18 May 2015

Conference to end child violence in Pacific

12:54 pm on 18 May 2015

Research collated by UNICEF says 70 percent of adults in the Pacific admit to using violence to punish their children at home.

This week, the UN children's organisation will host a three-day conference in Fiji to bring policy makers, civil society groups and religious leaders from 14 Pacific countries together to find solutions to what it calls an alarming problem.

UNICEF's Chief of Child Protection Amanda Bissex says there are a number of contributing factors to the high rate of violence.

"You have social norms and traditions that find it acceptable to use violence as a way of discipline and a way of punishment. It's partly attitudes towards children, children are considered part of the household but possessions almost of adults. Also parents who have grown up in violent households are more likely to perpetrate that violence themselves. It becomes normalised in the culture."

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Photo: AFP