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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

In the first decade of the 21st Century                                                                                                             gvnet.com/streetchildren/NetherlandsAntilles.htm

The Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was dissolved on 10 October 2010.

Tourism, petroleum refining, and offshore finance are the mainstays of this small economy, which is closely tied to the outside world. Although GDP has declined or grown slightly in each of the past eight years, the islands enjoy a high per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure compared with other countries in the region.

Poor soils and inadequate water supplies hamper the development of agriculture. Budgetary problems hamper reform of the health and pension systems of an aging population. The Netherlands provides financial aid to support the economy.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

NetherlandAntilles

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in The Netherland Antilles.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

 

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some manage to leave the street.  Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other.  Would you like to write about market children? homeless children?  Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc.  There is a lot to the subject of Street Children.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

*** ARCHIVES ***

Runaways - Where To Turn For Help - 918

Here is the best phone number to call … It doesn't matter what time you call.  The child helpline number for the Netherlands Antilles is 918.  The switchboard is manned 24 hours a day.

Committee on Rights of Child Examines Report of the Netherlands, Including Netherlands Antilles and Aruba [PDF]

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 15 January 2009

www.kinderrechten.nl/images/16/261.pdf

[accessed 26 June 2011]

kinderrechten.nl/assets/2016/11/261.pdf

[accessed 25 December 2016]

Even in these historic moments of constitutional reform, on explicit instructions from the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles, the Government had declared youth policy as the highest priority, Ms. Leeflang underscored. That priority was embodied in the "Delta plan for education and youth" with the ambition to reach and keep track of all children and youngsters and intervene where needed, in order to prevent them from dropping out of school.

A major achievement of that plan was the amendment of the National Ordinance on Compulsory Education, for children 4 to 18 years, Ms. Leeflang observed. Special attention had also been given to enforce compulsory education in a multidisciplinary way. For youngsters who had already dropped out or threatened to drop out, a compulsory Youth Training had been developed in which training was given up to the age of 24 years.

Another achievement was that by 2008 all legislation regarding primary, secondary and vocational education had been revised. The new legislation included, for example, the obligation of schools to report child abuse and the right of parents to choose the instruction language of their child. Other examples of achievements made by the Netherlands Antilles were efforts in the recognition and funding of psychological treatment for children and a law adopted in October 2008 aimed at protecting each child against child pornography (including virtual images), prostitution and sexual abuse, as well as a prohibition against the sale or provision of alcohol to children, Ms. Leeflang concluded.

Barometer of Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector [PDF]

www.ei-ie.org/statusofteachers/file/%282004%29%20EI%20Barometer%20on%20Trade

            %20Union%20and%20Human%20Rights%20en.pdf

[Last access date unavailable]

[page 90]  CURAÇAO

CHILD LABOUR - Curaçao is party to international conventions regarding child labour. The minimum age for employment is 15 years, and minors between the ages of 15-18 years may only work with parental consent. The law is not well administered and some minors engage in hazardous occupations. Drug trafficking by children as young as four years has been reported. There are counselling and preventative services combating the problem. There is no specific law addressing child pornography or child prostitution, although (undefined) the ‘sexual abuse’ of children is a punishable offence. htcp

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, Prof. Martin, "Street Children – Netherlands Antilles", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/NetherlandsAntilles.htm, [accessed <date>]