Tackling child abuse top priority for new Dutch government

Tackling child abuse is absolutely a top priority for the Rutte III government, Minister Hug de Jonge of Public Health, Welfare and Sports said in the Dilligentia Theater in The Hague on Monday - the start of the Netherlands' Week Against Child Abuse.

"Child abuse is terrible. For tens of thousands of children in the Netherlands, it is the daily reality", De Jonge said, according to newspaper AD. Child abuse, along with other forms of domestic violence, is the biggest violence problem in Dutch society, he said. De Jonge is therefore working on an action plan which focuses on prevention, but also mapping child abuse problems more quickly and more efficiently.

Child abuse happens in the Netherlands an estimated 119 thousand times a year, leading to an estimated 50 deaths annually, the Public Health Minister said in a released statement. That means that, on average, every school classroom of 30 pupils contains one abused child.

Vigilance from Netherlands' citizens plays a very important role in stopping child abuse, De Jonge said in The Hague. "We can not ask people to solve child abuse, but we can ask them to stop the abuse of one child. Only one person is needed to break the circle of violence. Every Dutch person can be that one. That one teacher, that one neighbor, that one doctor. We can not look away."