Around 3,000 participants from 125 countries Tuesday joined the World Congress on fight against sexual exploitation of Children (WCIII) in Rio de Janeiro of Brazil to share lessons and amplify the efforts in the fight against sexual exploitation of children across the globe.
Over 137 different government delegations from all regions of the world and 300 children and adolescents are participating in the WCIII that started on the evening of November 25 with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inaugurating the event. This is the first time the event is taking place in a developing country.
The three-day WCIII is intended to formulate concrete and time-bound goals to end the sexual exploitation of children.
The Bangladesh contingent is quite significant with the participation of two high-level government official, Advocate Salma Ali from BNMLA, five NGOs, and five adolescents from Aparajeyo Bangladesh.
“The government has adopted a children policy, which is again under review in 2008 to address the new forms and dimensions of violation of child rights,” said Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, director general of Department of Social Services, Bangladesh in his speech.
He said the National Plan of Action (NPA) for children 2005-2010 promotes the establishments of social safety nets and child protection by undertaking programmes for empowerment of girl child through expanding various forms of formal and non-formal education including reproductive health education. NPA on sexual abuse, exploitation of children including trafficking, has been adopted. On the legislative front, the suppression of violence against women and children act was passed and also amended in 2003, he said.
“Among many other initiatives the commendable one is forming a national anti-trafficking monitoring cell under the Ministry of Home Affairs which is providing necessary support to repatriation and reintegration of trafficked children and working for preventing trafficking in Bangladesh,” he highlighted in his speech.
However, unaddressed concerns for Bangladesh include identifying sexual offenders against children within the family and community, the issue of homosexuality and bisexuality among children, use of children in pornography and sexual abuse of boys. While the emerging concerns remain with mainstreaming the abused survivors because of strong social stigma, absence of a national database on Children at Risk, and adopting minimum standards of care and services in the institutions like shelter homes and orphanages.
However a good number of NGOs are also working to provide support for psychosocial care and support in shelter homes, case management system, and minimum standards for institutional care.
On the opening night, Unicef Executive Director Ann M Veneman in her speech stressed on few important issues that are also relevant to our Bangladesh context.
“Sexual exploitation on children is an assault on the world’s conscience. Over nine percent of such abuse starts in the family space, young brides are more vulnerable to domestic violence. Poor girls are sent to live with wealthy families and become prone to such crime. It is a gross crime and there are no innocent bystanders,” she said.
These important issues are still taboo in Bangladesh’s social context where we cannot accept a child being sexually abused, boys being violated or talking about these things at family level. But now is the time to deal with these issues and create awareness among all and help put a stop to such heinous acts.
Categories: Daily Bangladesh News
