IN JAMAICA: Our children are not only at risk they are in dire danger....It's estimated the world has lost approximately two million children in wars and armed conflicts in the last decade, with 250,000 forced to bear arms and thousands more killed or maimed.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014    

An edited version of remarks by Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna at the Opening Session of UN Cross Regional Meeting on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Children at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston yesterday.

Lisa Hanna

AT this moment, in every country, children are enduring the horrific impact of violence. Children who live in upscale neighbourhoods in North American or European countries suffer just as much as those children who live in their inner-cities. Equally, they suffer just as much as those children living in towns and villages in the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Both boys and girls are affected; and there is also no distinction among race, ethnic origin, education and family income. In short violence affects children everywhere.

The awful and inescapable truth is that the absolute horror and devastating effects on children are on many levels. For some countries while we grapple with the dreadful acts perpetrated at a local level, in many other parts of the world the gruesome acts of violence against our children are horrendous.

Almost on a nightly basis our global news network shows us in graphic detail, the ugly truth that there is always a war or armed conflict taking place somewhere in the world.

But what is often overlooked is the devastating impact these disastrous events have on children. more