Around 120 million girls worldwide, roughly one in 10, have been subjected to sexual violence by the age of 20, a UN report says.
The largest-ever compilation of data on violence against children shows that 95,000 or one fifth of homicide victims globally were children and adolescents of the same age group in 2012.
Among Western Europe and North American countries the United States has the highest homicide rate.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake termed the findings “uncomfortable”.
The report, Hidden in Plain Sight, draws on data from 190 countries.
It notes that one in three students are regularly bullied in schools worldwide.
In some countries, punishing the children “to raise them well” is a socially accepted norm.
Nearly half of all teenage girls, between 15 and 19 years of age, believe a husband is justified in hitting his wife “under certain circumstances”.
Many, who were subjected to such violence, said they did not consider it to be abuse.
UNICEF Executive Director Lake said violence against children “cuts across boundaries” and occurs in places where children should be safe — at homes, schools and communities.
“Increasingly, it happens over the internet, and it’s perpetrated by family members and teachers, neighbours and strangers and other children,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Source: Bd news24
