Susan Bissell

Susan Bissell
Occupation	Chief of Child Protection
Employer	UNICEF

Susan Bissell is UNICEF's Child Protection Section chief. She is a Doctor of Philosophy. She does not oppose international adoption, but believes that it is preferable for abandoned children to be taken back by their previous families and advises governments to provide small monetary incentives to families who are willing to do so. She opposes the concept that there is a global orphan crisis, and believes that "the crisis is something else... a child protection crisis." In 2000, her research on child labour in Bangladesh was published. In 2007, she spoke at the Atlantic Canada Child Welfare Forum in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada, saying that the country should prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in the home, including spanking. In 2009, she spoke in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, saying that steps needed to be taken in the country to address the causes of child labour. She identified the abolishment of primary school tuition payments as a good way to address these causes. In 2011, when UNICEF was criticized for not acting on non-governmental organizations' claims that there was systematic use of child labour in Uzbekistan, Bissell said, "We're not police. We're not monitors." After acting in Taken, a film about the trafficking of children, Liam Neeson was inspired to combat child abuse, and, in July 2013, Bissell voiced her belief that Neeson's work on this issue would be effective.

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