Join a webinar exploring critical connections between the climate change and violence against children agendas. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and World Vision International partnered on the research paper “Ending violence against children while addressing the global climate crisis”, aimed at increasing awareness and attention to addressing these two issues together. This webinar will present the research findings, discuss connections between climate change and violence against children, and promote conversation on how tackling both issues can contribute to more sustainable impact for children. There will be time for Q&A.

On World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization is hosting an online global advocacy event around mental health. At this event, world leaders, mental health experts and celebrity guests will join the WHO Director-General to discuss how we can improve our mental health, and how to make mental health care accessible for all.

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, we are still failing to truly safeguard our children. The ascent of technology has led to more crimes being committed both in the real world and online with children falling victims to the worst predators.

According to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, there has been a clear increase in the number of children being trafficked in recent years, with children now accounting for 30 per cent of all detected victims. UNICEF has indicated that, of the roughly 1.8 billion photos that are uploaded to the internet each day, around 720,000 are believed to be illegal images of children, while the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the US has stated that the number of reports of URLs containing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has dramatically increased from 3,000 in 1998 to 18.4 million in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has also played a significant role in increasing the threat and risk of sexual exploitation of children, as both children and sex offenders found themselves confined in-doors and online for extended periods of time.

The potential of AI to support law enforcement and related authorities to prevent a wide range of forms of violence, exploitation and abuse is immense. Recently, for instance, facial recognition has been to identify missing children, while deep learning has help police to identify child abuse images on confiscated devices. Join us to explore how law enforcement and concerned authorities can use these and other applications of AI to safeguard our children and help us to identify the red-line between the need to ensure the safety of our children and the use of potentially invasive technologies by law enforcement. The Webinar will also launch a new UNICRI project supported by the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates to further explore these issues.

Arigatou International and partners are organizing the Global Week of Faith in Action for Children, which will take place between 16 to 20 November 2020, culminating with the celebration of the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children, which marks Universal Children’s Day.

The Global Week will gather children and young people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, religious leaders, representatives from civil society and faith-inspired organizations, and multilateral agencies and governments to dialogue, reflect, and take action towards ensuring children’s rights even in times of crisis.

These awards are presented to leaders who are multi-faceted and courageous. They apply their resources around them, their time, and their skills to not only advance us in our struggle to end sex trafficking, but they do so in such creative and exemplary ways. It is so inspiring to watch them transform activism in their respective industries. The Last Girl honors those who stand by such girls and champion their cause. Past honorees have included Ashley Judd, Sybil Orr, Rosanna Arquette, Frieda Pinto, Fisk Johnson, Dorchen Leidholdt, Simone Monasebien. This year, our honorees are Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and writer, Ms Kaitlyn Bogyay, UN Ambassador, Cheryl Saban, Philanthropist , Vikas Khanna, Michelin Star chef and humanitarian, T Ortiz, human trafficking survivor and professional orator and the Team of Priya and the Lost Girls comic (Ram Devineni, Dipti Mehta, Syd Fini and Neda Kazemifar).