Children's war on terror
Laurence Gray
World Vision International
Website: http://www.vaceastasiapacific.org
For the first time the world has a global picture of how children are suffering violence thanks to a massive UN study that has helped shed light on horrific and widespread abuse, including that in the Asia-Pacific region.
On Wednesday, October 11, the UN's General Assembly was presented with the following brutal facts, among many others.
Some 126 million children are involved in hazardous work, often enduring beatings, humiliations and sexual violence. Over 50,000 children each year die as a result of homicide. As many as 150 million girls and 73 million boys worldwide are raped or subject to sexual violence each year.
Even those who are supposed to protect children are sometimes the perpetrators of violence. Children living in orphanages or detention facilities are at particular risk of beatings, isolation, torture, and rape, says the UN Study.
Lest we think that the statistics refer to somewhere else in the world, UN and child development agencies from this region who helped gather facts and figures for the East Asia and Pacific have uncovered some shocking findings themselves.
In Cambodia, more than 63 percent of children questioned for a national World Vision / Tearfund survey knew a child who had been raped.
Those children may in turn be rejected or isolated by the community due to fears of 'catching HIV'.
In Papua New Guinea, Human Rights Watch estimated that 75 percent of children who came into conflict with the law experienced some type of violence.
And the International Labour Organisation found that in the Asia-Pacific region some 122 million children aged five to 14 were estimated to be working, often in conditions so hazardous that the children were suffering violence just by being there.
More than this, child development agencies also daily work with children who have experienced the worst things imaginable. Children endure domestic violence that forces them to flee their homes, street children who are at risk of being raped, and juveniles who are thrown into cells with violent adults when arrested for alleged criminal behaviour.
Children, if they don't end up damaged by the violence itself often end up traumatized because they have no one to turn to, trapped in a cycle of despair that robs a child of his or her childhood. Or worse, when they do ask for help they end up being abused again.
The wonderful thing about the UN Study on Violence Against Children is that for the first time children across the world were asked not just to share their opinions but to suggest ways to reduce violence. Last year in Bangkok children mixed with experts from governments, UN agencies and NGOs and together came up with a list of things they wanted done to protect youngsters. These were sent onto the UN.
But it is also worth noting that many countries in the region have already made numerous legal commitments to protect children by signing up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, passing national laws and agreeing to abide by other international laws. Despite this there is often poor enforcement of those laws. And there are particular classes of children who are still falling through the gaps: children from ethnic minorities, street children, orphans and disabled children are much more at risk from violence.
The fight against violence is also hampered by the shame and silence surrounding the issue. While most parents and adults view children as a nation's treasures, as the inheritors of the family name, and as citizens of proud countries there is also sometimes the embarrassment of admitting that children are suffering abuse.
Nations are judged by how they treat their weakest and most vulnerable. When children are abused by parents, in villages, by police, and by those who are supposed to care for children it can be to a nation's shame. The value in the UN Study is that it shows that violence against children is widespread, so finger pointing becomes irrelevant. The violence is everywhere.
Often violent treatment of children is not even recognized as an issue because it is socially accepted. Beating children toughens them up, caning them in schools promotes learning, having sex with teenage sex workers provides a wage to support parents. These are all arguments wrongly used justify the continuing abuse of children and must be rejected.
In Cambodia, World Vision research found that almost half of boys aged 13 to 17 had been exposed to pornography, including violent hard-core images that showed bestiality and rape. Thanks to the use of VCD players it was now easy for village boys to rent such videos. As a result children are becoming sexualized much younger and boys are growing up to see girls as sex objects. The rape of girls by teenagers and young men is a significant problem in Cambodian society with media reports suggesting that offenders are sometimes copying what they have watched in videos.
In the same way children see acts of real physical abuse, with an estimated 275 million children a year witnesses to domestic violence. In Papua New Guinea alone, around 75 percent of children reported violence in their homes. The effects are long lasting; children who have been victims of, or witnesses to, domestic violence are more likely to hit or abuse their own children.
Hopefully, what the UN Study will do is put the issue of violence against children on the front burner. It states that children have no less rights to fair treatment than adults. Why is it acceptable to beat a child and not an adult? The Study expands our understanding of violence by showing that children are treated violently when they are bullied or sold into bonded labour, when they are punished with a cane or exposed to hard-core porn, when they are forced into early marriage or into a jail cell with adults, and in a myriad other ways.
The UN Study says it is time for states to get tough by urging governments to outlaw all forms of violence against children, and to do more to change the way people view children to ensure they are listened to, protected, and treated with dignity. Children everywhere deserve nothing less.
Laurence Gray is the Asia-Pacific regional director for World Vision's advocacy programmes. For interview or further comment: Cell: + (65)-9030 2511, Office: +(65)-6511 7100 ext. 55
On Wednesday, October 11, the UN's General Assembly was presented with the following brutal facts, among many others.
