BRAZIL: Justice Turns Blind Eye to Sexual Violence Against Children

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 18 2004 (IPS) - Araceli Cabrera Crespo was nine years old when she was tortured, raped, strangled to death and burnt with acid by a group of youths under the effect of drugs in Vitoria, the capital of the west-central state of Espíritu Santo, in 1973.

May 18, the date of that barbaric deed which shook the country was designated National Day of the Fight Against the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Brazil in 2000.

Putting an end to the impunity that so often surrounds such crimes was the main demand of protests staged Tuesday in several Brazilian cities, especially in the national capital.

A group of 100 children occupied Congress in Brasilia. They carried white flowers to underline the need for systematic efforts against this kind of violence and they demand compliance with a 20-point programme.

The main point is to allocate sufficient budgetary resources for the programme, because everything else depends on availability of public funding, Elizángela Menezes, with the National Committee to Confront Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents, told IPS.

She mentioned, for example, the need to expand a special police and legal system to handle such crimes, including special training for police and judicial personnel, and to create a databank and information system.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took part for the first time in the ceremony to mark this National Day, promised to address the demands set forth by the children, especially by earmarking public funds to fully implement the 20-point plan.

The National Committee to Confront Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents, made up of representatives from civil society groups, the government and international bodies like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), handed the report titled ‘Araceli Never Again’ to President Lula and the Parliamentary Front for the Defence of the Rights of the Child and Adolescent.

The document underlines the absolute impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of the grisly 1973 killing, as well as those involved in 10 other well-known cases of abuse and sexual exploitation of girls and adolescents committed in the past 30 years.

The report, drawn up by the National Association of Centres for the Defence of the Child and Adolescent (ANCED), is a wake-up call regarding ”impunity as a rule, not an exception,” says Renato Roseno, president of the organisation.

One serious problem is the lack of adequate legislation for cracking down on sex crimes, she said, noting that the law still on the books is over 80 years old.

Committee coordinator Neide Castanha said that while there are no reliable statistics on the incidence of sexual violence against children and adolescents in this country of around 177 million, estimates range from 100,000 to 500,000 cases a year.

Several measures aimed at getting a better picture of and combating the problem have been adopted since last year.

A hot-line created by the government received more than 50,000 calls in 12 months, which led to the confirmation of 5,647 sex crimes that were referred to the legal authorities, said the government’s Special Secretary on Human Rights, Nilmario Miranda.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry investigating the question of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in Brazil is scheduled to present its final report on Jun. 15.

In its 10 months of work, it has collected and compiled testimony from more than 300 people, which will lead to the trials of at least 100 individuals, including mayors, state legislators and town councillors, said Senator Patricia Saboya Gomes, who chairs the parliamentary commission of inquiry.

But for every case of sexual violence against children or teenagers that comes to light, at least 10 go undetected, said the senator.

Protests were held in several Brazilian state capitals Tuesday, reflecting the fact that sexual violence against minors is a nationwide problem, one that has only begun to gain visibility in recent years.

In the northern state of Pará, for example, the Centinela (sentinel) programme identified 1,322 young victims of violence in the past six months. Just over half of the cases involved sexual abuse and exploitation.

The National Day will be extended to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean as of next year. The decision was reached by the ‘Weaving the Future’ Forum organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Cartagena, Colombia, in late April.