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POLITICA >> Children | ||||
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Empowering the children.Last week, another child was killed by an Israeli soldier in confrontations between stone-throwing youths and heavily armed military forces. We often remember our childhoods as an age of innocence and bliss. However, the stone-throwing children of Palestine, the street children of Bogotá might disagree, as might the child soldiers of Sierra Leone whom UNICEF is trying to get back to school and away from the guns. If they were alive, the 500,000 Iraqi children who died because of international sanctions (1) would also disagree. In Palestine, for example, they are caught between the fire of Israeli soldiers and the irresponsibility of their parents who allow them onto the streets, knowing full well that some Israeli military units will not think twice about shooting children. In African countries devastated by AIDS, often because of the outrageous price of life-saving drugs manufactured in Europe and America, orphaned children as young as seven are forced to work and support their younger brothers and sisters. It is estimated by UNICEF (1) that 13 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Even worse, some of these children are even born with the virus, condemned to a short and miserable life. Thus, 800,000 infants are infected by HIV at birth, and 50% of new infections occur in young people, and the role of the Catholic Church in Africa is a particularly counterproductive one in this case. Indeed, by proscribing the use of condoms, the church is contributing to the increase in new infections. In this case, education, not prayers, are the true means of salvation. Education is vital not only for disease prevention, but also to give children a better start in life. Yet this right to education, enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the child (whom only the US and Somalia have not as yet ratified), is ignored all too often. For example, UNICEF estimates that over 100 million children of primary school age are not being educated. Moreover, fundamentalists such as the GIA in Algeria and formerly the Taleban in Afghanistan were denying girls any access to education, thus destroying any hope of emancipation for women. Also in Afghanistan, but also in many other parts of the world, children are victims of the drug trade, such as in Pakistan, where in 2000 there were 200,000 child heroin addicts, with 80,000 in Karachi (2). These children are victims of a drugs trade initially financed by the CIA and Pakistan's ISI (secret services) to undermine the morale of Soviet troops during the Afghan war. Hence, they are victims of events that took place before they were even born. Such events also include wars, such as in the Sudan and Sierra Leone, where children are enrolled as soldiers in refugee camps, both by the governments and rebels. One Sudanese youth who was fortunate to escape the country appeared in February at the UN in Geneva to bring the story of his plight and that of his compatriots to the world. He was the guest of Mary Robinson, the outspoken human rights commissioner, who was organising a campaign against the incorporation of child soldiers into armed conflict. This campaign also helped to remind us that in many western countries, children of 17 are eligible to enrol in the army. He was among the lucky ones, as over 300,000 children worldwide remain exploited as soldiers in armed conflicts (1). I could go on for pages and pages, moving on to child workers in India, China and elsewhere, who produce goods often commercialised by Western companies, I could mention the countless victims of paedophilia in all its forms, but I think the picture is clear enough. Yet despite bearing the consequences of the decisions of adults, children have no power over the political and military events that determine their lives. We would do well to listen to them more often, because the world we are creating now is the one our children will inherit. 1-
UNICEF. 2002. www.unicef.org. |
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