Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

RIGHTS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Sexual Misconduct Could Overshadow Crucial Work

José Eduardo Mora

SAN JOSE, Sep 28 2004 (IPS) - What happens when an outspoken and highly respected activist makes a “mistake” that greatly resembles the abuses he is devoted to combating?

Children’s rights advocates in Central America were shaken by the news that one of the most fervent crusaders for their cause has admitted to paying a 19-year-old youth for sexual favours.

But according to those contacted by IPS, their main concern is that they don’t want this unfortunate incident to overshadow the efforts being made to fight the grave violations of the human rights of youngsters in the region.

On Sep. 14, the non-governmental children’s rights organisation Casa Alianza – the Latin America affiliate of U.S.-based Covenant House – fired its director of 15 years, British citizen Bruce Harris, after a 19-year-old Honduran youth provided with shelter by the organisation in the past came forward to say that Harris had recently paid him for sex.

For Carlos Emilio López, the children’s rights prosecutor in Nicaragua, the Harris affair is lamentable, but what is most important now is to ensure that the governments of Central America do not take advantage of this episode to minimise the very real problems of sexual exploitation, sex tourism and child labour in the region.

Central America has a combined population of almost 38 million people, and over half of its children live below the poverty line.

“The whole situation regarding Harris has had a major moral impact and been a real shock for the organisations that work with children, because he was so active and outspoken in denouncing the sexual abuse of minors. He was considered one of the world’s leading human rights defenders,” said López.

While this incident could undoubtedly undermine the credibility of the organisations dedicated to this field, “it is a mistake to confuse the actions of one person with the work of a whole institution like Casa Alianza,” López stressed.

“We must not overlook the fact that Casa Alianza fired Harris as soon as his conduct was exposed, which is very positive. We also have to take into account their willingness to cooperate in the investigation being conducted by the Honduran authorities. These are two factors that the media has completely ignored,” he added.

When IPS contacted the head office of Covenant House in New York, spokesman Richard Hirsch would only say that the organisation will cooperate fully with the Honduran authorities’ investigation and that no statements would be made at this time.

Covenant House has issued instructions to the Casa Alianza offices in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua telling all of its representatives to refrain from commenting on the case. The organisation’s Central American websites are out of service.

Harris admitted that he “acted incorrectly” and referred to the incident as a “15-minute mistake”. He also said that he will cooperate with authorities in Honduras. No charges have been filed against him as yet, and on Sep. 23 he left Costa Rica for the U.S. city of Miami, Florida.

The 19-year-old who accused Harris lived in the Casa Alianza shelter in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from 1998 until 2002. In his first statements to children’s rights prosecutor Nora Urbina, he reportedly said that children had been sexually abused while staying in the shelter.

Urbina would not comment on the case when contacted by IPS. But last Thursday she ordered federal officials to be stationed at the organisation’s Tegucigalpa office.

Wednesday will mark the 18th anniversary of Casa Alianza’s operations in Honduras, but the celebrations have been postponed until Oct. 6.

The official reason offered to IPS by spokeswoman Nancy Duarte was that the director of the Honduran office, José Manuel Capellín from Spain, would not be back in the country until that date. The anniversary festivities will include cultural, sports and religious activities.

Before Covenant House instructed its Latin American representatives not to comment on the matter, Capellín had spoken to the Honduran national radio station RHN. He said that Harris’ conduct had dealt the organisation a serious blow.

“The public image is that (Harris) is Casa Alianza, because he worked there for 15 of the 17 years that it has been operating in Honduras,” said Capellín.

Mexican activist Pedro Fragoso has been appointed as acting director of Casa Alianza’s Latin America headquarters, based in Costa Rica.

Casa Alianza/Covenant House has provided help for more homeless children throughout Latin America than any other organisation. Its 21 offices (which include those of the United States, Canada and Mexico) serve more than 60,000 boys and girls every year.

In Central America, Harris had become a figurehead in the defence of children’s rights, and had even been awarded an Order of the British Empire medal in 2000 for his work with homeless children in the region.

He was particularly active in the fight against the sexual exploitation of minors, and in demanding justice for the murders of street kids.

Casa Alianza recently reported that between January 1998 and September this year, more than 2,379 adolescents and young adults under the age of 23 had been murdered in Honduras, while their killers remain unpunished.

The repercussions of the Harris case are already being felt. Nicaragua has launched an investigation into the 80 non-governmental organisations that work with children in this country, said López, who nevertheless denied that the measure had anything to do with what happened in Honduras.

López noted that the governments of Central America have been repeatedly criticised for their failure to confront the ongoing sexual exploitation of children in their countries. He does not want to see them use this incident to hide the “sad reality” facing thousands of boys and girls in the region.

Blanca Rodríguez, director of the Honduras branch of Amigos de Niños, another group that works with street children, is worried that this episode could tarnish the efforts of all the organisations that serve children.

“Casa Alianza has been one of the organisations that has done the most to fight the sexual exploitation of minors, and so the news that its director had sexual relations with a former resident of the group’s shelter is both shocking and unfortunate,” said Rodríguez.

“People will now judge all of the organisations by what happened with Harris,” she said, and it will take time for this image to fade from public perceptions.

“This incident will undoubtedly affect us, but in the end, the work done by our organisations will help to restore our credibility,” she added.

Amigos de los Niños, which is funded by Children International, provides shelter, care and education to 19,000 children in Honduras.

For its part, the Honduran Institute for Children and Families (INFA) has acknowledged that it is not equipped to supervise the 290 groups that work with children in Honduras.

“There are only three people in the supervision and control department, responsible for monitoring all of the organisations, which means they have an impossible task,” admitted INFA representative Olman Lezama.