they are taking action to try and get their countries
on a pathway to zero violence against children by 2030.
And many other countries, cities and states are joining them,
all over the world.
But what does it really mean, what does it mean in practice?
When they make that commitment, what do they do?
It means high-level political commitment and leadership.
Enacting and implementing legislation.
And launching initiatives, changing policy,
starting a national conversation
that begins to raise awareness on a journey to changing attitudes
and making it socially unacceptable
to have any violence and abuse of children in a country.
It means recognizing that violence against children
cuts across many sectors,
and therefore the response, the answer, has to be a systems approach.
You can't just do one piece of it.
It requires multiple agencies within and beyond government.
It requires faith groups, the private sector, media,
academia, civil society organizations and others.
And it requires drawing on what the best practice
and the best evidence globally tells us,
but using national-level data
to shine a light on the often hidden story of violence in any given country.
And using that data to inform the national response,
but also using it to measure and track progress.
And share what's working,
being honest about when things aren't working.
And sharing inspiration
when we see success and violence declining.
But can we really do this on a global scale?
One billion children a year experiencing violence.
I think we can.
In 2015, 193 world leaders committed their countries
to end violence, abuse and neglect of children by 2030.
Violence against children
undermines all the other investments in them:
in their health, in their education.
Often with multi-year,
sometimes lifelong and intergenerational consequences and transmission.
But it's not just about international agreements and governments.
They really matter.
I think something's also changing more fundamentally,
and we as societies around the world
are finally calling out unacceptable behaviors
which for too long have been tolerated.
Think of the #MeToo movement,
and how sector after sector, industry after industry,
calling out perpetrators,
bringing and holding them to account.
It's a journey, but we've embarked upon it.
Look at what's happened in the aid industry.
Following some abuses of power,
the aid industry is now taking very seriously
the safeguarding of children across the world.
But maybe even more than that.
Children and young people themselves,
part aided by technology,
but they have a voice now
that they may not, I don't think, have had before.
And they are using that voice,
not just to advocate for the situation they see around them
or what they know needs to improve,
but to be part of the solutions of things
that actually inform and affect their lives.
Think of those young activists
who speak out against female genital mutilation,
child marriage, cyber bullying, safe schools, harming conflict --
the list goes on and on.
Those children really matter.
So we have political leadership,
we have youth activism,
we have evidence-based solutions,
we have public awareness growing --
we're on that pathway,
beginning that journey to get to zero by 2030.
But what are those solutions?
Three years ago, in 2016,
10 global institutions came together and aligned behind a framework
which is a comprehensive, step-by-step approach
to ending violence against children.
It's called INSPIRE.
It looks at the need for the relevant legislation,
addressing social norms,
parent and caregiver support,
responses for children who have experienced violence and abuse.
And safe schools,
so children can be in a learning environment where they thrive.
In Uganda, four years ago,
an eight-year-old girl could be married to a 30-year-old man.
That can no longer happen.
In 2016, the Children Act made that illegal
and set the minimum age of marriage at 18.
That's the I of INSPIRE:
enact and implement legislation.
Cambodia is rolling out parental support,
parent and caregiver support across the country,
so parents are equipped to raise their children
and to have discipline in a nonviolent way in the home.
That's the P of INSPIRE,
parent and caregiver support.
In the Philippines,
there are 100 centers set up to protect women and children nationwide.
Women and children who are either at high risk of abuse and violence
or have experienced violence.
That's the R of INSPIRE, response and support services.
And in Uganda, a safe schools toolkit has been rolled out now
to half of teachers in Uganda,
equipping them to control a class with nonviolent discipline.
That's the E of INSPIRE, education and life skills.
That's just some bits within some of the INSPIRE framework.
But more and more countries are committing to implement it,
adapt it locally,
inform it with the relevant data, put a plan together,
work across sectors,
and begin that journey to zero.
Canada, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania --
I mentioned Sweden and Uganda already --
Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia,
more and more countries, and now cities, too.
And right here in Scotland,
University of Edinburgh is establishing a learning lab
that's going to track the journey that cities in Scotland
and the Philippines and Colombia go on together.
See what works in a city,
take something that's being prepared for implementation at a nationwide level
and bring it down to the city level,
where we believe
that we can actually make probably faster and demonstrable progress
in a shorter space of time.
And when we do that,
that success will be shared through the learning lab and beyond
at Edinburgh University.
Ending violence is the right thing to do,
it's a smart investment to make,
we have evidence-based solutions,
and we have the beginnings of a journey.
But what would happen
if we actually end violence against children?
Let's just imagine for a moment.
First of all, think of the children I mentioned.
Sarah would no longer lie in her bed at night,
fearful of the sound of her stepfather's footsteps
coming up the stairs.
Faisal would go to school and he would thrive.
He would no longer fear being at school
and being bullied and hit and ashamed by the teachers.
And Angelika and those like her
would no longer be something, a commodity brought online
for the enjoyment of adults thousands of miles away.
But then multiply the social,
the economic, the cultural benefits of that.
Multiply those by every family, every community,
village, town, city, country
and suddenly, you've got a new normal emerging.
A generation would grow up without having experienced violence.
It will take us all.
But we do have an unprecedented opportunity to try,
and I believe we also, as adults, have a responsibility to do this.
And then when we're all asked,
"What do you do?"
each and every one of us can say,
"I'm changing the course of human history.
I'm doing my bit to end violence against children."
Let's do this and do it now.
Thank you.
(Applause)