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The Case for Protection From Violence

Violence undermines a child’s fundamental right to safety and causes physical, mental and emotional harm.

Violence isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue. It’s closely related to inequality and affects girls in unique ways. Plan International Canada supports interventions that enable children – especially girls – to live free from the shadow of harm.

One in five Girl and woman icon

female refugees living in a humanitarian setting has experienced sexual violence.

600 million

More than 600 million women and girls live in countries affected by conflict. That’s a 50% increase since 2017.

66.5 million

Conflict and climate-related crises directly affect 66.5 million children worldwide each year.

What is considered a protection-from-violence issue?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is crystal clear: Every child has the fundamental right to live free from violence. But the reality is that millions of children worldwide, especially girls, are facing or are at risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

The umbrella of protection includes but isn’t limited to:

  • Physical violence
  • Psychological and emotional violence
  • Sexual and intimate-partner violence
  • Exploitation and trafficking
  • Neglect and negligent treatment

Safety nets

“Sometimes people don’t know that others will help them, because no one has taken the time to offer.”

– Susana

Susana knows that violence is happening to women and girls around her in rural Peru. She also knows most people in her community won’t talk about it. Discover how Susana is breaking the silence.

» Watch the video.

Susana Thumbnail Susana Thumbnail

Top Four Barriers to Safety

protection from violence diagram

At the core of our mission lies a vision: a world where children grow up safe and free from violence. Why? Because in the past year alone, a staggering 1.7 billion children suffered through emotional, physical and sexual violence.

Plan International’s work to protect children from violence looks at four interconnected spheres that shape the threat and experience of violence for young people. We help reduce and prevent violence in each sphere, and equip children, communities and governments to support children’s right to safety.

1

The individual sphere

Gender, age and disability all influence a person’s risk of experiencing violence. Girls and women, for example, are more likely to experience sexual abuse and harassment because they are female, especially when women and girls are viewed as having lower social status. Children are more at risk of violence when they are not seen as having rights, and they are less equipped to protect themselves because of their age.

We work with children, families and communities to emphasize children’s rights and to identify and protect against discrimination by gender, age or ability. This includes tackling social norms that enable violence.

2

The family and interpersonal sphere

Children are most likely to be exposed to violence within their family and other interpersonal relationships. Here, power dynamics and violent relationships can shape what children view as “normal.” This is also where decisions are made that put girls at higher risk of violence, such as whether or not they attend school or if they are married before they reach adulthood.

If children learn in their homes that violence is not acceptable and that their voices and needs matter, they are better prepared to prevent, identify and report risks to their safety. Through discussion forums like our parent groups and our Champions of Change youth groups, we help change attitudes around what counts as violence and build collective support to protect against it.

3

The community sphere

Community violence is shaped by what norms people see as socially acceptable. For example, if a community views girls marrying or becoming pregnant at 14 as normal, people are less likely to question or challenge it. When people accept violence as a form of discipline, they enable abuse at homes and in schools. When communities believe that girls and women do not “own” their bodies, they support harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, early marriage and bride dowries. They also withhold the information and care that equips girls to make informed decisions about their health.

In Peru, Venezuelan migrants face harassment due to stereotypes that hypersexualize Venezuelan women. Plan International works with migrant and host communities to challenge these stereotypes and increase safety for women and girls.

4

The system sphere

Laws, policies and social services are part of a larger system that can either enable violence or protect against it. Laws and policies determine if violence is acknowledged and punished. For example, is child marriage illegal? What consequence do abusers face?

This is also where front-line services (like health centres) are shaped to prevent and respond to violence. Do the services have the resources to support survivors of violence? Will girls face blame or stigma when seeking care? How does the system intervene when someone reports a risk?

Our Approach

We support families, communities and government systems to better prevent, identify and respond to threats against women’s and children’s safety. We work within all of the four spheres so that each becomes a resource that builds children’s confidence and well-being and discourages harmful norms that justify and enable violence.

