RIGHTS: Argentina Turns Blind Eye to Exploitation of Children

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 28 1999 (IPS) - The sexual exploitation of children in Argentina was an “invisible” issue to the state, police and society in general, a conference of social workers concluded here.

The conference on child sexual exploitation, called by the “United Kids Foundation” was attended by representatives of governmental and judicial authorities, academics and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) that work with boys, girls and teenagers.

“Child sexual exploitation does not exist as such on the agenda of any institution that works with minors, nor are there concrete statistics or formal records,” delegates learned.

There was a “legal vacuum” surrounding the phenomenon which mainly affected young girls and adolescents, especially those who are poor, the conference heard.

In addition, victims were getting younger and younger. Although there was a “limit of physical tolerance” for the crime, statistics put the age of sexual initiation at 8 to 10-years-old.

“Girls are considered less valuable objects than boys,” delegates agreed and noted that one example of this double standard could be found within most Argentine homes, where girls were charged with housework more often than than boys.

The meeting proposed the drafting of a document to assess the problem and recommended a series of measures to “intervene” in the issue, which authorities often do not treat as a crime.

In Argentina, one million boys and girls work and some 6,000 live on the streets, according to figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In Buenos Aires alone, there were 2,000 homeless minors, of which 400 were girls who were vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Current legislation before parliament makes no reference to the growth of the threats to children. Earlier this year, lukewarm approval was given to an initiative on the protection of children’s rights but it made no reference to sexual exploitation.

The president of the United Kids Foundation, Maria del Carmen Bianchi, told IPS that the issue had a low visibility because “there is social denial” of a problem that people found difficult to face, which complicated efforts to confront the problem.

Researchers from her group compiled fragmentary allegations of abuse, statistics on runaways and interviews with authorities that not always proved the existence of the problem.

Bianchi revealed that in the course of the investigation they discovered photographic catalogs of children offered for sale like merchandise and sex deals offered by tourist hotels.

They also encountered teenagers who said their identities were changed and they were transported to cities or provinces with false documents as part of commercial exploitation networks.

The interviews yielded some clues to investigators on the course this phenomenon is taking. In many provinces, a female prostitute was deemed to be a professional by the age of 18 because it is assumed that she has at least three or four years of experience.

Similarly, in other districts examined, it is estimated that 80 percent of female runaways had a history of familial abuse, which was at the root of nearly all cases of child sexual exploitation.

Authorities and society in general “widely tolerated” cases of 14-or 15-year-old girls being exploited sexually because peopled assume the children had chosen to “dedicate themselves” to this activity in exchange for money.

The research revealed that “the great missing person” in this phenomenon was the “client”, who never appeared on any charge sheet, or receive punishment or was even involved in the social discussion of the issue.

On the other hand, there always was strong moral condemnation of the minors and their families.

“If there are no moral, social and judicial sanctions against the customer, there is no way to be successful through the simple pursuit of the offerer,” delegates determined in their report.

Bianchi said police, juvenile courts, government and NGOs, which should work systematically and in cooperation with each other to stamp out criminal networks engaged in child exploitation.

“There is a minority of families who, for historic and cultural reasons, exploit their children, but we should put a priority on the actions of the networks victimising those who have nothing but their bodies and who are converted into commercial objects,” she said.

The expert believes that this problem is not just the result of marginality and poverty, but rather “the insatiable capacity to consume” that invites adults to treat as objects the bodies of boys and girls, who are “clean goods” in the face of the advancing AIDS crisis.

The United Kids Foundation is affiliated with EPCAT, an international organisation for the protection of minors that was created to stem child exploitation in Asia, including pornography and trafficking in girls for sexual tourism – in which Argentina is no exception.

“The fact that these are treated as attacks on children by adults excludes the victims from the protections of public policies,” said sexologist Maria Luisa Lerer, vice president of the Latin American Federation of Sexology.

Efforts by NGOs that had worked with children over the last 10 years was a good start, as was the convention called by UNICEF in 1996 in Stockholm on child sexual exploitation, the conference declared.

“In this decade, the belief that boys, girls and adolescents are full people and necessary citizens won space on the agendas of states,” it concluded. This “allowed the lifting of the veil of impunity that cloaks the public and private crimes committed against children.”