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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early
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situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Honduran Government Complicit In The Murder
Of Street Children Shravanti Reddy, Digital
Freedom Network, December 17, 2002 www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/msg00138.html [accessed 23 May 2011] As their moniker
suggests, street children have few options but to live or work on the streets
for survival. They are among the most impoverished and marginalized within
society. Murdering street children in
Honduras is considered part of an unofficial "social cleansing"
program. Viewed as
"vermin" by security forces and business leaders, the national
media has also played a role in branding street children as
"troublemakers," blaming them for everything from violent crime to
driving away foreign investment and tourism. The consequence has been
that these deaths have caused little reaction among the public who consider
street children as undesirable, despite the fact that the portrait of them
painted by the media and government is inaccurate. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
– www.unicef.org/infobycountry/honduras.html [accessed 23 May 2011] Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61732.htm [accessed 8 February 2011] ARBITRARY OR
UNLAWFUL DEPRIVATION OF LIFE - The media reported that based on
information from government sources, vigilante activities allegedly led to
more than 970 killings in the last 7 years of known and suspected criminals,
as well as gang members, street
children, and youth not known to be involved in criminal activity (see
section 5). Approximately 80 persons have been arrested over the past 7 years
in connection with such killings, with 9 of those convicted by year's end. CHILDREN
- The
government was unable to improve the living conditions or reduce the numbers
of street children and youth.
The government and children's rights organizations estimated that during the
year there were 20 thousand street
children, half of whom had shelter. Many street children were sexually
molested or exploited. The Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
4 June 1999 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/honduras1999.html [accessed 28 February 2011] [33] The Committee
also expresses its concern about the situation of children who, because of
serious situations of extreme poverty as well as of situations of abandonment
or violence within the family, are forced to live in and/or work on the
streets and are therefore vulnerable to different forms of exploitation and
abuse, including sale, trafficking and abduction. The rising number of youth
gangs (known in Long helps needy children in Honduras Liza Matia, The
Progress, February 21, 2009 www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=16446 [accessed 23 May 2011] Despite that, the
country is seething with street children turned out by parents who could not
afford, or didn't want, to take care of them. The majority are uneducated,
dirty and addicted to huffing glue.
"It's cheaper than food," Ms. Long said, "and it takes
away their hunger." "Most
came from abusive homes," she recalled. "Their families just didn't
want them. They're such amazing kids; they're all really bright. It'd be sad
to think your mom didn't care about you." Hondurans see the street kids as a
nuisance, Ms. Long said, and many become desensitized to them after seeing
them day after day. Those who do want to help can't because they lack the
capacity to handle the kids' drug addictions. Narconon Trains Foreign
Addiction Counselor TransWorldNews, 12/21/2007 www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=31126&cat=10 [accessed 23 May 2011] The orphanage in Catch a falling star W. E. www.marrder.com/htw/jul97/editorial.htm [accessed 23 May 2011] [scroll down to Monday, July
14, 1997 Online Edition 62] CHEMISTRY OF PROMISCUITY - According to Casa
del Niño, there are about 50 homeless children in La
Ceiba, an overly conservative estimate by their own
accounting. "We've really no way of knowing. Most are between 10 and 16.
Most are boys. Illiteracy, irresponsible paternity are
all at work. Some families have not a gram of conscience when it comes to
procreation. Use of Resistol among them is
universal. It's sold freely in the Centro Commercial. Pimps and sex tourists
often pay the children with cans of the deadly shoe glue. It's a case of
turpitude further debased by criminal indifference...." – sccp Commentary by Willy
E. Gutman www.the-signal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=48327&format=html [Last access date unavailable] An estimated 100
million children now live and often die on city streets around the world -
about one tenth in The price they pay
is incalculable. By far the most horrendous fate these children must endure
is the violence that permeates their existence. They live in constant fear.
Because most turn to petty crime to survive, and often use inhalants to
soften the harsh reality of their hostile environment, they are viewed as "vermin."
