Human Trafficking in [Brazil] [other countries]Street Children in [Brazil Child Prostitution in [Brazil] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Brazil.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Welcome to Brazil, a Paradise of Impunity for All Kinds of
Criminals Augusto Zimmermann, L.L.B., L.L.M., Ph.D.
teaches constitutional law at This paper was presented at the Criminal Law Workshop held
by the John Fleming Centre for Advancement of Legal Research at the
Australian National University College of Law, 7-9 February 2008 www.brazzil.com/articles/188-february-2008/10042.html [accessed 24 January 2011] VIOLENCE
AGAINST CHILDREN - "Nowhere does the gap separating rhetoric and reality
emerge more starkly than in the contrast between the guarantees afforded
children by the 1988 Constitution and the cold-blooded assassination of boys and
girls who live on city streets. If there is anything that most vividly
symbolizes the perversity of the contemporary wave of violence in Brazil, it
is the way it has victimized children." There are now seven million
abandoned children living on the streets of Brazilian cities. Crimes against
these children are characterized by extreme brutality and include torture and
dismemberment. Often their bodies are left out on the streets "to serve
as example for others." Those who manage to survive
another day are left worrying about where their next meal will come from and
finding a safe place to sleep. A social worker has suggested that these
children are subject to a process of "natural selection," in which
only the strong survive to adulthood and the weak die early from disease and
violence. Street children, utterly deprived
of their most basic needs, often become victims of death squads or other
forms of violence born of their precarious situation. Since they often resort
to theft to survive, some people have paid death squads to "clean up the
streets" and get rid of such an "inconvenience." Unfortunately, many Brazilians
believe that the extra-legal killing of street children is a legitimate
measure to combat criminality and violence, because they feel revolted with
the unrealistic legal "solutions" provided by the state. T-shirt message suitable for framing Craig and Marc Kielburger,
Global Voices, The www.thestar.com/News/article/163468 [accessed 8 April 2011] After a few minutes of
conversation, he brought me to the bus shelter he and several other street
children called home. They were very anxious that others might discover their
hideout. They said the police might beat them, or worse. At night, they
covered themselves with cardboard and newspapers to stay warm. The children told me stories of
how they had ended up on the streets. Some had been sent away when their
families' food supplies ran out. Others had fled homes where they were
physically or sexually abused. Each one had a unique, heart-wrenching story. Most of these children had only a
pair of shorts and a T-shirt. They were penniless and malnourished. All were
barefoot. Most didn't even know their own ages, but several must have been as
young as 8. Violence and hunger were an everyday part of their lives. Candelária massacre Wikipedia, 10 February 2011 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candel%C3%A1ria_massacre [accessed 8 April 2011] THE MASSACRE - According to survivors, the
morning of the day before the massacre, a young group of children threw
stones at police cars. Some of policemen allegedly told them, "don't
worry, we will get you soon!" As children from the Candelária
church were usually given warnings such as these by policemen, the young
perpetrators left without worrying too much about the threat. At midnight, a few cars came to a
halt in front of the Candelária church. Next, gunfire
shots were heard. The children tried to cover up, but eight of them were shot
to death, with several others wounded. One of the children present that
night, Sandro Rosa do Nascimento,
would later commit one of Brazil's most infamous crimes. The international community
severely condemned the attack, and many in Brazil asked for the prosecution
of those who shot the Candelária church children. ***
ARCHIVES *** A Video Playlist
for www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5867507C9D603AF0 [accessed 8 April 2011] There
are an increasing number of street children videos now available that
constitute a supplementary source of information for researchers, especially
for those who may not have experienced the reality of street children. [Playlist developed by Brian
Horne of almudo.com & streetkidnews.blogsome.com] UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil.html [accessed 8 April 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/brazil.htm [accessed 24 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, common activities for children include shining
shoes, street peddling, begging, and working in restaurants, construction,
and transportation. Many children and
adolescents are employed as domestic servants, and others work as trash
pickers, drug traffickers, and prostitutes.
