UNICEF has just launched the largest-ever compilation of data on violence against children.

The report – ‘Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children’ – shows the staggering extent of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and reveals the attitudes that perpetuate and justify violence. In early adolescence, one third of students are bullied regularly. More than 1 in 10 girls worldwide have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives. In 2012, one in five of all homicide victims were children and adolescents below the age of 20. And these are just some of the figures. “Unless we confront the reality each infuriating statistic represents,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta at the launch, “that the life and rights of a child have been violated, we will never change the widespread belief that violence against children is both normal and permissible. It is neither.”