Sources of aggressive behaviour in children. A brief outline with pointers for intervention

Invited address to the Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection, Riebeek West, 1 AugustDespite contemporary concerns, a culture of violence has been evident in South Africa for many years. Even during the years of apartheid oppression, rates of criminal violence far outstripped political violence and rates of abuse to women and children were already very high. This paper attempts to introduce the roots of violence in childhood experience

Youth pathways to violence and antisocial behaviour

Invited presentation to the Crime and Development Seminar, Open Society Foundation, Stellenbosch, 26-27 Jun

Adolescence and youth: the challenge of violence in post-conflict South Africa

Invited public lecture at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, U.K., 18 Jun

The war is over, but the battles continue: violence prevention in a post-conflict society

Invited address to the Frank Lawrence Symposium: "Children in political violence" Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, Florida, 28 Apri

Challenges for youth in a post conflict society

Invited presentation to the Psychosocial Working Group on children in armed conflict, Columbia University, New York, 5-7 May

Improving school children's mental health in an era of HIV/AIDS

Paper presented to the Colloquium: Improving the health of school age children in an era of HIV/AIDS: Linking policies, programmes and strategies for the 21st century, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital, Durban, 16-19 MarchThis paper considers the following: 1. Child mental health and public policy - a situtation of neglect 2. Why should child mental health be a priority public health issue? 3. Child mental health problems in the context of HIV/AIDS 4. What is to be done in the education context

Child sexual abuse in Atlantis: the scale of the problem

Paper presented to the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of South Africa (CAPFSA): Towards a Child Safe South Africa, Cape Town, 15-17 Octobe

Child abuse in South Africa: rights and wrongs

In a country in which human rights feature prominently in our discourse about who we are, as well as in the South African constitutional and legal framework, so many wrongs continue to be done to children. One category of wrongs is abuse, but it is not the only one. Poverty, patriarchy and gender violence, as well as the socialised obedience, dependency and silence of women and children, create conditions in which abuse can occur, often with few consequences. South Africa has extremely high rates of both physical and sexual abuse of children. Progressive, rights-based legislation exists to protect children, but it is not adequately supported or resourced by services to fulfill their provisions. Child abuse and neglect will not be significantly reduced in South Africa, without simultaneous improvements in the social and economic conditions in which very large numbers of children live.

The CYFD child rights and well-being monitoring research programme

Presented at the UNICEF External Project Review, at the Office of the Rights of the Child, The Presidency, Pretoria, 19 Novembe