Child abuse 'NZ's dark side'

Dame Silvia Cartwright

Ending child abuse is New Zealand's "Holy Grail", Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright told a conference today.

Dame Silvia opened the 10th Australasian Child Abuse and Neglect Conference in Wellington by acknowledging the child abuse issue was not new to New Zealand.

"There is a dark side to our bright country. So I welcome this opportunity to challenge the darkness while thanking those who seek to change it," she said.

Dame Silvia said many children whose lives had ended prematurely through abuse were known by name to most New Zealanders.

"But each year there are many hundreds of abused and neglected children in New Zealand who don't make the headlines and there are millions more around the world who are forgotten, mistreated or killed."

Internationally, child abuse reports had increased dramatically over the last 10 years, and New Zealand was no exception to this trend, Dame Silvia said.

"Between August 2001 and August 2004 there was a 90 per cent increase in notifications of child abuse.

"In one year, between 2004 and 2005, New Zealand's child protection agency the Department of Youth, Child and Family Services received more than 53,000 notifications of suspected child abuse or neglect. "

Dame Silvia said the fundamental goal was that children were kept safe from abuse and neglect.

"A New Zealand and a world where this is always the case is our Holy Grail."

The 2003 a UNICEF report on child maltreatment made for "sobering reading".

"Of 27 OECD countries, New Zealand recorded the third highest child homicide rate of children up to the age of 14. Those figures were exceeded only by Mexico and the United States.

"We in New Zealand have repeatedly recorded our shame at this ranking. Nonetheless, every year about 10 children are killed in New Zealand in domestic violence."

Dame Silvia said there was no one cause of child abuse, but if the problem was not addressed, it could pass from generation to generation.

"We know that many of today's violent offenders were once abused children. We also know that abused and neglected children are more likely to commit crimes, become substance and alcohol abusers and to attempt suicide.

"We know that, unless addressed successfully, the cycle will continue."

The problem was all too easy to state, but the solutions remained elusive and involved a wide range of answers, she said.

"But there is hope. Every child saved from abuse and violence today in effect will protect the children of future generations."

- NZPA