Thank you.
We're honoured to appear today before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development to talk about the study on the protection of children and youth in developing countries.
Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children, working in 120 countries. We build our expertise through our work around the world, in partnership with local organizations and with government.
Save the Children believes that child protection is vital to ensuring the equal rights of girls and boys. The simple fact is that if children are exploited, abused, or neglected, it's unlikely they will be healthy, educated, or empowered. Child protection is, therefore, a minimum requirement to meeting our political and ethical responsibilities to girls and boys. But protection should not be an end in itself. Our goal should be to enable children to become healthy, educated, and empowered citizens, engaged politically, socially, and economically, and actors and young leaders.
To achieve this goal, we understand that protection should integrate the three following critical approaches: one, investing in the participation of children and understanding how the potential of each child can be leveraged and maximized; two, investing in the protection and prevention of violence, focusing on the root causes that lead to exploitation, abuse, and neglect of children; and three, integrating our response into a systems approach to child protection.
Underpinning these approaches.... It is clear that an understanding of gender inequality and opportunities is necessary. We recognize that boys and girls face different child protection risks and challenges. As well, we can only ensure no harm comes to children by addressing gender discrimination explicitly while promoting and enabling gender equality. We can end discrimination, and we can advance our vision of a world where every child attains his or her equal right to survival, protection, development, and participation.