IASIS Civil Non-Profit Company (AmKE) is organizing Connect to Protect – Children & Youth at Risk, the 1st International Conference on the Protection of Children and Young People and the Prevention of Violence, in Athens on October 5 and 6, 2026. For two days, researchers, frontline professionals, policymakers and civil society organizations from Europe, the Americas, Australia, the Middle East and Africa will discuss how protection systems can genuinely safeguard children without causing them additional harm.

The program includes keynote speeches, roundtable discussions, experiential workshops and a research exhibition, taking place across four parallel rooms.

Day One: From Trauma to the Voice of Children

The conference opens on Monday, October 5, at 9:00 a.m., with an address by Nikos Baltas, Director General of IASIS. Greetings will follow from Alison Joy Duncan, Ambassador of Australia to Greece, as well as a recorded message from Ai Kihara-Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children, moderated by journalist Elsa Poimenidou.

The first keynote speech will be delivered by Steven Marans of the Yale Child Study Center, focusing on understanding trauma and protecting children’s futures. He will be followed by Stefanos Alevizos (IASIS – Panteion University), with the presentation “Protection Without Harm,” addressing the trauma caused when a child is removed from their family; Jill Duerr Berrick of the University of California, Berkeley, on the role of young people’s voices in their own protection; and Emeritus Professor Stelios Stylianidis, on community psychiatry.

Parallel sessions will address the mental health of refugee children, with the participation of Columbia University and the International Organization for Migration (IOM); online harassment and exploitation of children; accountability within child protection systems, with examples from Iceland, Finland and Armenia; the identification of child victims within the justice system; racist violence; children in the aftermath of war, including testimonies from Ukraine; parents with addictions; and the role of algorithms in children’s lives.

The day will conclude with the Official Ceremony (17:30–19:00), featuring Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence Against Children; Philip D. Jaffé, Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; and Professor Vassiliki Artinopoulou, member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. Young people from the IASIS and Defence for Children International – Greece groups will also take the stage.

Day Two: From Evidence to Commitments

On Tuesday, October 6, keynote speakers will include Yvonne M. Vissing (Salem State University), addressing the harm that care mechanisms themselves can cause; Professor Athanasios Douzenis, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, on offender treatment as a prevention strategy; Helen Griffiths from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); and Richard Weissbourd of Harvard University, on how we raise children with a sense of morality and well-being.

Among the thematic sessions are violence against girls and femicide; unaccompanied children and missing minors; child-friendly justice; the assessment of parental capacity; screens and public health; play as a space for protection; as well as Greek programmes for preventing youth violence in schools and communities. Of particular interest will be the presentation of the theatre workshop at Korydallos Prison and the DCI Greece Youth Ambassadors, as well as a workshop by HIAS Greece on the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The conference will conclude with a high-level panel (17:30–18:30) entitled “From Two Days of Evidence to Global Commitments for Children.” Participants will include General Secretary for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection, Iraklis Moschof; Philip D. Jaffé; representatives of UNICEF, OHCHR and the International Telecommunication Union; Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, President of the Council of Europe’s GREVIO; and George Nikolaidis, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare at the Institute of Child Health. Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, will contribute via a recorded message on age limits for online platforms.

Statements

“Greece has significant experience in protecting children and young people, from welcoming unaccompanied minors to prevention initiatives in schools and communities. The practices developed here can make a meaningful contribution to the international dialogue. Connect to Protect brings together researchers, professionals and organizations from different countries so that we can exchange knowledge, learn from one another and work together to seek more effective solutions for children,” says Nikos Baltas, Director General of IASIS.

“Twenty years after the UN Study on Violence Against Children, we are still a long way from achieving the goal of eliminating violence against children by 2030. No country has all the answers. But every country has experiences worth sharing,” notes Najat Maalla M’jid, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence Against Children.

Practical Information

Dates: October 5–6, 2026
Venue: Royal Olympic Hotel, Athens

Media Sponsors: ERT, ERT News Radio, AMNA.

With the support of the scientific journal Child Abuse Review (Wiley).

About IASIS

IASIS Civil Non-Profit Company (AmKE) is an organization with many years of experience in the fields of mental health, social inclusion, child protection and support for vulnerable groups. It develops and implements services, research and educational initiatives, as well as European projects, connecting scientific knowledge with social intervention and policymaking.