When we adopted the for Sustainable Development, we committed to creating a world that invested in our children, in which all girls and boys, and abandonment. This ambitious agenda established, for the first time, global goals to end , based on the
Today, 10 years later, we must face a harsh reality: we are not on track to achieve those goals.
Every year, half of the world’s children are . To put it bluntly, we are failing one billion girls and boys when it comes to their safety in their homes, communities, care settings and online.
We recognize the complexity of the problem and that it often lasts a lifetime and spans generations. Violence erodes all the investments that families, communities and governments make in children, from their education and social inclusion to their mental and physical health. The violence that one billion boys and girls suffer today is the same violence that will affect the prosperity and stability of our societies tomorrow.
As ministers and health leaders, we are driven by what is possible: the interventions and investments that can most improve people’s lives. We recognize that violence against children is totally avoidable. And that preventing violence strengthens public health outcomes, social protection systems, community resilience and intergenerational mobility.
The violence suffered by one billion boys and girls today is the same violence that will undermine the health, prosperity and stability of our societies tomorrow.
Decades of rigorous research, community mobilization, and national experience have given us a clear understanding of what works. Coordinated by WHO and its partners, it offers a proven plan of seven strategies, ranging from strengthening regulations and laws, to supporting parents and caregivers, to expanding response services and . A recent review of the evidence on preventing violence against children, the largest to date, confirmed unequivocally that INSPIRE strategies work. We are now the first generation in history to have the knowledge and tools necessary to achieve a sustained reduction in violence on a national scale. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to act.
Children who grow up in a safe environment are healthier, learn better and are more socially protected, becoming adults who contribute to stronger and more equitable societies.
That’s why we’re launching the WHO Champions Council for . This is the first global group of ministers committed to using the political capital of governments to place violence prevention where it belongs: at the center of national and global health, social development, justice, protection and economic agendas. We are forced to act by the fact that children who grow up in a safe environment are healthier, learn better and are more socially protected, becoming adults who contribute to stronger and more equitable societies.
Together, we, the 10 ministers and the director-general of the WHO, will generate and demonstrate political leadership. From the outset, we must confront the dramatic disparity between the magnitude of the problem and the magnitude of the investment. Whether looking at national budgets or funding streams, the power of violence prevention, with its benefits for children’s outcomes from social development to mental health, remains unrecognized and under-resourced. We commit to increasing funding and intensifying action to unlock the potential of preventing violence against children.
This year is our litmus test. In November 2026, the Government of the Philippines will host the Second World Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence against Children. The event will build on the impactful First World Ministerial Conference held in Colombia in 2024, a moment that demonstrated what is possible: prioritizing and protecting our most promising and vulnerable citizens, mobilizing Member States, civil society and citizens, and making unprecedented commitments to act for children affected by violence.
With the deadline quickly approaching, we must do more and better. The Manila Ministerial Conference must celebrate success, consolidate progress, raise expectations and generate concrete commitments commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge of violence prevention. It represents a moment to scale up the most proven INSPIRE strategies, squarely address the funding gap, strengthen health and social protection systems, and ensure that the lived experience – of children, youth, civil society and victims of violence – helps shape the solutions so essential to delivering on our shared promise of the SDGs.
May our next steps, as leaders and advocates, demonstrate our commitment, redoubling our efforts to work toward a world free of violence and exploitation, just as we promised, just as every child deserves.
