Violence in peacetime
Violence against children is not confined to war situations, reports Amany Abdel-Moneim
"I was only begging for food when the police handcuffed me and took me to the station. They thought I had stolen something but I hadn't. They put me in a cell with bars... kept me there for six days where I was handcuffed the whole time... There were always two policemen on duty and they beat me all the time. Sometimes they used their truncheons."
--11-year-old Hristo H, Bulgaria
"The global scandal of violence against children is a horror story too often untold," according to the 2001 Human Rights Watch Violence Against Children Worldwide report, which is the only comprehensive global report documenting cases of violence against children. According to this document, many children living on the street in all parts of the world are killed or tortured -- in many cases by the police -- while many are forced to work under extremely difficult conditions, often as bonded labourers or in forced prostitution. In this day and age of "progress and civilisation" children may be imprisoned under inhumane conditions, sometimes in cells with adults. They are often brutalised by guards and receive no protection from assaults by other inmates.
According to Jo Becker, Children's Rights Advocacy director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), "[Children] are beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered, often by the very individuals responsible for their care and safety."
HRW based its findings on investigations conducted in 20 countries, and interviews with children exposed to violence or abuse. The report shows that in a "disturbing but persistent theme in every region of the world, in almost every aspect of their lives, children are subject to unconscionable violence, most often perpetrated by the very individuals charged with their safety and well-being."
The report revealed that in countries including Bulgaria, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Pakistan, and Russia, children experience violence at the hands of police and other law enforcement officials. They are often detained by police without sufficient cause, and then subjected to brutal interrogations and torture in order to elicit confessions or information.
The report also identifies violations arising from the failure of governments to take adequate steps to protect children from violence.
For many children around the world, violence is a regular part of their school experience. In some countries, school officials routinely use corporal punishment to maintain classroom discipline and to punish children for poor academic performance. Human Rights Watch investigations in Kenya showed that children were subjected to caning, slapping, and whipping which resulted in bruises, cuts, humiliation, and in some cases serious injury or death. In South Africa, girls, in particular, are victims of sexual violence at the hands of both teachers and male students. They are verbally degraded, groped, assaulted and raped. The results are devastating. In the words of Pamela C, a 15-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted by her teacher in a South African School, "I didn't go back to school for one month after... everything reminds me of what happened. I have dreams. He is in my dreams. He is in the classroom laughing at me. I can hear him laughing at me in my dreams."
Such is the situation endured by some of those who go to school. Many other children, however, go to work. In India and Egypt, Human Rights Watch found that child labourers were often beaten for working too slowly, making mistakes, or simply as a means of intimidation. The results are confirmed by the recently released report The Situation of Egyptian Children and Women: A Rights-Based Analysis published by UNICEF and the Egyptian government.
In many cases poverty is the culprit that consigns children to a violent and unhappy life. In addition to this, "social traditions and the feeling of shame usually result in a culture of silence with regard to violence perpetrated against children. This allows violence to continue unchecked," Essam Fawzi, anthropologist, explained to Al-Ahram Weekly. He suggests that "we should rebuild the bridge between the community and the child because the problem is not simply that we threaten children by exposing them to physical danger; often we take away the care, protection and support that is fundamental to the survival of children."
