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NEWS FROM YOKOHAMA
Africa Gets New Tools against Child Sex Trade
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
YOKOHAMA,
Japan, Dec 20 (IPS) - Representatives from more than 20 African
countries at a just-finished conference here succeeded in drawing
global attention to the particular forms of sex abuse their
children are subject to -- more of them are actually being exploited
outside the commercial sex trade.
In Africa,
there are more children who are victims of incest, rape and
forced early marriage than trapped in the sex industry, they
said during the four-day Second World Congress against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children that ended Thursday.
This is
also true of children abused sexually on the streets, in educational
settings and after being kidnapped, these officials pointed
out, but added that the scale of such abuse varies from country
to country.
''We have
child prostitution, yet the larger number of children are sexually
abused in non-commercial situations, be it in schools, at home,
due to early marriage and when they are domestic workers,''
said Bruce Miriam Aribot, Guinea's minister of social welfare,
women and child protection.
''It has
been an unspoken phenomenon in Africa for years, a taboo subject,
because it could lead to a clash between local culture and the
law,'' Aribot told IPS. ''There is no money involved in such
abuse, so it is incorrect to call it commercial sexual exploitation
of children. It is a broader form of child sex abuse.''
''When
some African countries met in Rabat, they felt it was important
to broaden the definition of child sex abuse from commercial
sexual exploitation of children,'' added Rima Salah, regional
director for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) office
for West and Central Africa. ''This is a way of breaking the
silence.''
The difference
in Africa's problems with child sex exploitation, in fact, was
not lost on the representatives from the government officials,
activists and young people attending the Yokohama. The final
document that the participants endorsed -- the Yokohama Global
Commitment 2001 - reflected the call by African governments
to broaden the definition of child sex abuse, to protect boys
and girls under 18 years from ''all forms of sexual exploitation''
rather than limit this to the commercial trade.
This distinction
was buttressed by the reports of child sex abuse in Africa that
were released at this gathering, which drew 3,045 participants
from governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the
private sector and youth.
''Until
recently, many countries in the region had not been aware of
the existence of this scourge. One rather heard of indecent
assault on minors, often localised or on the occasion of certain
events,'' states an UNICEF report on sexual exploitation of
children in West and Central Africa. ''A few country studies
show that the phenomenon of the sexual abuse and exploitation
of children is emerging and growing.''
''These
are mainly rape (incestuous or otherwise), indecent exposure,
kidnapping or abduction, forced marriages, etc,'' it points
out. ''The main victims are girls, although the percentage of
abused boys is growing.''
This study
also identifies the circumstances under which girls are sexually
abused, as opposed to boys. ''While girls are mostly abused
in supervisory family or educational setting (like home or school),
boys are abused in other life settings (like the street or in
workshops). The perpetrator is often an adult and, in all cases,
is older than the victim.''
Girls employed
as domestic workers are among the most vulnerable, it affirms.
''Nearly 90 percent of child domestics are girls. Their position
of inferiority in the household makes them particularly vulnerable
to sex abuse and rape.''
Child prostitution,
on the other hand, is found in places of ''high and sudden concentration
of male populations,'' like oil fields, mines, trawlers and
military camps, it adds. ''The testimonies of child victims
in about five countries of the region indicate that they were
directly initiated by tourists or guides and sellers of artifacts.''
Another
report by the non-governmental End Child Prostitution and Trafficking
(ECPAT) in southern Africa adds that in Botswana, there is very
little information is available about commercial sexual exploitation,
but incest and other forms of child abuse have been documented.
In South
Africa, ''girl children are victims to high incidences of rape,
child abuse and gender violence in the home, school and community
an dare particularly vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation
in situations of poverty,'' states the ECPAT study.
At an international
conference in September last year on the prevention of child
abuse, South Africa was taken to task for its disturbingly high
frequency of sex exploitation - two girls are reported raped
there every hour.
Zimbabwe,
according to the ECPAT study, is as hostile an environment to
girls. Rape, indecent assault and sodomy ''is highly prevalent''
in the country, while ''child prostitution is not officially
perceived as a major problem,'' it states. ''A self-report survey
conducted among 549 male and female secondary school pupils
in (the capital) Harare found that 30 percent of the children
had been sexually abused.''
According
to Keketso Mochochoko, a 16-year-old girl from Lesotho, getting
rid of African countries of child sex abuse ''will not be easy,''
since much of it is ''hidden or continues to happen despite
countries being aware of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child''.
''I agree
with the African countries insisting on the conference to take
up all forms of child sex abuse,'' added Mochochoko, who was
in Yokohama as an African youth participant. ''The sex abusers
don' pay when they exploit children, like the school teachers,
priests, adult relatives.'' (END)
