Thousands of children are abused in Hungary
There may be ten to twenty-five times more victims of child abuse in Hungary than the study anticipated. Unfortunately, the pandemic only worsened the situation.
“One billion children are abused worldwide each year, and during the coronavirus epidemic, the number of these cases increased by 30 per cent, due to the confinement and existential crisis that increased the aggression that often befalls the child. We know of the families of 140 million children that have sunk into deep poverty because of the virus. Moreover, 463 million children did not have access to digital education at all,” said Antónia Mészáros, Executive Director of UNICEF Hungary, during the online press conference yesterday on the occasion of World Children’s Day, writes Népszava.
Regarding the situation of child abuse in Hungary, Viola Szlankó, UNICEF Hungary’s Child Rights Expert, said: the latency is huge, the multiplier varies in each estimate, but according to the official standpoint, there may be ten to twenty-five times as many cases of child abuse in Hungary as anticipated.
“Ten per cent of children are at risk in some way in the country, which means 170,000 children who are at risk for their physical/ spiritual/ mental health development.
Not all of them are involved in child abuse. Child protection services estimated the number of victims around 7-8,000 in 2019, but experts are also reluctant to give figures due to high latency. In addition, many people do not even understand the concept of emotional abuse, humiliation, and the undermining of one’s dignity. We recognise this in an adult-adult relationship, but in a child-adult relationship, it does not always work out,” says the child rights expert.
Regarding the operation and efficiency of the child protection system in Hungary, she noted: at the legal level, the system is excellent. The problem is not with legislation, but with its application. “Hungarian child protection professionals are very good, but there are still very few resources allocated by the current government to enforce the law,” she indicated.