Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/PapuaNewGuinea.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Papua New Guinea. 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. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** The long road toward
juvenile justice in Papua New Guinea United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF, WEWAK www.unicef.org/infobycountry/papuang_30356.html [accessed 3 July
2011] During his arrest
for shoplifting Michael was shot in the leg by a police officer. “On the way
to the police station, while I lay wounded from the gunshot, they beat me
with their weapons and with broken bottles,” says Michael, who points to a
scar on his face, near his eye. “They cut me here. I thought they were going
to kill me.” He was held in
detention for three months and never received any medical attention. “The
other boys held in the cells helped me,” he says. “I was bleeding a lot. They
cleaned my wounds. Then two strong boys held me down. They used a knife and
fork to take out the bullet from my leg while I screamed.” Making Their Own
Rules - Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Human Rights
Watch, September 2005 -- Vol. 17, No.
8 (C) At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 3 July
2011] [accessed 27
December 2016] [p.6] SUMMARY - According to victims and eyewitnesses, police typically beat individuals at the moment of arrest, during the time they are transported to the station, and often at the station itself. Beatings are so routine that police make little or no attempt to hide them, beating children in front of the general public and international observers. A man who said police beat him and forced him to fight naked with other detainees in a police station when he was sixteen or seventeen years old noted: “We thought it was their job and we just had to accept it.” Although police violence is endemic and adults described similar experiences, children’s particular vulnerability and the assumption that boys and young men are “raskols”—members of criminal gangs—make children especially easy targets. [p.47] POLICE ABUSE OF
ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE PERSONS - Although anyone arrested is at risk of violence,
police appear to target those who are the least powerful and most
stigmatized, including sex workers, boys and men who engage in homosexual
conduct, and street vendors. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2005 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF] www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2005/tda2005.pdf [accessed 15
December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Education is not compulsory or free in CHILD LABOR LAWS AND
ENFORCEMENT
- Any work by children between the ages of 11 and 16 must not interfere with
school attendance. Children perceived
as gang members, street vendors, child sex workers and boys engaged in
homosexual conduct are subjected to police violence. Human
Rights Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78787.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] Work by children between the ages of 11 and 16 must not interfere with
school attendance. Priest wants more
care given to needy children www.thenational.com.pg/041708/nation40.htm [Last access date
unavailable] A Catholic priest
in Lae has called for more attention and care to be
given to orphans and street kids. Fr
Arnold Smith said many of these children do not know where to seek help and
was most vulnerable to all forms of ills in society today. “The number of
children out there on the streets is increasing, and it is now time to do
something,” Fr Arnold said. Many of
these children can be seen collecting empty bottles or doing other odd jobs
to earn a living. They end up sleeping in front of shops or on the
pavements. Past and recent surveys
have shown that many of these children were either from poor families or have
been abandoned by parents who had either moved away or have died from
AIDS. Speaking on behalf of We Care,
the foundation for Women and Children at Risk, Fr John Glynn pointed out that
children were “always hungry for affection” because they had been denied
family support. Slavos set up street kids
project Bonnie Abola www.thenational.com.pg/010908/Nation%2026.htm [accessed 3 July
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/slavos-set-up-street-kids-project/ [accessed 27
December 2016] The escalating
number of street children under the age of 15 in Lae
means there will be more children not attending school when the academic year
begins at the end of the month. Major
Sere Kala of Salvation Army of North Coastal Division headquarters said there
was a growing number of street children from the
settlements outside the city begging for a living in the city’s main business
areas. He said in the last three
years, the Salvation Army in Lae had been
rehabilitating the unfortunate youths, but this year there would be an
inclusion of children from 8-15 years in their Street Level Ministry. Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All - UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=3377 [accessed 3 July
2011] The population is
very young, with 50 per cent under the age of 18. The major factors
contributing to the increase in street children are domestic violence, family
breakdown, parental unemployment, urban migration, political and economic
instability of the government, and peer influences. Moreover, natural
disasters causing large losses of lives, displacement of families, and the
destruction of crops and property, has also led to an increase in the number
of children living and working on the streets in Papua New Guinea. A major challenge
in Papua New Guinea is that there are no government policies directly
addressing the situation of street children. Other major challenges include
the lack of government support, lack of resources, and a lack of effective coordination
and support between NGOs and government agencies. Consortium for
Street Children - Consortium for
Street Children cfsc.trunky.net/content.asp?pageID=29®ionID=3&countryID=26 [accessed 3 July
2011] Street children in Information about
Street Children – Papua New Guinea [DOC] This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for East and South East Asia on Promoting and Protecting
the Rights of Street Children”, 12-14 March 2003 – Bangkok, Thailand At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 3 July
2011] CONSTRAINTS AND
CHALLENGES
- Street children are a recently emerging phenomenon. There are no government
policies that directly address the situ Police Violence,
Including Rape and Sexual Assault Human
Rights Watch Report: Violence Against
Girls in Conflict with the Law www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/20/global15345.htm#1 [accessed
3 July 2011] The cops came and got
the girls one by one. There were five guys. There were five girls so they
each had one for themselves. One came to me. I was crying and said, “You guys
hit me already.” . . . The same guy who hit me wanted to take me out. I said,
“You have already belted me around so how can I go?” He booted me on the ass
and slapped me. He pushed me. I had a lump on my back and bruises on my bum. After that, they
took the other four out. They did whatever they wanted to do with them. . .
There was moonlight. It was on the dirt. It was right in front of me. I could
see through the window. It was forcible. The others
had injuries from where they were belted—they had bruises on their bums and
where they were forced to have sex. 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 – |
