SACG stands for South Asian Coordinating Group on Action against Violence in Women and Children. We are a big group of many different international NGO’s and UN agencies.
What is the aim of SACG?
Our main aim in SACG is to stop all violence against women and children in the South Asian region. We work with Governments in eight countries of South Asia towards reducing :
To promote a coordinated approach and response to protect women and children
Early marriage
Human trafficking
Sexual abuse and exploitation
In order to be more efficient in our work, we established subgroups on the above issues. SACG works collectively towards ending all forms of violence against children and young people.
SACG also works to strengthen the regional network of organizations. Our mission is to encourage different organizations to work together in ending violence against women and children. We also work with the governments of South Asia to check if they are really following up on their commitments to end violence against women and children in the region through various government policies and programmes to protect children from violence. We do this mainly through the South Asia Forum or SAF. SAF is a regional forum of the governments in South Asia represented by the Ministers of Social Welfare and the respective secretaries of the Departments of Women and Children’s Affairs. SAF meets once a year to review progress and also to plan activities for the following years.
How long has SACG been around?
At the Second World Congress on commercial sexual exploitation in Yokohama in 2001, a lot of promises were made by the governments and leading NGOs from around the world to fight this crime against children. After 3 years, in 2004, Mid-Term Reviews were organized in different regions to monitor the progress in preventing commercial sexual abuse of children. To support this regional review a “South Asia Coordinating Group against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children and Women in South Asia” was established.
Soon after the UN Secretary General announced the global UN Study on Violence against Children in 2004, this group was renamed as the South Asia Coordinating Group on Action against Violence (SACG). This group also organized the Regional Consultation on Violence against Women and Children and decided to focus on the violence issue with the most vulnerable groups of women and children.
Children and Young People’s Participation
SACG is also very interested in having children and young people play an active role in preventing against and protecting themselves from violence. SACG has developed a plan on how to include children and young people. This website is one of the mediums SACG hopes to use as a vehicle to reach out to all those young people who want to get involved.
