•   Raise awareness of the impact of domestic violence on children through public education campaigns and efforts to challenge beliefs and customs that condone violence.

•   Create public policies and laws that protect children. Governments must enact and enforce laws and policies that criminalize domestic violence and protect all its victims.

•   Improve social services that address the impact of violence in the home on children. Interventions that support children who are exposed to domestic violence help minimize the long-term risks to these children and must be adequately funded and scaled-up.

The Body Shop’s Stop Violence in the Home campaign aims to raise awareness and to encourage governments to better protect and support children who are exposed to domestic violence.

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For further information please contact:

Karen Dukess, UNICEF Media, tel: 212 326 7910, e-mail kdukess@unicef.org^[1]

Sabrena Umhey, Golin Harris (+1 212) 373 6018, sumhey@golinharris.com^[2]

Notes to editors:

Local versions of this press release will be issued in several countries where UNICEF and the Body Shop have a presence, and will reflect local statistics and events to mark the global launch of the report.

The report Behind Closed Doors: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children is the result of a new partnership between UNICEF, The Body Shop International, and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, the first global report to document the nature and extent of violence against children.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children

The Secretary-General’s Study, to be published in October 2006, is a groundbreaking effort to detail the nature and scale of violence against children globally. Using the latest research from across the world, the study looks at violence in five settings: the home and family; schools and educational settings; other institutional settings (such as orphanages); the community and on the streets; and work situations. Led by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, former Secretary of State for Human Rights of Brazil, the study is being developed in close consultation with UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.