The World
Organisation against Torture

 

OMCT

Geneva,
20
November 2006

UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY[1]:

Stop Violence Against
Children

On 20 November
1989, the UN Convention on the
rights of the child was adopted with the aim of promoting and protecting the
rights of children all over the world. In November 2006, 17 years later, this
Convention is almost universally ratified.[2]
Yet, paradoxically, children across the world continue to suffer violence.[3]
During 2006, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) denounced several
situations of such violence. Today we wish to remind everyone that, beyond the
more publicised cases, numerous situations of violence against children occur
everyday, far from the reach of the media. In order to fight for the defence and
the promotion of children’s rights, it is essential to denounce all forms of
violence against children, including torture, at all
levels.

Even though children of all social origins are concerned
by violence, notably in the private sphere, a recent study by OMCT shows that,
in particular, poverty is an undeniable root cause of violence. As a result,
children coming from disadvantaged social backgrounds are often found to be the
most vulnerable. Torture “emerges in societies in which bonds have degraded,
where social injustice, marginalisation and unreserved exploitation generate
collective violence, both on the part of those who control the State in order to
serve their own interests and among the victims who, because of the absence of
the space and system required to recognize and protect their rights, resort to
violence that ultimately breaks the social contract”.[4] For instance, the study reveals that, in Egypt, police
officers arrest and detain children solely on account of their precarious social
situation, i.e., being homeless, engaging in begging or due to a disability, not
because they have infringed the law.[5]

During the course of 2006,
OMCT also denounced the inappropriate and repressive solutions which have been
applied to children living on the street. In Latin
America, children are frequently
victims of social cleansing phenomena. In
Honduras and
Guatemala, for instance,
they are summarily executed by private or public agents or paramilitary groups,
who are sometimes even recruited by residents. Governments justify these actions
by comparing street children to members of the maras.[6]
Those responsible enjoy total immunity. An alternative report on Guatemala
submitted by OMCT and local Guatemalan NGOs to the UN Committee Against Torture
in May 2006 stresses the violence of attacks on children, citing the discovery
of the bodies of two children living on the street: Heidy Mariol Ruano, 14 years
old, stabbed 76 times and Mario Estuardo Esquivel, headless, whose killers have
still not been apprehended.[7]

Street children are rarely
considered as rights holders and are often targets for severe abuses such as
violent arrests. In the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, OMCT recently denounced the
illegal arrest and detention of 220 children, twenty of whom were under the age
of five, whose only fault was being too poor to live elsewhere than on the
street.[8]

Minors in conflict with the
law, particularly those deprived of liberty, are often victims of violence which
is rarely ever denounced. OMCT’s reports on
Benin,
Kenya and
Chile show that judicial
practices almost always lead to the systematic detention of those children
instead of alternative solutions to deprivation of liberty. The excessive use of
detention increases the poor conditions of detention in many countries. In
addition to overcrowding, lack of medical and legal assistance, and deplorable
hygiene, a worrying phenomenon is the mixing of children with adults, placing
children who have been accused with those who have been convicted, and mixing
vulnerable children in need of protection with those in conflict with criminal
law. Unfortunately, their rights are rarely taken into consideration since they
are seen as delinquents who deserve punishment, not being entitled to any
rights.

OMCT militates in favour of those categories of children
“who embarrass” or who are ignored in order to ensure their protection and the
respect of their rights. In this framework, OMCT deplores the fear or even
resistance of some States to accept the creation of a Special Representative to
the UN General Secretary on Violence Against Children, despite the fact that the
study on Violence Against Children directed by Prof. Sérgio Pinheiro has been
widely accepted and conducted in consultation with States. This study makes a
clear plea for action by concluding that violence against children can never be
justified, whether it is imposed by tradition or meted out for discipline, and
that all forms of violence against children can be prevented.[9] OMCT regrets the hypocrisy of States which have on one
day together denounced violence against children and on the next, they are
unwilling to take concrete measures to fight against it. OMCT calls on all
channels of media to raise awareness of this issue and to ask governments to
bring to light the action which they have implemented to effectively eradicate
violence against children.

Visit our website: www.omct.org

Contact:

Cécile Trochu
Grasso

Children’s Rights
Programme

OMCT

P.O. 21 – 8,
rue du Vieux Billard

CH- 1211
Geneva –
Switzerland

Tel : 0041 (0)22 809 49
39

Fax : 0041 (0)22 809 49
29