Tamara Tunie, plays Dr. Warner, the medical examiner on the hit show Law & Order: SVU (Special Victims Unit), and while the SVU team on TV investigates fictitious crimes of abuse, the dramatized cases give a window into the trauma and horror that faces many children across the country. While Dr. Warner may not be a real voice for children, Tunie however gives her voice to children in the United States, many of whom face neglect and live in daily fear of abuse…even worse many whose voices who were silenced to quickly after their abuses resulted in their deaths.
Tunie is the spokesperson for the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, a group of five organizations, includes; The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), National Center for Child Death Review (NCCDR), National Children’s Alliance (NCA), Every Child Matters, and National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). The Coalition was formed in 2009 in an effort to draw attention to and help prevent the some 2,500 child abuse deaths each year in the United States. Tunie, spoke at a Congressional staff briefing yesterday on Capitol Hill, Tunie opened the briefing where she said, “Sometimes these ‘Special Victims’ are children who have been abused or killed. I became involved…when I learned of the staggering numbers of children killed every day in real life!”
The Coalition hosted the staff briefing to provide information on the issue of child abuse and neglect deaths in the U.S., where they also presented a petition with more than 8,000 signatures from concerned Americans who are urging Congress to take action on the issue. The petition was presented to Representative David Camp (R-Michigan), who was an honorary sponsor of the event and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Camp stated, “I am here today on Capitol Hill to help bring attention to these tragic, unnecessary, and preventable deaths. I stand before you, not only as the Coalition Spokesperson, but also on behalf of the 7 children who will be killed today by someone who is supposed to love and protect them …”. Camp then followed by announcing that he would call for a hearing on the issues to be held sometime this summer. He said, “Given the importance of this issue to our efforts to better protect children, we need better information about and more accurate reporting of the number of fatalities, the circumstances surrounding these fatalities or near fatalities, as well as the causes of these tragic events.”
The event comes as Child Abuse Prevention Month kicks off in the United States, where 12,180 children died from abuse and neglect between 2001 and 2008, according to the Administration for Children and Families. Putting child abuse and neglect on the top of the legislative agenda is vital to save the lives of these children, and the many more that go unreported each year.
For more information about the Coalition and the event, click here.