In 2001, 11.9 percent of working children ages 5 to 15 years were not
attending school. Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61718.htm [accessed 24 January 2011] ARBITRARY
AND UNLAWFUL DEPRIVATION OF LIFE - Death squads with links to law enforcement officials
carried out many killings, in some cases with police participation. The
National Human Rights Secretary stated that death squads operated in 15
states. Credible, locally-based human rights groups reported the existence of
organized death squads linked to police forces that targeted suspected
criminals and persons considered "undesirable"--such as street children--in almost all states
and the CHILDREN – A July study by the Institute
of Applied Economic Policy (IPEA) reported that more than 100 thousand children
and adolescents were living in public shelters. The leading causes for
displaced children were: poverty (24 percent), abandonment (19 percent),
domestic violence (12 percent), and drug abuse by parents or guardians (11
percent). The IPEA report also revealed that in more than half of the cases,
children were living in shelters due to the parent's belief that the child
would receive better care there than at home. In September the NGO Travessia reported that approximately 350 children lived
on The city of Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) - 2004 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1 October 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/brazil2004.html [accessed 24 January 2011] [64] The Committee expresses its
grave concern at the significant number of street children and the
vulnerability of these children to extrajudicial killings, various forms of
violence, including torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, and at the lack
of a systematic and comprehensive strategy to address the situation and
protect these children, and the very poor registration of missing children by
the police. Remember the child victims of sex tourism Sarah de Carvalho
et al, Sept. 27, 2010, The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/27/remember-child-victims-sex-tourism [accessed 8 April 2011] In Life on the street for these
children is grim and often punctuated by violence, drug addiction and sexual
abuse. Many girls fall pregnant by the age of 12. The statistics are
heart-wrenching – UNICEF estimates that there are as many as 250,000 child
prostitutes in PRWEB, Sept. 26, 2010 www.prweb.com/releases/damon-j-smith-motivation/rescued-to-tell/prweb4502244.htm [accessed 8 April 2011] Life on the streets of By the time Welcome to Augusto Zimmermann, L.L.B., L.L.M., Ph.D.
teaches constitutional law at This paper was presented at the Criminal Law Workshop held
by the John Fleming Centre for Advancement of Legal Research at the
Australian National University College of Law, 7-9 February 2008 www.brazzil.com/articles/188-february-2008/10042.html [accessed 24 January 2011] VIOLENCE
AGAINST CHILDREN - "Nowhere does the gap separating rhetoric and reality
emerge more starkly than in the contrast between the guarantees afforded
children by the 1988 Constitution and the cold-blooded assassination of boys
and girls who live on city streets. If there is anything that most vividly
symbolizes the perversity of the contemporary wave of violence in Brazil, it
is the way it has victimized children." There are now seven million
abandoned children living on the streets of Brazilian cities. Crimes against
these children are characterized by extreme brutality and include torture and
dismemberment. Often their bodies are left out on the streets "to serve
as example for others." Those who manage to survive
another day are left worrying about where their next meal will come from and
finding a safe place to sleep. A social worker has suggested that these
children are subject to a process of "natural selection," in which
only the strong survive to adulthood and the weak die early from disease and
violence. Street children, utterly deprived
of their most basic needs, often become victims of death squads or other
forms of violence born of their precarious situation. Since they often resort
to theft to survive, some people have paid death squads to "clean up the
streets" and get rid of such an "inconvenience." Unfortunately, many Brazilians
believe that the extra-legal killing of street children is a legitimate
measure to combat criminality and violence, because they feel revolted with
the unrealistic legal "solutions" provided by the state. Street Children Human Rights Watch At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] While street children receive national and international public attention, that attention has been focused largely on the social, economic and health problems of the children -- poverty, lack of education, AIDS, prostitution, and substance abuse. With the exception of the massive killings of street children in Brazil and Colombia, often by police, which Human Rights Watch reported in 1994, very little attention has been paid to the constant police violence and abuse from which many children suffer. This often neglected side of street children's lives has been a focus of Human Rights Watch's research and action In several countries where we have worked, notably Brazil, Bulgaria, and Sudan, the racial, ethnic, or religious identification of street children plays a significant role in their treatment. The disturbing notion of "social-cleansing" is applied to street children even when they are not distinguished as members of a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group. Branded as "anti-social," or demonstrating "anti-social behavior," street children are viewed with suspicion and fear by many who would simply like to see street children disappear. Brutal end for woman who devoted life to helping children
from Tom Phillips in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/01/brazil.international [accessed 8 April 2011] Appalled by reports of death
squads exterminating street children in the beachside city, she set her
sights on the favelas of Global peace a growing priority among diverse Christian
groups Hannah Elliott, Associated Baptist Press ABP, Dallas,
January 23, 2007 www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1749&Itemid=116 [accessed 8 April 2011] According to NBC Nightly News to feature American Baptist ministry Hannah Elliott, Associated Baptist Press ABP, Valley Forge
www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1697&Itemid=118 [accessed 8 April 2011] “The situation with street kids in Many of the children suffer from
poor health and malnutrition. Because of rape and forced child prostitution,
they are often exposed to HIV/AIDS. According to the Brazilian Center for
Children and Adolescents, Brazil has more than 800,000 child prostitutes.
