Rethinking protection through communication, participation, collaboration & innovation.
Join the global child-protection community in Lugano, Switzerland, as ISPCAN convenes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers—and marks 50 years of advancing the science, policy, and practice of protecting children.
Rethinking protection through communication, participation, collaboration, and innovation. The 2027 scientific program is organized around six themes that connect research, practice, and policy across the child-protection sector.
How communication, participation, advocacy and networks can strengthen primary, secondary and tertiary prevention systems across local, national and international contexts—moving beyond consultation toward meaningful participation, shared decision-making and child-led advocacy.
How research, policy, lived experience and lessons learned can inform stronger child protection systems and future prevention strategies across all forms of abuse and neglect, with attention to accountability, inequalities, systemic learning and sustainable investment.
Bringing together children’s everyday digital lives with the policies, governance frameworks and support systems required to ensure safe digital ecosystems grounded in children’s rights—opportunities and risks linked to AI, digital platforms, online harms and governance.
How sustainable financing, workforce development, implementation science and system leadership can strengthen child protection systems—highlighting prevention investment, organizational accountability and cross-sector partnerships.
Bold, forward-looking contributions that challenge harmful systems and promote transformative approaches in child protection—innovation grounded in evidence, lived experience and child-centred practice.
How legal frameworks, justice systems and inclusive approaches can strengthen children’s rights and improve access to protection across diverse cultural, legal and humanitarian contexts.
It is particularly meaningful that this anniversary brings us back close to where the idea for ISPCAN first emerged—in the discussions among child-protection leaders at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in 1975.
“Returning to this region invites us not only to celebrate how far the field has come, but to reflect on the responsibility we share to shape the future for all children to thrive.”
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the ISPCAN International Congress 2027 in Lugano, Switzerland, as we gather to mark an extraordinary milestone—the 50th anniversary of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect . What began as a visionary conversation among pioneers in child protection has grown into a worldwide network of professionals, researchers, policymakers, and advocates working together to advance the science, policy, and practice of safeguarding children.
Over the past five decades, our understanding of child maltreatment has evolved profoundly. Advances in neuroscience, public health, child-rights frameworks, and prevention science have transformed how we understand trauma, resilience, and the lifelong impact of early adversity. Global adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has further strengthened the principle that children must be recognized as rights holders whose voices matter.
Yet despite these advances, the work before us remains urgent. Millions of children continue to face violence in homes, communities, institutions, and increasingly in digital spaces. Rapid social change, climate change, migration, conflict, and economic inequality continue to challenge our systems of protection.
The theme of the 2027 Congress— The Networked Child —reflects the reality that protecting children today requires connected systems and shared responsibility. Over the coming days, participants from across the world will engage in dialogue, share evidence and innovations, and examine both enduring challenges and emerging risks.
As we celebrate fifty years of ISPCAN, we also look forward. We hope that the conversations and connections formed during this congress will inspire new partnerships, new research, and renewed commitment to building a safer world for children everywhere. Thank you for being part of this historic moment.
With warm regards, The ISPCAN Lugano 2027 Congress Chairs
When pediatrician Henry Kempe published “The Battered Child Syndrome,” he recognized that protecting children was not a private family matter but the community’s responsibility—and that optimal outcomes would be realized only through the dedication of diverse sectors. ISPCAN was created so that this special group of professionals could build a community across disciplines.
Henry Kempe’s groundbreaking work reframes child abuse as a societal responsibility.
Discussions among child-protection leaders inspire what would soon become ISPCAN.
On July 7, 1977, ISPCAN is formally established in Denver, Colorado.
ISPCAN returns to the region where the idea first formed, to celebrate and look forward.
If you work in any sector of child protection—health, law, mental health, social work, law enforcement, education, public health and more—join our community of learning.
Convene with peers in your specialty before the main congress opens.
Bring data to action alongside policymakers, survivors, and youth voices.
Partner with ISPCAN to host a side meeting or exhibit at the congress.
Join the global network and unlock member rates on registration.
Set on the shores of Lake Lugano in Italian-speaking Switzerland, the congress unfolds across the city’s convention centre and historic venues—close to the region where ISPCAN’s story began.
© Lugano Region / Michele Mengozzi & Milo Zanecchia.
A short tour of the city and the congress venues, produced with Unforgettable World for Lugano Region.
A cinematic portrait of Lugano and its lakeside region.
The primary congress venue on the shores of the lake.
Historic villa set within Lugano’s lakeside Parco Ciani.
A distinctive venue space within the Parco Ciani grounds.
Plan ahead to be part of all we have in store. Celebrate the public-health prevention work in research, practice, and policy that we have made as a sector.
Join the global child-protection community in Lugano, Switzerland, as ISPCAN convenes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers—and marks 50 years of advancing the science, policy, and practice of protecting children.
