Last week, November 7 and 8, Bogota, Colombia hosted the first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, an initiative of the governments of Colombia and Sweden in partnership with the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on ending violence against children. By the end of this landmark meeting, over 100 countries had pledged to adopt policies to address this scourge which includes physical, sexual and psychological/emotional abuse, maltreatment – like corporal punishment, and bullying: physically or online. Whether they will all follow through with this promise made to and in the presence of children, particularly with regard to corporal punishment, remains to be seen.
It must be noted that this is just one more issue (like violence against women) where progress in the right direction is slow owing to not only the outmoded notions of tradition, culture and social expectation, but also cruelty and secrecy surrounding deviance. In addition, despite countries having signed on to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the inability to acknowledge those rights remains prevalent among many adults.
Current data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) tells us that every year, violence affects half of the world’s children aged two to 17 years old; more than one billion in total. Further, nearly three in four children aged two to four years old repeatedly suffer physical punishment or psychological violence at the hands of parents and/or caregivers. The consequences are far-reaching; one child dies as a result of violence every five minutes, making this issue a global pandemic. Among the survivors, the reverberations often persist into adulthood, manifesting as mental health conditions and social problems like substance abuse. It goes without saying that the cycle of violence also perpetuates from generation to generation.
Days after that international conference ended, this newspaper published a new report about ongoing and apparently unpunished acts of violence against children at Port Kaituma in Region One (Barima-Waini). A community resident and child welfare advocate, in an interview with Stabroek News, referenced some 20 cases of violence against children, including physical and sexual abuse, child pregnancies and instances where lack of recourse had led to suicides. Calls were made for welfare and mental health services for children targeted by violence, but what of preventative measures?
If there appears to be a foregone conclusion that children in this area are falling through the cracks, it is because the incidents referred to above are not new. For close to two decades, maybe even longer, Port Kaituma has been a hotbed of violence against children, particularly girls. In 2009, more than seven girls between the ages of 13 and 15 were either pregnant or had given birth. At that time, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security had basically thrown its arms up in the air and stated that no reports were being made to the police, therefore no action could be taken though there was clear evidence of statutory rape. This is not strictly true, particularly in small rural communities where everyone knows everyone else.
Four years later, in 2012, the Child Care and Protection Agency revealed that it was investigating teenage pregnancies in the area after a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old had to be medevaced to the city because of complications they had experienced while giving birth. If there was an intervention by the authorities between 2009 and 2012, it must have been very low-key. Anything that emerged from the child welfare agency’s investigation also appeared to be kept under wraps. However, from anecdotal evidence over the years, not much changed at Port Kaituma.
In September 2021, given the high influx of asylum seekers from Venezuela, the UN Refugee Agency set up a child advocacy centre in Port Kaituma, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, the Child Care and Protection Agency and the Regional Democratic Council of Region One. According to information released when the centre opened, it was being run by the non-governmental organisation Blossom Inc and provided a space where children and caregivers could access services to prevent, respond, and report physical and sexual abuse. The centre, catering to both locals and refugees, was deemed necessary in view of the fact that, unsurprisingly, that area recorded among the highest number of cases of child abuse in the country.
It is now 2024 and heartrendingly, Port Kaituma remains mired in these tragic circumstances. Why are the authorities not paying more attention? Is this state of affairs meant to continue in perpetuity? Have we become immune to children being hurt and traumatised? Surely we are aware that what is occurring in this area is a mere microcosm of the wider society and requires urgent action.
As long as this plague continues, no child is safe. While gender, disability, poverty, and national or ethnic origin are some of the risk factors that can place children at higher risk of violence, the truth is that it is an equal opportunity menace. Violence against children is not bound by culture, class, educational status, income or ethnic origin. It occurs in the home and has been found to be pervasive in institutions where one imagined children would be safe: schools, churches, and social and athletic clubs. It is rampant online.
A growing series of studies has found that violence against children is one of the costliest public health issues and eliminating it could cut rates of depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence significantly. Research also associates corporal punishment with negative health and behavioural outcomes, including poorer mental health and cognitive development, increased aggression and antisocial behaviour. And according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in December 2023, adverse childhood experiences, including violence, costs the United States some US$14 trillion a year.
Children need protecting. Governments, institutions and parents are doing them a disservice by somehow believing they can separate acts of violence and decide which ones ought to be punishable by law. Violence is violence.
