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 early years of the 21st Century
- 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/CzechRepublic.htm
|
||
|
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 Ruslan Isayev, www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000002-000001-000186&lang=1 [accessed
6 May 2011] 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 *** UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/crepublic_statistics.html [accessed
6 May 2011] Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61644.htm [accessed 31 January 2011] 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) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/czechrepublic2003.html [accessed 31 January 2011] [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 Ruslan Isayev, www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000002-000001-000186&lang=1 [accessed
6 May 2011] 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 Dita Asiedu, Radio [accessed
6 May 2011] 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 This
profile was prepared when Michaela Svobodova was
elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 1997 [accessed
6 May 2011] [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 Re-Solv, the national charity solely dedicated to the
prevention of solvent and volatile substance abuse (VSA) www.re-solv.org/international.asp [accessed
6 May 2011] [scroll down to Czech Republic, Reports to Treaty Bodies Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, August 2003 At one
time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed
6 May 2011] 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]