Claudia was 13 years old when she came to the capital of Paraguay from her small rural town. Just a few weeks after her arrival she was wandering the streets of downtown Asunción, a victim of sexual exploitation. Claudia had left behind a broken and poverty-stricken family, encouraged by her older sister who was already living in Asunción. But her hopes for a better life vanished quickly and, as she found herself penniless and unprotected, she took to working the streets.

Claudia's case is also a sign of hope. Seven years after coming to Asunción and after spending four in the programme, where she came to realise that a different life was possible, she is now studying to become a nurse, is integrated into society and lives with an aunt near the capital. [IPS News] 

What is child sexual abuse?
What is the challenge?
What is the opportunity?

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What is child sexual abuse?

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a grave and complex sociological, psychological and physical problem that produces devastating consequences and occurs in epidemic proportions worldwide. A 2006 UNICEF Child Protection Information Sheet entitled "Violence Against Children" stated that 20 percent of women and 5 to 10 percent of men suffered sexual abuse as children worldwide.

While considered taboo to speak of in many countries, it is sadly, not an uncommon occurrence. Children are the most vulnerable population, especially those who have been orphaned and those who live on the streets without the protection of a caring adult or family member. According to UNICEF and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in 2002, an estimated 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 were subject to forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence.

Children subjected to abuse are often afraid to report it due to shame and fear of stigmatization of themselves or their family, further enforcing an environment of impunity for the perpetrators. Abuse and sexual violence runs rampant in climates of war and displacement and women and children are frequently the targets.

What is the challenge?

Victims of child sexual abuse are made vulnerable by the following factors:

• Child soldier recruitment - In countries such as Liberia and in Northern Uganda, hundreds of thousands of children have been abducted and forced into armed groups. While both boys and girls are victims of sexual abuse, the incidence is much higher among girls, as they are subject to rape from the soldiers and are often taken as "wives." Children as young as 10 have been forced into marriage and forced into sexual slavery by the age of 14 or 15.[3]

• At the hand of aid workers and peacekeeping troops - Save the Children UK released a report in May 2008 on the exploitation and abuse of children by both aid workers and peacekeepers. While the field research for the report focused on only three countries/regions - Southern Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire and Haiti - the type of sexual abuse reported was wide, ranging from the trading of sex for food to child prostitution to sexual slavery and verbal sexual abuse, among others.
• As a weapon of war - In many countries, rape has become a tool of war, such as in Darfur and Congo where such practices are widespread. The ENOUGH Project painted a vivid picture in their March 2008 report on the sexual violence in Eastern Congo: "eastern Congo right now is perhaps the worst place in the world to be a woman or a girl. The sexual violence and rape exists on a scale seen nowhere else in the world...It's nature is both brutal and vicious; it defies both description and imagination...rape as a weapon of war is causing the near total destruction of women, their families and their communities."[4]
  
  
• Displacement camps - Rape and other forms of abuse are a common occurrence within displacement camps, as they are often overcrowded and lacking in necessary security. According to the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, "Four out of five of the world's 35 million refugees are women, children, and adolescents...women and adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to exploitation, rape and abuse."[5]
  
  
• Orphans and street children - Without two parents to provide love and protection, orphans are often exploited and subject to abuse by the police and others who see them as "sub-human." Human Rights Watch noted that the problem of police abuse is difficult to overcome because street children have no one to report police abuse to other than the police and are intimidated by the threat of reprisals. They are also arbitrarily detained and are subjected to abuse while in jail. These children have no voice and those who commit crimes against them often do so in an environment of impunity.
• Juvenile/criminal detention centers -Children are jailed with adults in criminal detention centers and suffer abuse at the hands of prison guards or other inmates.
• School - Children are subjected to abuse while trying to receive an education and on their way to and from school. Girls are particularly susceptible to sexual abuse and rape from teachers and male students and appalling abuses against orphans in particular have been documented as well. A UNICEF study found that sexual violence is a main reason that girls drop out of school in Central and West Africa.[6]
  
  
• Family - Studies have indicated that child sexual abuse (CSA) is a widespread occurrence within the family and community structures. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims. Addressing this aspect of CSA is difficult in that families and communities often resist speculation and investigation from outsiders. A lack of reporting protects family and community members who perpetrate the crimes.
  

What is the opportunity?

1. Reporting mechanisms and accountability - Oftentimes, victims do not report abuse because the authorities or authority figures are the abusers. There is a vacuum of accountability and justice due to a fear of reprisals from their attackers and/or local authorities. In the rare case where children feel safe enough to come forward with reports of abuse, the protective guardians (parents, community members) often don't know where they can go for help or how to address the injustice.

2. Legal standards and consequences - Abuse occurs at the hands of different types of offenders and, depending on age, circumstance and severity of abuse, must be dealt with through varying means ranging from intensive therapy to long-term incarceration. Perpetrators must be held accountable for acts of sexual abuse and rape, though the issue of cultural competency must be considered, as well as sensitivity towards the victims. However, society at large generally knows very little about offenders or how to manage them appropriately and adequately.

In some countries, attackers are vindicated and the crime is considered nullified as long as they marry the victim. This practice is an unacceptable and outrageous violation of human rights that should be addressed through countries' legal, judicial and relevant indigenous mechanisms. In parts of Africa, a societal misunderstanding of abuse exists and reports of abuse rarely make it to any type of authority. A rape counselor at a clinic in Sierra Leone explained that parents tend to blame the children for the abuse. "They beat them first to get an explanation of what happened, and then again as punishment." Societal norms against child sexual abuse and support for some type of justice mechanism are necessary so that perpetrators are made fully aware of the gravity of the crime and know that consequences will follow.

3. Protection for susceptible children and prioritizing prevention- Programming for support of orphans and street children are important to protect them from exploitation. Children need protection, vocational training and empowerment in order to avoid abuse. Community centers and safe houses could help with this dimension. Also, these highly vulnerable children need to have a trustworthy, effective outlet in order to report abuse and receive the help they need to cope with the trauma.

4. Protection for victims of abuse - Victims' security must be guaranteed in order to ensure that they are able to seek medical attention and justice without fear of reprisals from the perpetrator or local authorities or stigmatization from their communities.

6. International standards that hold aid workers and peacekeepers accountable - Power imbalances and an environment of impunity encourage exploitation and abuse. Peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers are often deployed to war zones, projects of post conflict reconstruction and countries that lack the capacity to enforce the rule of law. The international community must fill the void and enforce accountability.

7. Support for legislation and initiatives to codify rape and the use of sexual violence in war as an act of genocide and a crime against humanity - UN Security Council resolutions: The systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon is "one of mankind's greatest atrocities," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her 2009 visit to the DRC.


8. Support for conventions and protocols against child abuse - These include: a) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and two Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and b) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and  Children.

[1]Hon. Landon Pearson, Director, Landon Pearson Resource Center for the Study of Childhood and Children's Rights, http://www.violencestudy.org/a555, [2] Inter-Parliamentary Union, UNICEF, "Eliminating Violence Against Children", [3] Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0303/uganda0403-03.htm#P297_46925[4]ENOUGH Project,  http://www.enoughproject.org/reports/congoserious [5] Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, http://www.womenscommission.org/pdf/fctsht08new.pdf, [6] Inter-Parliamentary Union, UNICEF, "Eliminating Violence Against Children," [7] BBC News, "Hannah Kargbo, rape counsellor, Sierra Leone, ‘Parents tend to blame the children'" June 2008,  IRIN News

Last updated 1 September 2009