The Regional Ministerial Consultation on Ending Violence Against Children and Adolescents, held online 23–24 October 2025, convened more than 300 participants, including ministers, international organizations, civil society actors, technical experts, and young activists, to take stock of progress and accelerate collective action, with a Maestral team led by Tanya Fernández, together with Sully Santos de Uclés and Cristian Maneiro, as rapporteurs to support the synthesis of discussions and outcomes.
Convened by UNICEF LACRO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the consultation created a high-level, multisectoral space to review evidence-based strategies, assess follow-up to commitments made at the Bogotá Conference in November 2024, and align efforts with the Sustainable Development Goals. A central outcome was the confirmation of a strong and shared political and technical will across countries to advance toward a region free from violence against children and adolescents. This consensus translated into renewed commitments and a clear regional direction, organized around five interconnected thematic axes.
One particularly significant outcome of the Conference was the shift from commitment to implementation, with countries explicitly recognizing that the region no longer faces a knowledge gap, but an execution gap. Across discussions, participants emphasized that the priority is not creating new frameworks, but making existing laws, policies, and programmes work together on the ground, with financing, coordination, and accountability. This marked a clear maturation of the regional agenda: the focus moved from what should be done to how to do it at scale, including hard conversations about budgets, institutional leadership, and sustaining progress beyond political cycles, signaling a readiness to translate political will into measurable change for children and adolescents.
Together, the outcomes of the Regional Ministerial Consultation mark a significant step toward a more coherent, coordinated, and rights-based regional response, reinforcing that ending violence against children and adolescents is both an urgent obligation and an achievable goal when political commitment is matched with sustained, collective action.
Resources from the Regional Ministerial Consultation, including the final report, are available on UNICEF’s website: https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/commitment-action-ending-violeavailablen-america-and-caribbean