Weak Laws Leave Children Vulnerable to Abuse Worldwide, Reports Find

By Lisa Vives Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Feb 11 2015 (IPS) - (GIN) – Some of the most unimaginable acts of cruelty against young children were routine in the U.S. state of Virginia until a bill before state legislators this month shocked them into action.

In a report prepared by media groups ProPublica and NPR (National Public Radio), damning information about neglect in schools was supplied to Virginia lawmakers. In one case, a 10 year old boy with autism had his hand crushed in a door while school staff members tried to shut him into a “scream room” at a public school for children with disabilities in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Other practices—such as pinning uncooperative children face down on the floor, locking them in dark closets and tying them up with straps, handcuffs, bungee cords or even duct tape—were used more than 267,000 times nationwide in the 2012 school year, a ProPublica analysis of new federal data showed. Three-quarters of the students restrained had physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities.

Head injuries, bloody noses, broken bones and worse were among the injuries suffered by children while being restrained or tied down, as in one Iowa case, to a lunch table. A 13-year-old Georgia boy hanged himself after school officials gave him a rope to keep up his pants before shutting him alone in a room.

At least 20 children nationwide have reportedly died while being restrained or isolated over the course of two decades, the Government Accountability Office found in 2009.

Federal rules restrict acts of abject cruelty in nearly all institutions that receive money from Washington to help the young, but such limits don’t apply to public schools.

The brutality in Virginia should cease, however, with the action of state lawmakers who signed a bill which now goes to the governor for signature.

But halfway around the world, violence against children still plagues some of the struggling countries in Africa with limited hopes for a remedy.

In a launch at the United Nations in New York this week, The African Report on Violence against Children echoes some of the tragic stories that occurred in Virginia.

Assembled by the African Child Policy Forum, the authors conclude that “despite significant legal and policy measures undertaken in the region to protect children, African girls and boys are subjected to high levels of physical, sexual and emotional abuse across all levels of society.”

Corporal punishment, for example, has been prohibited in Kenya, Tunisia, South Sudan and Togo, the report says, and “all African countries have legal provisions criminalizing sexual violence, abuse and exploitation.” However forced marriages of children to adults continues without penalty.

The report adds that “weak implementation of laws and policies, under-resourced and under-staffed social services, and harmful practices” have further added to impunity for abusers.

“Violence against children is so prevalent and deeply ingrained in societies it is often unseen and accepted as the norm,” UNICEF wrote in a report released last fall.

“Despite two decades of awareness-building activity on child rights, there is still ignorance, and even misgiving among many people about the idea that a child can have rights of his or her own,” the Africa policy report reads.

“There remains a common misconception that parents and adults generally should have complete control over children, and that codes of discipline in which violence is used with the home are a purely private matter. While children themselves welcome the concept of rights and the special protections they imply, they are less welcomed by adults.”

Most African countries have laws in place to combat trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children, the authors note.

“However, nine African states have not yet ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational organized Crime.”

By 2012, Rwanda was among the top countries with protocols protecting children “not yet in place or planned.” Also high on the list was Cape Verde and Mozambique.

This weekend, young people around the world will take part in wide-ranging events as part of a global movement against violence called “One Billion Rising.” Initiated by the U.S. activist Eve Ensler, the movement has connected women and youth around the world every year in February.

A listing of events can be found at www.onebillionrising.org