With a record number of women running for president in the U.S., it’s no surprise that the concerns of working parents are on the 2020 agenda. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan for universal childcare, Kamala Harris is a co-sponsor of the Child Care for Working Families Act, and several other candidates have voiced support for similar policies.

A 26-year-old man from Baltimore was recently convicted in the United States on federal charges of trafficking two girls, aged 15 and 16, and then posting advertisements on a website offering them as prostitutes. The man had stayed with the 16-year-old girl in a motel room, along with a woman whom he was also prostituting, and would leave the room when men came to have sex with the girl. One of her customers returned the following day to rescue her and took her to live in another city with his sister.

At the World Health Assembly in May, we made the case for why governments and United Nations agencies need to spend more on measures to prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), injury and violence against children. One of us - Zoleka Mandela - spoke of losing her 13-year-old daughter to a drunk driver, and of suffering sexual violence as a child at the hands of adults who should have been taking care of her. “It was an abuse of power, and it was a violation of trust,” she told the assembly. “It left me emotionally and mentally scarred.

Teaching our children about consent needs to be an ongoing conversation that evolves as your child grows.

To start, call private parts what they are — penis, vagina, butt. Using different words can make it taboo or confusing if there is a problem.

Talking about touch and consent can initially be intimidating and uncomfortable — take a breath and allow it to be a natural conversation. The most ideal time is when they are already naked, like in the bath.

New guidelines call for speaking openly with children when they or their parents face life-threatening diseases.

“One of the most difficult things we ever have to do is to tell a child he or she has a very serious condition and may not survive it, or that a parent has a condition they may not survive,” said Dr. Alan Stein, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

A 4-year-old girl recently came to the emergency room where I work as a resident doctor in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. She was writhing in pain, her body convulsed with seizures. My team and I moved fast to activate seizure protocol, secure her intravenous drip, and deliver all appropriate medications. We then performed a test: I blew air toward her, and she collapsed in pain; I offered her water, and her agony intensified sharply. The diagnosis was clear: She had rabies - and it was too late to save her.

Human trafficking is an estimated $150 billion industry, and one of the fastest-growing transnational criminal activities of the 21st century. Trafficking may seem like a distant problem or one that doesn't touch us personally, but we are unwittingly involved any time we buy something made by exploited labor.

On July 19, 2018, the Directorate General of Internal Security Forces announced that the Information Division had apprehended members of a human trafficking ring operating between Lebanon and Syria accompanied by 130 persons (alraaiionline, 2018). This is run-of-the-mill news, as the illegal cross-border traffic between Lebanon and Syria is old news, just as with any other two neighboring states.

Child marriage contributes to and is impacted by poverty, gender discriminatory social norms and a lack of access to education, perpetuating a sense of dependency that is often difficult to escape. It includes any legal or customary union involving a boy or girl below the age of 18; however, child marriage affects girls in far greater numbers than boys. It is estimated that worldwide, 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday.

Just like adults, children sometimes fail. And when they do, parents too often do not react. They figure that failure is a part of life—that it teaches an important lesson. But that may not actually be the case. While tough love worked fine for parents when they were children, we know more now about child psychology. And we have a better understanding of what methods truly help children learn from failure.