26
Abuse of children in Egypt…half the present and all the future
Land Centre for Human Rights (LCHR) is issuing volume no. 26 of economical and social series about “children abuse in Egypt half, the present and all the future”.
This report is issued as a response to the international care for the phenomenon. Sexual abuse of children is now considered as an important phenomenon after all the international conferences held about it. The last conference was the conference for children protection from sexual abuse, held in winter of 2001 in Japan.
The wide spread of that phenomenon either on local or regional levels, reflects the importance of putting it in the spot. LCHR works hard to issue that report in social and economic circumstances that pushes hundreds of families to force their children to work in inhuman conditions, and legal mechanisms alone are not enough to stop the problem.
Countries that ignored the problem in the past are now facing a crisis because of all those children living in streets. Those are causing a crisis of actions of sabotage, murder crimes, and sometimes wasting many abilities. Those countries were formerly living in a social peace atmosphere.
If we take a look at children abuse in sex trade is prevailing in the whole world. UNICEF report mentions that the nature of sexual abuse of children as a secret trade obstacles collection of information about that trade that circulates billions of dollars. Active non-government organisations’ estimation of girls seduced or forced to work in that kind of slavery reaches one million girls at least in the world. Boys are also abused in that work in many cases. As for Egypt, many cultural and religious values prevent this phenomenon from spreading as it is in other countries, especially Africa and East Asia. Anyway we should all take care of these values and protect them from outer cultural invasion.
The report studies the problem of sexual abuse of children, which includes sexual violation of children which is the result of unemployment caused by economical liberalisation policies, and early marriage which is the result of poverty. There is also sexual violation of children working as home servants
Random samples were chosen for field studies. This study is prepared for as an exploring one. LCHR hopes to run a wider field study to find out the real size of the phenomenon and the real number of violations.
The report finally puts some recommendations: -
1. To prevent marriage of children and punishing the parents and every participant in this crime.
2. To Issue laws that Protect children working as house servants, and adding protective paragraphs to the unified labour law in order to set their right to wages, vacations, and insurance.
3. To Build places for street children, that gives them shelter and proper care.
4. To put poor families in social programs sponsored by the state, and supporting them with the basic needs of life.
5. To activate laws of supervising and inspecting work places, and improving work atmosphere for the employees.
6. To establish governmental units for health and psychological care for the rehabilitation of sexually abused children in order to give them the opportunity to lead a normal stable life.
7. To manage a campaign under the sponsorship of those who are interested, to raise the awareness of the problem and the ways of facing it.
LCHR is presenting that file to the officials in our country, knowing that studies alone are not to solve the problem. But we hope that it would help other organisations in solving children’s problems, for they are half the present and all the future.