Draft Resolution
concerning
The United Nations
Secretary General’s
«Study on
Violence Against Children»
- Where as television programs for children carry up to
10 times more violence than prime time programs for adults,
- Where as violence has kept increasing in prime time
programs, (+ 432% between 1994 and 2002)
- Where as well over a thousand studies have proven
that exposure to violent programs, films and music videos influences children
and teens,
- Where as videogames affect children more deeply than
television since they allow them to take pleasure in committing crimes while
being rewarded for killing monters, mean guys and police officers,
- Where as children exposed to media violence will
increase the risks of committing acts and saying things that will inflict pain
on other children, on their parents, and will affect their social environment,
- Where as the number of children in elementary
schools affected by troubled behaviour has increased by 300% between 1985 and 2000
and where as media violence is considered one of three major factors contributing
the increase,
- Where as the United Nations Secretary General is preparing
a «Study on Violence Against Children»,
- Where as UNICEF Canada, mandated to report about violence
against North American children, spent 7 pages (out of 49) describing media
violence as an actual form of child abuse,
- Where as violence is used intentionally by the media
to attract children, to lure them, and that this form of marketing is lucrative
but nonetheless hazardous and antisocial,
- Where as physical and verbal violence carried by the
media hurts children who imitate it and others who will become desensitized to
the pain of others around them,
- Where as media violence affects not only the relationship
between children today but life in the society of tomorrow,
- Where as Article 17e of the Convention On the Rights of Child
encourages States Parties
to « protect children from material injurious to his or her well-being »,
- Where as the contribution of the media to reduce
violence is more required and requested than ever by parents who expect the
media to respect their child Rights,
Be it
resolved that (name of organisation)
1) Mandate its president and spoke persons to inform the
Independant Expert mandated by the UN Secretary General
- Of our request that media violence must be considered
an actual form of violence against children,
- Of our hope that promising practices to protect
children from media violence developed by North American civil society find
their way in the final draft of the Study on Violence Against Children.
2) Mandate its president and spoke persons to forward
this resolution to all those concerned and circulate it widely.
Resolution
adopted (date):
Name of Secretary:
Postal & email of the Secretary:
Please forward copy of this resolution to the
following addresses :
1) Secrétariat of the S-G Study on Violence Against
Children
PO Box 48, 1211 Geneva 20 CIC, Switzerland, secretariat@sgsvac.org
2)
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNOG-OHCHR, 1211 Geneva
10, Switzerland, InfoDesk@ohchr.org
3)
World Health Organisation, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, info@who.int
4) Veronica
Yates, Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), c/o Save the Children, 1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR,
UK, vyates@crin.org
5) Unicef-Canada, Canada Square, 2200 Yonge
Street, Suite 1100,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4S 2C6
6) Unicef Québec, 1100, de la Gauchetière West,
Suite C-21, Montréal, QC H3B 2S2 QC.secretaire@unicef.ca
7) PEACE, Madame Monique Ouellette,
Secrétaire-trésorière,
8)
EDUPAX, Violence Prevention/Peace Education/Media Education, 493 Ste-Julie,
Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada, G9A 1X4, NProulx@edupax.org