Some 126 million children are involved in hazardous work, often enduring beatings, humiliations and sexual violence. Over 50,000 children each year die as a result of homicide. As many as 150 million girls and 73 million boys worldwide are raped or subject to sexual violence each year.
Even those who are supposed to protect children are sometimes the perpetrators of violence. Children living in orphanages or detention facilities are at particular risk of beatings, isolation, torture, and rape, says the UN Study.
Lest we think that the statistics refer to somewhere else in the world, UN and child development agencies from this region who helped gather facts and figures for the East Asia and Pacific have uncovered some shocking findings themselves.
In Cambodia, more than 63 percent of children questioned for a national World Vision / Tearfund survey knew a child who had been raped.
Those children may in turn be rejected or isolated by the community due to fears of 'catching HIV'.
In Papua New Guinea, Human Rights Watch estimated that 75 percent of children who came into conflict with the law experienced some type of violence.
And the International Labour Organisation found that in the Asia-Pacific region some 122 million children aged five to 14 were estimated to be working, often in conditions so hazardous that the children were suffering violence just by being there.
More than this, child development agencies also daily work with children who have experienced the worst things imaginable. Children endure domestic violence that forces them to flee their homes, street children who are at risk of being raped, and juveniles who are thrown into cells with violent adults when arrested for alleged criminal behaviour.
Children, if they don't end up damaged by the violence itself often end up traumatized because they have no one to turn to, trapped in a cycle of despair that robs a child of his or her childhood. Or worse, when they do ask for help they end up being abused again.
The wonderful thing about the UN Study on Violence Against Children is that for the first time children across the world were asked not just to share their opinions but to suggest ways to reduce violence. Last year in Bangkok children mixed with experts from governments, UN agencies and NGOs and together came up with a list of things they wanted done to protect youngsters. These were sent onto the UN.
But it is also worth noting that many countries in the region have already made numerous legal commitments to protect children by signing up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, passing national laws and agreeing to abide by other international laws. Despite this there is often poor enforcement of those laws. And there are particular classes of children who are still falling through the gaps: children from ethnic minorities, street children, orphans and disabled children are much more at risk from violence.
The fight against violence is also hampered by the shame and silence surrounding the issue. While most parents and adults view children as a nation's treasures, as the inheritors of the family name, and as citizens of proud countries there is also sometimes the embarrassment of admitting that children are suffering abuse.
Nations are judged by how they treat their weakest and most vulnerable. When children are abused by parents, in villages, by police, and by those who are supposed to care for children it can be to a nation's shame. The value in the UN Study is that it shows that violence against children is widespread, so finger pointing becomes irrelevant. The violence is everywhere.
Often violent treatment of children is not even recognized as an issue because it is socially accepted. Beating children toughens them up, caning them in schools promotes learning, having sex with teenage sex workers provides a wage to support parents. These are all arguments wrongly used justify the continuing abuse of children and must be rejected.
In Cambodia, World Vision research found that almost half of boys aged 13 to 17 had been exposed to pornography, including violent hard-core images that showed bestiality and rape. Thanks to the use of VCD players it was now easy for village boys to rent such videos. As a result children are becoming sexualized much younger and boys are growing up to see girls as sex objects. The rape of girls by teenagers and young men is a significant problem in Cambodian society with media reports suggesting that offenders are sometimes copying what they have watched in videos.
In the same way children see acts of real physical abuse, with an estimated 275 million children a year witnesses to domestic violence. In Papua New Guinea alone, around 75 percent of children reported violence in their homes. The effects are long lasting; children who have been victims of, or witnesses to, domestic violence are more likely to hit or abuse their own children.
Hopefully, what the UN Study will do is put the issue of violence against children on the front burner. It states that children have no less rights to fair treatment than adults. Why is it acceptable to beat a child and not an adult? The Study expands our understanding of violence by showing that children are treated violently when they are bullied or sold into bonded labour, when they are punished with a cane or exposed to hard-core porn, when they are forced into early marriage or into a jail cell with adults, and in a myriad other ways.
The UN Study says it is time for states to get tough by urging governments to outlaw all forms of violence against children, and to do more to change the way people view children to ensure they are listened to, protected, and treated with dignity. Children everywhere deserve nothing less.
Laurence Gray is the Asia-Pacific regional director for World Vision's advocacy programmes. For interview or further comment: Cell: + (65)-9030 2511, Office: +(65)-6511 7100 ext. 55
1 comment:
Damn this is such a high percentage! Oh well! AH HUN SEN AND Mrs PIGGY BUN RANY are more concerned about the 3G phone!
To BUN RANY 3G is a code word and it stand for " Hit the G-spot 3three times.
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