This perception, ignored - or bolstered - by indifferent or openly
belligerent governments, has helped unleash a tide of violence against the
world's fastest growing minority, its most vulnerable denizens: street
children. Violence against
street children - always condoned, often decreed - has returned to Guatemala
and Honduras with a vengeance.
Reports of torture, unquestionably the worst human rights violation, and the
deprivation of life by extrajudicial execution - its most extreme form - are
now being filed with alarming regularity. Street
children in Honduras The Friends of El Hogar www.foeh.org.uk/street_children_in_honduras.php [accessed 23 May 2011] In Solvent
Abuse, Certain Death for Street Children Thelma Mejia, Inter Press Service News
Agency IPS, pangaea.org/street_children/latin/hondsolv.htm [accessed 23 May 2011] Market
Children vs Street Children Chrystelle Zweidler,
Jeremy Hall, and Michael Lewis, Students at www.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids02/hond1.html [accessed 23 May 2011] Because of the
great poverty of At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 23 May 2011] The job that Oscar
and Amy have taken on is enormous when you consider the sheer number of
children that live on the streets of the major cities of Most street
children are boys and leave their homes around the age of 12. Market
children are in general younger and the gender distribution is more
equal. Overall, street children face more and more severe risks than do
market children. They suffer from physical violence and arrests.
The number involved in prostitution is increasing and is estimated that up to
90% of the street children sniff glue. Illiteracy is widespread and
only around 8% of the street children of Honduras attend school. The
lack of education among street and market children prevents them from earning
a steady income in the future and hence they are trapped in a vicious circle
of poverty. Child
Exploitation.org – Child Exploitation.org At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 23 May 2011] STREET KIDS’ LOCKED
UP -
Street
children in Getting Free of
Gangs in Maryknoll Fathers and
Brothers At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 23 May 2011] To shake up the
gang mentality he has set up a fútbol (soccer)
league which has blossomed into 11 teams five boys'
teams, four girls' teams and two mara units. "My
short-term goal is to stop them from shooting each other. When I arrived in Chamelecón I literally was burying a kid a week. Caminando por la paz is an integrated,
educational training program that helps street kids turn their lives around.
For five years Father Tom has used the program to build homes, provide
schooling and job training, and help the people take back their streets from
criminal gangs. "When I first arrived here," says Father Tom,
"the pressure was to be in the gang. It was the 'in thing'. Now, it's
the 'in thing' to be in school. We've had a whole change in street
culture." Honduran Government Complicit In The Murder
Of Street Children Shravanti Reddy, Digital
Freedom Network, December 17, 2002 www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/msg00138.html [accessed 23 May 2011] As their moniker
suggests, street children have few options but to live or work on the streets
for survival. They are among the most impoverished and marginalized within
society. Murdering street children in
Honduras is considered part of an unofficial "social cleansing"
program. Viewed as
"vermin" by security forces and business leaders, the national
media has also played a role in branding street children as
"troublemakers," blaming them for everything from violent crime to
driving away foreign investment and tourism. The consequence has been
that these deaths have caused little reaction among the public who consider
street children as undesirable, despite the fact that the portrait of them
painted by the media and government is inaccurate. Prensa Latina, Feb 7, 2006 www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=780&pst=266283 [accessed 23 May 2011] The non governmental organization Casa Alianza
calculates in 10,000 the street children in Death Freddy Cuevas, The Associated Press AP, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 23 May 2011] Casa Alianza has reported that 843 children were killed
between January 1998 and June 2001. It attributed 7 percent of those slayings
to police, 1 percent to security agents, 19 percent to individuals and 13
percent to juvenile gangs. The cause of others was uncertain. New
Report Calls For Action On Killings Of Street Children Amnesty International, 25 February 2003 www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=14365 [accessed 23 May 2011] Most of the victims
come from the most marginalised sectors of society,
among them the so-called "street children" and gang members. The
perpetrators are, in most cases, unidentified persons, although testimonies
from survivors and witnesses indicate that they could be police officers or
civilians acting with the implicit consent of the authorities. Report on the Torture of Street Children in
Casa Alianza -
Covenant House www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=1174&flag=report [accessed 23 May 2011] [report content not
found] All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
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