Drugs also run rampant among the children, who sniff glue to escape reality. The problem with street children
became so bad in the late 1980s that Brazil had “large-scale, deliberate,
systematic killing of street children by death squads who enjoyed a high
degree of impunity for their actions,” according to the Hope Unlimited
website. “Street execution" was once listed by Amnesty International as
the third leading cause of death for Brazilian children. T-shirt message suitable for framing Craig and Marc Kielburger,
Global Voices, The www.thestar.com/News/article/163468 [accessed 8 April 2011] After a few minutes of
conversation, he brought me to the bus shelter he and several other street children
called home. They were very anxious that others might discover their hideout.
They said the police might beat them, or worse. At night, they covered
themselves with cardboard and newspapers to stay warm. The children told me stories of
how they had ended up on the streets. Some had been sent away when their
families' food supplies ran out. Others had fled homes where they were
physically or sexually abused. Each one had a unique, heart-wrenching story. Most of these children had only a
pair of shorts and a T-shirt. They were penniless and malnourished. All were
barefoot. Most didn't even know their own ages, but several must have been as
young as 8. Violence and hunger were an everyday part of their lives. Brazilian activist says more money needed to help street
children November 29, 2006 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] Yvonne Bezerra
de Mello was changed by witnessing the police massacre of eight street
children in 1993. That’s when she started alternative schools to help educate
children who have been traumatized by life under control of drug lords that
rule Rio. 'Zero Tolerance' comes to Suzy Khimm, Contributor to The
Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p04s01-woam.html [accessed 8 April 2011] His stepmother beat him, so Aluizio Pereira fled for the streets. Three years later, the scrawny 13-year-old
still sleeps on the sidewalk along Ipanema Beach,
begging for handouts in the shadows of the luxury hotels that dominate the
upscale neighborhood. But to some, Aluizio
is more than just a reminder of a grim social reality. In this divided city,
he represents a threat to public security and - thanks to former "Street Children" In T.H.O.M.A.S. (Those on the Margins of a Society), EDGES
Magazine Issue 27, November 2001 www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~edges/online/issue27/p20.htm [accessed 8 April 2011] [page 189] The largest category consists of children living in absolute poverty. These children grow up in an extremely underprivileged social environment. They lack the most elemental means to meet basic needs and usually receive hardly any or no parental care, because their mothers (who are often the only parent) are forced to seek some means of subsistence. In the absence of day-care facilities, the children, even toddlers, are left on their own. This exposes them to a high risk of starting an early “career” on the street. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.RU
Lisbon, 25.04.2001 english.pravda.ru/news/russia/25-04-2001/40995-0/ [accessed 8 April 2011] Abused, confused, lonely and
abandoned, children take to the streets to find a safe refuge from abuse by
parents or stepparents. In a life without hope from the moment they are born,
they soon find that they have nowhere to go, no one to turn to and no life to
live. Cover Story From Sept 95 Chuck Pfister, Cover Story,
September 1995 [accessed 8 April 2011] An estimated 8-10 million children
make their living on the streets in Real Dungeons Human Rights Watch, December 6, 2004 www.hrw.org/en/node/11883/section/4 [accessed 8 April 2011] BEATINGS BY GUARDS - We heard reports of physical
abuse by guards in all detention centers we visited. “The guards are very
violent,” said a volunteer with a nongovernmental organization that works
with detained youths. The accounts of youths themselves
were not the only indication we had of abuse. In some cases, the youths we
interviewed showed us cuts and bruises that were consistent with their
descriptions of beatings. And when Human Rights Watch talked to a group of
parents of detained children, they described seeing visible signs of abuse
while visiting their children. For example, one parent spoke of a visit to
Santo Expedito in May 2003: … The guards had gone in and hit everybody, beat them up. The boys were
bruised, with broken arms, broken legs, covered with blood. I saw this.
