This report is issue No. 70 of LCHR's Economic & Social Rights series. The report aims to monitor violence against children during the first half of 2009 through the news published on the children in some of the Egyptian newspapers, and has adopted a report on the analysis of the content of news published in the press to identify crimes of violence against children, in addition to the approximate knowledge of to the extent of violence against them and the type of the perpetrators and their relationship to the children.
The total cases of violence against children was (274) cases that led to the death of (149) children, and more than half of the children who died had been subjected to violence!. The sexual abuse of children within or outside the family and school reached (48) cases, and physical assaults on children was (9) cases, domestic violence was (45) case, neglect in social and health care, education and food was (80) cases, exploitation of children has reached (7) cases, the sale of children was (6) cases, deliberate killing of children was (10) cases, abduction of children was (25) cases, road accidents and other incidents that have not been varied under any of the previous divisions was (40) case.
The first section of the report shows the most important manifestations of domestic violence, which amounted to (45) incidents of family violence to the child and led to the killing of (36) children, because of the non-compliance with the orders of a family member or to involuntary urination or constant crying or to please the second wife, or in the pretext of discipline, or suffering of mental illness or absence from home or out without permission or to escape from the school or absence from work or uncertainty in the behavior.
The second section of the report highlights sexual abuse practiced against children, which was totaling (48) cases within the family or the school or the community. (7) crimes of sexual abuse of children within the family have been detected. (6) cases of sexual abuse within the school were monitored, practiced by teachers or school employees, bringing the number of abused girls (10) female and two male approximately. As for sexual assaults on children of the community has reached (35) cases that varied between sexual harassment, attempted rape and rape and murder.
The third section of the report highlights willful killing of children, which amounted to (10) cases, and was for the most prominent of a variety of reasons motivated assault and robbery, or of the differences between the neighbors or for ransom, or to avenge a family member or because of children's toying with each other.
The fourth section of the report shows the cases of negligence in the child's social, health, education and food rights, which amounted to (80) cases, leading to the death of (34) children. As the number of cases of neglect observed in social welfare was (35) cases. It was for a variety of reasons including: lack of care by parents or officials in the State or the fall of the child from the balcony of his home, or drowning in the canals or a result of abuse of orphanages, or at the instigation of the mother to carry out heinous acts. The number of cases of neglect of children's rights in health care was (12) cases and the incidents were due to several reasons, including lack of medical care and poor medical care by doctors and nurses in the treatment and neglect and corruption by officials or by fatal injection, or a way of vaccination doses, or excessive use of contaminated syringes, or because of a diagnosis error. The negligence in the care of education amounted to (31) cases, and the incidents were due to abuse and corruption of officials, schools and the lack of care on the part of teachers and those responsible for these schools. The negligence in the care of food amounted to two cases that were due to failure to pay the subsidized milk for children and or the disappearance of the infant within the hospital or because the ingestion of a meal was corrupt. This has resulted in the exposure of children to infant disease and malnutrition and death as a result of poisoning.
The fifth section of the report highlights physical attacks on children that have reached (9) cases of attacks by some colleagues in school or from people outside the perimeter of the study because of differences, play or out of revenge, theft or discipline or physical differences. This has resulted in the injury of (10) boys and two girls.
The sixth section of the report deals with the crimes of abduction of children, which amounted to (25) cases. These crimes were committed for various reasons, such as retaliation for the kidnapping of the child's family or the demand of ransom, or the inability to bear children or for having only female children or mental illness or due to unknown reasons.
The seventh section of the report reviews the crimes of child exploitation, which is the assault on the rights of children in peaceful life, which has reached (7) cases of exploitation of street children for begging, theft or to the side of human exploitation in the practice of homosexuality or the exploitation of cheap labor.
The eighth section of the report shows the incidents of the sale of children, which has reached (6) cases that resulted in the sale of (8) children.
The ninth section of the report highlights official violence against children, which has reached (4) cases by official agencies, resulting in the request for the child's detention for a period of three years at the age of 3 years.
The tenth section of the report reviews road accidents, which claimed the lives of children, and other incidents that did not fall into any of the previous divisions, which amounted to (40) cases, leading to the death of (67) children. These children died for a variety of reasons, including: the explosion of gas cylinders or gas leak which lead to suffocation or due to the insane speed of cars, or as a result of the collapse of houses.
In conclusion, the report reviewed the most important observations and recommendations as follows:
· The need for civil society organizations to issue a report parallel to the government's third and fourth reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the period 2001 - 2008 to correct the inaccuracies and incorrect results, and to urge the Government to take steps and procedures to ensure the protection of the rights of children enshrined in international charters and conventions and ensure their rights in care integrated and growth, especially children at risk and working to stop violence against children.
· The need to punish all those who participated or helped in the sale of children or the sexual exploitation with severe penalties up to imprisonment for life to reduce the spread of this crime against our children.
· The need to develop an integrated mechanism to improve the situation of marginalized children who are at risk of delinquency including the monitoring of cases of violence to ensure their protection and contribute to the creation of practical mechanisms to intervene to stop the infringement on the rights of children.
· Enable children and their families, improve their living conditions and ensure their right to social security especially for families with low incomes or without a breadwinner, and increase the awareness of their rights and duties and how to protect themselves from any kind of violence, and urge them to report in a case of abuse or violence, with the provision of appropriate mechanisms to do so.
· Ensure the dissemination of the attacks on the rights of the child from the pages of newspapers, especially to ensure the way the formulation of child abuse and crime descriptions is correctly addressing all its aspects.
The Center calls upon all civil society institutions to work together to stop violence against children and ensure their rights to development, education and a decent life.
You can obtain a copy of the report from the Center or on our website