Further references Deutscher Kinderverein
DON`T LOOK AWAY
THE GERMAN CHILDREN'S ASSOCIATION FIGHTS AGAINST CHILD ABUSE
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One hundred and fifty-three children died in Germany in 2013 due to mistreatment. More and more children in Germany live a life full of ill-treatment. There are 40 cases of abuse every day. They are beaten, kicked, tortured, and almost every other day, one of them dies - in the midst of us. Since its founding in 2012, the German Children's Association, based in Essen, has been campaigning for children's rights.

The focus of their work is Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which deals with the application of force, abuse and neglect. Mistreatment of children must not be tabooed, ignored or trivialized, neither by politics and the judiciary, nor by the juvenile offices, and certainly not by us, society. The German Children's Association wants to sensitize the general public to the topic of child abuse and to raise awareness about it with TV and radio spots, campaigns and series of events.

The aim is to make sure that fewer and fewer children are suffering for these reasons. Even if we can never guarantee a hundred percent protection of children from ill-treatment in our society, we must not stop pushing the topic of child protection, discuss the ways out of the current dilemma and put them into practice.

This approach is the aim of our dialog picture; it shows the world as it is and how it should be. thus offering an ideal opportunity to explain the topic of child abuse in a visually lasting manner.

"Germany abuses its children"

Every day, more than 500 children are mistreated by adults from their family environment. Almost every day a child is killed by physical violence. The child and youth protection system fails with cruel regularity. Social workers and doctors often do not intervene in cases of mistreatment cases. Judges, in case of doubt, hastily release the defendants. The medical examiners at Berlin Charité, Michael Tsokos and Saskia Guddat, portray the dramatic experiences of children in their families. They call for bold action against child abusers and make proposals on how to improve the child and youth protection system.

Rainer Rettinger
Managing Director of German Children's Association

"For us the dialog picture absolutely completes the mix of our communication tools. It is so easy to understand, almost self-explanatory and, among other things, shows clearly how to turn from reactive child protection to preventive measures. The people that we present the dialog picture to will never forget it, and it will prompt them into taking action. Above all, we can show donors and sponsors how they can get involved."

Armin Rohde
Actor

Since the founding of the German Children's Association, Armin Rohde has been an active ambassador and supports the goals of the association. Armin Rohde is close to children's themes, as he has shown in numerous children's and youth films such as the Sams series, ‘Famous Five’ or ‘Der Räuber Hotzenplotz’.

Prof. Dr. Michael Tsokos
Director of the Institute for Forensic medicine of Charité, University Medical Center Berlin, Medical Director of the Berlin Violence Protection Chamber

With Prof. Dr. Tsokos as Ambassador, the German Children's Association is further expanding its German-wide network. Michael Tsokos is the publisher of specialist law journals and author of several specialist books and popular science books, all of which were bestsellers. The father of five children appealed to his colleagues not to close their eyes to the topic of child abuse.

Individual scenes and their meaning

Overburdened youth welfare offices

Often the employees of the youth welfare office are overstretched and underpaid. The dream of saving children as bold knights can hardly be lived. Thus the bold knight quickly becomes an overpowered knight with a rattling horse and a rusty sword.

Children's rights belong to the constitution

The fact that children have an independent dignity and personality has not been fully understood in all areas of society. The existence and content of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are sometimes not known in detail to relevant state authorities.

Culture of action

Violence is a phenomenon that goes through all social strata, religions and cultures. We must not close our eyes, but be observant and take action when nesessary.

Adoption 40+

It is time to raise the upper age limit for adoptive couples. The present regulation completely contradicts reality.