![]() ![]() These include the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) and the Committee for the Special Protection of Children (CSPC) based at the Department of Justice, and Barangay Community Councils. 2.1 Child Protection in the PhilippinesĪ range of government agencies and mechanisms provide national policy and program responses to child maltreatment in the Philippines. In the Philippines, legislation identifies children as “persons below eighteen years of age or those over eighteen years of age but who are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation, or discrimination because of physical, mental disability or conditions” (Saplala 2007, 88). For the purposes of this review, ‘child protection’ is defined by any activity, behaviour, policy, program or law with the aim of protecting children from maltreatment as described earlier. However, regardless of the specifics of the definitions covering child maltreatment in any particular jurisdiction, the responses to such circumstances are usually defined in terms of the broadly understood conception of ‘child protection’ (Price-Robertson et al. In the literature, legislation and policy, terminology such as ‘child maltreatment’ and ‘child abuse and neglect’ are often used interchangeably (AIFS 2015). Here, it is important to note that ‘exposure to family violence’ is typically considered a form of emotional and psychological abuse (AIFS 2015) and fits within these definitions. Legislation in the Philippines reflects the WHO definition of child maltreatment defining child abuse and neglect as “the infliction of physical or psychological injury, cruelty to, or neglect, sexual abuse or exploitation of a child” (Saplala 2007, 88). The WHO definition distinguishes four types of child maltreatment physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse and neglect (WHO 2006, p. It explores conceptions of child maltreatment and child protection, and provides a review of policy and program approaches, and in doing so, contributes to future child protection policy agendas in the Philippines. 2013), and limited understandings of child protection policy approaches, this review provides important insights into child maltreatment and its responses in the Philippines. In the absence of reliable data on child maltreatment in the Philippines (Madrid et al. 2014), particularly in circumstances of significant child poverty and deprivation (PSA and UNICEF 2015). Policy imperatives in this area are given greater impetus with increasing international awareness of the need for children to grow up in safe and stable environments and to be protected from abuse and neglect (Price-Robertson et al. 2010), policy and research on this topic remains in its infancy. ![]() In the Philippines, despite the significance and impact of child maltreatment (Ramiro et al. Responses to child maltreatment in the Global South in particular are under researched and under-conceptualised. Across the world, significant numbers of children experience maltreatment, resulting in life-long consequences for victims (WHO 2016). ![]()
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