Human Trafficking in [Czech Republic] [other countries]Street Children in [Czech Republic Child Prostitution in [Czech Republic] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In
the first ten years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Large
numbers of street children discovered in Chechnya The “difficult” children, as they
are called by the staff of the republic’s juvenile rehabilitation
inspectorates, are now approaching their favourite
time of year, when it becomes possible for them to sleep out in the open.
With the arrival of spring, their numbers usually increase. The lives of such children have a
rather narrow focus, which is centred mostly on begging, stealing, or at best a job at
a gas station. Many of them start smoking or experimenting with alcohol at
any early age. The most common activity is glue-sniffing. Before the war,
foreign cameramen could literally “smell out” the places where such children
were hiding, and the estranged faces of young drug addicts often appeared in the
world's television news. Rustam was only 10 when the second war
began. His was the usual fate of the neglected child :
divorced parents, a bad stepmother, a drunken father. Now he is almost 17. He
has a job as an ancillary worker on a construction site, and earns around 300
roubles (about $12) a day. He is going to get
married. He likes to remember the time when he was homeless. “They were the
freest years of my life,” he jokes. ***
ARCHIVES *** Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - The government is committed to children's
rights and welfare. The government provides free and compulsory education
through age 15. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported a primary school
enrollment rate of 90 percent from 2000 to 2004. Most children continued
through secondary school. There were no statistics available on Romani
attendance rates. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [63] The Committee is concerned
that there is a growing number of children living on the street in urban
areas vulnerable to, inter alia, sexual abuse, violence, including from the
police, exploitation, lack of access to education,
substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition.
Furthermore, the Committee notes that the primary response to the situation
of these children, as described by the State party in its report, is
institutionalization. Large
numbers of street children discovered in Chechnya The “difficult” children, as they
are called by the staff of the republic’s juvenile rehabilitation
inspectorates, are now approaching their favourite
time of year, when it becomes possible for them to sleep out in the open.
With the arrival of spring, their numbers usually increase. The lives of such children have a
rather narrow focus, which is centred mostly on begging, stealing, or at best a job at
a gas station. Many of them start smoking or experimenting with alcohol at
any early age. The most common activity is glue-sniffing. Before the war,
foreign cameramen could literally “smell out” the places where such children
were hiding, and the estranged faces of young drug addicts often appeared in
the world's television news. Rustam was only 10 when the second war
began. His was the usual fate of the neglected child :
divorced parents, a bad stepmother, a drunken father. Now he is almost 17. He
has a job as an ancillary worker on a construction site, and earns around 300
roubles (about $12) a day. He is going to get
married. He likes to remember the time when he was homeless. “They were the
freest years of my life,” he jokes. Up To Ten Thousand Czech
Children Go Missing Every Year Although most missing children are found, Mrs Baudysova points to the
disturbing fact that in the short time they spend out on the streets, they
are at a very high risk of being abused:
With time the great majority of the missing children in the Czech
Republic do turn up, and statistics include only those cases reported to the
police. The number of children who are
abducted is unknown but is believed to make up only a fraction of the total
number of those who go missing, most of whom are runaways. Ashoka Fellows - Michaela Svobodova [click on “The Strategy” tab] - In order to improve the quality
of life of runaways, Michaela has started a series of related programs that are
designed to meet the varied and complex needs of these troubled young people
as they move from homeless runaways to productive adult member of society. Facts - An International
Perspective [Society
for the Prevention of Solvent & Volatile Substance Abuse] [scroll down to Czech Republic] - Volatile substances are the second most commonly abused substances, after medical drugs. Since 1970 young people have been sniffing a cleaning substance called "Cikuli" Reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination www.hri.ca/fortherecord2003/vol5/czechreptb.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The following points were noted
with concern: the growing number of
street children, noting their vulnerability to, among other things, sexual
abuse, violence (including from the police), exploitation, substance abuse,
sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition; the rise of
delinquency and crimes committed by children; discriminatory behavior on the
part of some persons working with and for children, including teachers and
doctors. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin,
"Street Children – |
Human Trafficking in [Czech Republic] [other countries]Street Children in [Czech Republic Child Prostitution in [Czech Republic] [other countries]