Statistics show that each year 40 million children living in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer severe abuse, including abandonment. Abuse within the family is only one of the many kinds of violence suffered and accounts for the deaths of 80,000 children under 18. Surveys in 16 countries in the region show that a high percentage of adults consider maltreatment of children, including corporal punishment, a normal means of imposing discipline. Child protection legislation is in many instances inadequate: for example, only nine per cent of children are protected by laws banning corporal punishment in the home.
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Providing children with adequate protection and developing comprehensive legislation to prevent violence, assist victims and punish perpetrators were the central themes of the regional seminar on The Role of Parliaments in Confronting Violence against Children held in San José (Costa Rica) from 26 to 28 August 2009. Parliamentarians from 14 Latin American countries took part in the meeting, which was hosted by the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica with the support of the IPU and UNICEF.
Delegates discussed legislative frameworks, allocation and oversight of resources earmarked for protecting children and adolescents, supervisory mechanisms, appropriate measures to ensure the active participation of children and adolescents in parliamentary processes, and cooperation with counterparts. They also debated the ways and means of developing a protective framework for children, with a particular focus on parliamentary mechanisms.
During a field trip to a UNICEF-supported Child Friendly Counties programme in two of Costa Rica’s most violent cities, the parliamentarians saw firsthand how sports and recreational activities involving community police and children living in vulnerable situations who are often victims of abuse can help prevent violence.
At the close of the three-day meeting, the participants agreed on a set of priority recommendations and pledged to follow up on them on their return to their respective legislative assemblies and congresses. These recommendations include: establishing, within parliaments and society, mechanisms to supervise the functioning of institutions responsible for policies to prevent and eradicate violence against children and adolescents; ensuring the requisite investment for implementation of prevention and response policies, and supervision of the appropriate use of allocated resources; promoting cooperation among parliaments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector (including the media) at the national and regional levels so as to develop policies and programmes that boost efforts aimed at eliminating violence against children and adolescents.
