Your Excellencies,

I am writing to applaud your efforts to bring a resolution forward to the United Nations General Assembly to declare the 18 November World Day for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and Healing.

The World Health Organization placed child sexual abuse among the top twenty-four conditions contributing to the global burden of disease, recognizing that child sexual abuse is a devastating offense to human dignity with serious adverse consequences to one's health and wellbeing. 

Tragically, child sexual abuse is far more prevalent than most people know. Globally, nearly 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 13 boys experience sexual exploitation or abuse  before their 18th birthday. We are deeply concerned about the prevalence of child sexual abuse, and the tragic impact it has on victims, their families, and our communities. 

Child sexual abuse is a true humanitarian crisis that must be addressed if we are to protect the future of our worlds children.  The proposed World Day for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and Healing is essential for raising awareness, elevating the voices of survivors, and mobilizing governments and civil society to address this global public health problem.

The CDC reports that effective evidence-based strategies are available to proactively protect children from child sexual abuse, but few have been widely disseminated. We must grow awareness of this problem, create a platform for dissemination of these tools, and support adoption if we are to be successful in protecting the world’s children from sexual abuse.

We envision a world in which children have safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments in which to grow and flourish. The action you have proposed to protect children from sexual abuse will help to enable this vision to come to fruition for many children around the world.

We believe the time has come for world leaders to come together and take action to address this global public health crisis of child sexual abuse. We fully support your resolution, and we encourage all Member States to adopt this resolution to bring greater protection to children and promote justice and healing for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse across the world.

Yours Truly,