Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Venezuela.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in Venezuela. 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 ARTICLE *** Venezuela: The
silent cry: gross human rights violations against children Amnesty International,
Index Number: AMR 53/013/1997, Date Published: 30 September 1997 www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR53/013/1997/en [accessed 15 August
2011] CASES STUDIES
INVOLVING THE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING OF MINORS: Members of the Venezuelan security
forces conducting anti-crime operations sometimes act with complete disregard
for the right to life of children. Frequently, their attitude and actions are
characteristic of a "social cleansing" policy, in which perceived
criminal suspects, a category in which they include street children, are
singled out for elimination. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/venezuela.htm [accessed 16 January
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - UNICEF estimated that 9.9 percent of children ages 5
to 14 years in Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61745.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
-
CECODAP estimated that approximately 15 thousand children lived on the street.
Authorities in Caracas and several other jurisdictions imposed curfews on
unsupervised minors to cope with the phenomenon of street children. Because
reform institutions were filled to capacity, hundreds of children accused of
infractions, such as curfew violations, were confined in inadequate juvenile
detention centers. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] The law protects children from exploitation in the workplace. The
Ministry of Labor and the National Institute for Minors enforced child labor policies
effectively in the formal sector of the economy but less so in the informal
sector. The Foundation for Training in the Investigation of Human Resources
estimated in 2004 that there were 1.6 million children working in various
sectors of the labor market, including 206 thousand involved in prostitution,
panhandling, or drug trafficking. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights 21 May 2001 www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,CESCR,CONCOBSERVATIONS,VEN,3cc7f9e86,0.html [accessed 26 August
2011] [16] The Committee is
alarmed about the high rate of domestic violence and the extent of child
prostitution and trafficking in children, and regrets the lack of available
statistics on the number of street children. The Committee is deeply
concerned about the extent of the sex trade involving children and the
inability of the State party to address these issues. Patrick J. O'Donoghue's news and views from Venezuela Patrick J. O'Donoghue, News Editor, VHeadline
www.pr-inside.com/patrick-j-o-donoghue-s-news-and-r1009887.htm [accessed 15 August
2011] Mistakes have been
made, he recognizes, and the first attempt at dealing with the problem ended
in failure. During his address at the National Assembly, Chavez declared that
there are still street children in Venezuela but insists that they are not
abandoned and can attend half-way centers where they will monitored after
leaving by specially trained "street educators." The old Institute of
Minors (INAM) has been transformed, Chavez maintains, and around 278 children
are interned in centers receiving integral attention. The government has
introduced a scheme of substitute families to help children with problems as
the first step in an adoption program. In 2008, 100 children in difficult
circumstances were returned to their original families and 193 families have
been assessed as possible adoption families for children in institutions. Concluding
Observations of the Human Rights Committee At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 15 August
2011] 24. The Committee
deplores the continually worsening situation of street children. Those
children are at high risk of sexual violence and are vulnerable to sexual
trafficking. The State party
should take effective measures for the protection and rehabilitation of
street children, pursuant to article 24 of the Covenant, including measures
to end sexual exploitation and child pornography. Music saved the
street children of Ben Hoyle, Arts
Reporter, The Times, August 13, 2007 www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2246441.ece [accessed 15 August
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/p956/ [accessed 15 January
2017] In the violent
slums of Venezuela, free classical music lessons have transformed the lives
of hundreds of thousands of children and created an unlikely production line
of virtuosos. For 32 years El Sistema
(the System) has tackled the “spiritual poverty” among some of South
America’s poorest street children by teaching them to play Bach, Beethoven
and Mahler in orchestras. Now El
Sistema is coming to Chavez Frias
defends his record in protecting street children and excluded sectors Patrick J. O'Donoghue, News Editor, VHeadline
[accessed 15 January
2017] The mission aims to
provide integral attention and protection to children and adolescents living
on the streets, old people abandoned and living in extreme poverty and
pregnant teenagers. The program also
seeks to help persons with physical disabilities, tramps, and all those who
are living conditions of social exclude exclusion. The President is committed to getting rid
of misery in all communities. View
From reasonovermight.blogspot.com/2004/12/view-from-venezuela.html [accessed 15 August
2011] Our own
institutions dealing with children (INAM) report more than Reports to Treaty
Bodies - Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights UN Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, April/May 2001 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 15 August
2011] The Committee also
expressed concern about the following: … the extent of child prostitution and
of trafficking in children, the lack of available statistics on the number of
street children, the extent of the sex trade involving children and the
government's inability to address these issues; the alarmingly high level of
poverty, especially among the indigenous peoples; the failure to integrate
economic, social and cultural rights into the government's anti-poverty
program. President Hugo
Chavez Of Steve Ellner, ZMagazine At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 15 August
2011] The First Lady, Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez, who has played an active
role on behalf of children rights in general, and street children in
particular, was elected to the Constituent Assembly with the second largest
vote in 2000. She proposed the creation of an institution called The Defender
of the Rights of Children that would encourage children to come forward and
denounce abuses. Education Chevron Corporation www.chevron.com/globalissues/economiccommunitydevelopment/education/ [accessed 15 August
2011] Communities prosper
when people have the ability to help themselves and are supported by an
environment that enables them to pursue their ambitions. Education and
training are central to building this capacity and sustaining long-term
economic development. We focus our investments on school- and work-based
career and technical programs. We sponsor reading, science and math classes.
And we help train educators. Street
Children Used As Political
Tool In War On Government Patrick J. O'Donoghue, News Editor, VHeadline
adam.antville.org/stories/395803/ [accessed 15 August
2011] President Hugo
Chavez Frias is said to be annoyed by the success of the Cisneros
Organization's telethon for street children last weekend, which netted $4.37
million in two days. According to the
organizers, the funds will be used to construct a site that will harbor 600
children in need. The Process and the
'Strike' - Justin Podur interviews Diana Valentine Diana Valentine, ZNet, January 19, 2003 www.zcommunications.org/the-process-and-the-strike-by-diana-valentine [accessed 15 August
2011] podur.org/node/973 [accessed 15 January
2017] THE OPPOSITION SHOWS ADS SAYING THAT CHAVEZ HASN'T SOLVED THE PROBLEM
OF STREET-CHILDREN. WHAT DO THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS SAY ABOUT THIS? - UNICEF estimates
there are 7,000 street children here, but the community organizations think it's closer to double that. I met with two women who
have been doing community work in the barrios for over 20 years with street
children. They don't blame Chavez for it and they don't think Chavez
made any false promises. They quoted him as saying that the plan was to
'dignify the street children', and they use that to guide them in their work. 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 - |