Four ways we are realizing the right to protection from violence:

Our Approach

1. Enable protective families

We work together with families to change practices, behaviours and relationships at home that allow violence to continue. We lead intergenerational dialogues that help parents and caregivers recognize harmful practices, like early marriage or corporal punishment, and address unequal power and gender dynamics. Our trainings promote positive parenting, which encourages healthy communication and nurtures children’s self-esteem, while our youth programs, like Champions of Change, equip children with knowledge about their rights. These solutions help families create a safe and supportive environment for their children.

Sarai recovered from flooding in Piura, Peru, with the help of psychosocial support programming.
Our Approach

2. Improve how communities respond to violence

We help ensure that everyone in the community understands what their roles, responsibilities and available resources are to help keep children safe. We make sure parents, teachers, community leaders and service providers (like health and social workers) know how to recognize a dangerous situation or violent treatment of children and how to step in. That can be as simple as training teachers to spot signs of abuse and report it to the authorities or as involved as building community-safety plans that make community spaces, streets and public transportation safer for girls. We also work with government and response services – like counsellors, social workers, legal support and shelters – so they can meet the needs of children, especially girls, who have experienced violence.

Lettycia, 10, and her cousin sit outside in the shade
Our Approach

3. Protect girls in emergencies

In a crisis, the risks to girls’ safety increase exponentially. In these times, we turn a sharper focus on preventing and responding to the heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence. We work with communities to assess the risks in their specific context and develop action plans to make them safer. We train young people, as well as staff in services like health centres, to be aware of the heightened safety threats and the available supports. We also create safe spaces where children can receive mental-health support and connect to other service providers, like health and social workers, and we support and help reunite children and families who have been displaced or separated.

Nechi counsels a young boy at the child friendly space, Mental health support for children, GOH, FY24
Our Approach

4. Create lasting change

We work with governments to shape policies that better recognize and respond to violence, enforce laws protecting children’s safety, and support survivors in their healing and recovery. This includes advocating for changes in laws and policies, encouraging proper enforcement and urging governments to invest in services that prevent and respond to violence against children, especially girls.

Our Protection From Violence Projects

Building a safe world for every child.

Millions of children worldwide, especially girls, are facing or are at risk of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Violence against children jeopardizes their growth and development and sends shock waves through families and entire communities. See below for details on a few of our protection-from-violence projects.

Map of countries where Plan has protection from violence projects
Our select protection from violence projects projects
All countries with active protection from violence projects

Lifting Healthy, Empowered and Protected Girls and Women in Cox’s Bazar (LEAP)
Bangladesh

My Choice for My Life
Ethiopia

Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt (SWEET)
Egypt

Thanaka: Girls’ Power in Myanmar
Myanmar

Educating Vulnerable and Hard-to-Reach Adolescent Girls in Northeast Nigeria (Education in Emergencies in Nigeria)
Nigeria

Our Impact

Shristi, 20, and her mother Sunita feed their goats

Our recent wins:

156,870 adults received training and information on how to prevent and respond to violence, including gender-based violence.

1,950 child-protection personnel were trained.

272,360 people were reached with $16.1 million invested.

Jemima, 18, learns how to make liquid soap

Local implementing partners:

Plan International implements all projects and programming in partnership with local, national and community-based organizations. This includes women’s rights organizations, youth-led organizations and research institutions. Plan International also works in collaboration with governments, where relevant, at national and local levels. More details on local implementing partners can be found within the descriptions of each project.

Our Partners in Protection From Violence

We extend our deepest thanks to our partners around the world who consistently and generously support protection from violence. Their contributions are the foundation of our mission, enabling us to help transform the lives of children. Without them, none of this would be possible.

Global partners:

  • Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
  • The Humanitarian Coalition (HC)
  • The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
  • United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  • The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
  • United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
  • Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Assistance
  • Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Technical partners:

CAAFAG Task Force (Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups)

Three ways you can support our work in protection from violence

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Protect Children in Crisis

The best time to address an emergency is before it happens. Make sure that we can react immediately to protect children’s education when crises strike by contributing to the Children in Crisis Response Fund.

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