Fifteen boys called me over to look inside and see how they were. I saw them
inside a bathroom. They lifted their shirts to show me the injuries. Street Children in The United Methodist Church UMC gbgm-umc.org/missionstudies/globalhealth-yth/streetchildren.htm [accessed 8 April 2011] FACTS ABOUT POVERTY - Working With The Street Children Of Liz Searle, studentBMJ
2001;09:305-356 September ISSN 0966-6494 student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj0109349 [accessed 19 September 2011] Offering an alternative social
network and activities for children to replace their existing lives on the
street or their dependence on drugs or both, while dealing with any
underlying emotional issues, and providing some hope of a brighter future. United Nations Association of At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] Grupa Ruas e Praças (GRP) is a civil society organisation
founded in the 1987 by a group of street educators. The organisation
now has a team of 12, including psychologists, art educators, social workers,
and people who have lived on the streets themselves. GRP staff visit each
site where children are regularly found on at least a weekly basis. Once they
have gained the confidence of the children, they invite them to visit a safe
farm owned by GRP where the children can benefit from comfort, peace and
regular meals. If the visit goes well, the children are invited to spend
longer at the farm and become part of a more structured programme
before moving on to the next stage. At Home in the Street: Street
Children of John DeWitt, Journal of findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200104/ai_n8944492/ [accessed 8 April 2011] Included in his interesting and
sometimes provocative assertions is his calculation that the number of street
children in Brazil is probably about 39,000 rather than the substantially higher
figures reported elsewhere -- 25 to 30 million (UNICEF), 2 to 3 million (Time
and The New Yorker) and 7 million, the figure most frequently used. Marlinelza B De Oliveira, Women's Feature
Service, www.wfsnews.org/citylife/inside5.html [accessed 8 April 2011] “The so-called street boy is an
island surrounded by omissions on every side. All the basic public policies have
already failed to help him," says Antônio
Carlos Gomes da Costa in his book 'Brazil Urgent
Child'. This book was published over a
decade ago but not much has changed since then. Street Children and Circulation: A Case Study in Misha Klein, Department of Anthropology,
www.clas.berkeley.edu/Events/fall2001/11-29-01-gregori/index.html [accessed 8 April 2011] These families continually break
up and regroup in order to meet minimum, short-term needs, sending a child to
live with a relative or neighbor, or seeking work wherever possible. Gregori terms this constant movement
"circulation," and says that the one constant in these children’s
lives is instability. Street children in Brazil Spiros Tzelepis
of users.otenet.gr/~tzelepisk/yc/streetchild.htm [accessed 8 April 2011] [Question] Which are the causes
for this phenomenon? What happens with the families of these
children? [Answer] There are multiple causes for this phenomenon. The
severe level of unemployment, the neo-liberal government policies, the
domestic violence, the high levels of illiteracy of population, poverty are
among them. These families generally are misadjusted, with social and
psychiatric problems, such as alcoholism, violence and other mental
disturbances. Candelária massacre Wikipedia, 10 February 2011 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candel%C3%A1ria_massacre [accessed 8 April 2011] THE MASSACRE - According to survivors, the
morning of the day before the massacre, a young group of children threw
stones at police cars. Some of policemen allegedly told them, "don't
worry, we will get you soon!" As children from the Candelária
church were usually given warnings such as these by policemen, the young
perpetrators left without worrying too much about the threat. At midnight, a few cars came to a
halt in front of the Candelária church. Next, gunfire
shots were heard. The children tried to cover up, but eight of them were shot
to death, with several others wounded. One of the children present that
night, Sandro Rosa do Nascimento,
would later commit one of Brazil's most infamous crimes. The international community
severely condemned the attack, and many in The
Killings Escalate In Caius Brandao,
International Child Resource Institute ICRI pangaea.org/street_children/latin/brazil.htm [accessed 24 August 2011] Clearly, there is a perceived
benefit to killing destitute children, not only to those who directly profit
from it, i.e., the hit-men. When street children die it also 'benefit' the
people who paid the professional killers to clean up the streets in the first
place. In 1994, 1221 minors were killed
in the State of All material used herein
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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
Human Trafficking in [Brazil] [other countries]Street Children in [Brazil Child Prostitution in [Brazil] [other countries]