Sample letter to UN Ambassadors:



Your Excellency:

I am writing to urge your support, and the support of your government, for a United Nations study on violence against children.

Children are the members of society least able to protect themselves from violence and most vulnerable to its effects. Yet on a daily basis, children are beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and even murdered, often by the very individuals responsible for their care and safety. Children in many schools are subject to corporal punishment or sexual violence by their teachers or classmates. Children, especially street children, are often beaten by police to extort money or tortured to coerce confessions. Children in detention facilities are frequently mistreated by guards or other inmates. Many child workers are beaten by their employers for working too slowly or making mistakes. Other children, dependent on the state for care, are abused in orphanages or state institutions.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that the UN undertake a special study of violence against children, similar to Graca Machel's groundbreaking 1996 study on the impact of armed conflict on children. Such a study would examine the extent and effects of violence against children, and present a clear international action plan for ending violence against children.

Any form of violence against children is inexcusable. I urge your support for an international study as a first step towards eliminating this phenomenon.

Sincerely yours,