MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - The United States has topped a list of European and North American countries with its rate of child and adolescent homicides, according to a report by UN children rights watchdog UNICEF.
A 206-page paper titled “Hidden in Plain Sight,” published by UNICEF on Thursday presents a statistical analysis of cases of violence against children under 19 in 2012.
The study revealed that the United States has the highest children homicide rate among the Western nations of four per 100,000 people. The country also features in a list of 10 nations with the most homicide victims among children, occupying seventh position, between Ethiopia and Pakistan, with over 3,000 victims of killings in the 0 to 19-years-old group.
The research also found that Latin America and the Caribbean account for most victims of homicide under the age of 20 with the total death toll exceeding 25,000. West and Central Africa also have an immense number of minors killed in 2012, which reached 23,400. Central America’s El Salvador has the largest rate of child homicide victims, standing at 27 per 100,000 people.
Nigeria is the leader among countries with the highest number of child homicide victims in 2012, with the estimated at almost 13,000 by the UNICEF.
The report’s authors also studied nonlethal cases of violence against children. “On average, about six in 10 children worldwide (almost 1 billion) between the ages of 2 and 14 are subjected to physical (corporal) punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis,” the paper reads.
UNICEF is an intergovernmental organization, active in 190 countries across the world, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Its mission includes providing humanitarian assistance to children in developing countries and eliminating all kinds of discrimination against the children and the youth. In June, UNICEF urged governments, to do more to ensure the respect of children’s rights and claimed that the welfare of children must be used to measure a country’s level of development.
