Protecting children from abuse involves caring for families, minister says

Brasilia DF) – The acting President of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, signed, this Thursday (18th), a decree inaugurating the new members of the Intersectoral Commission to Combat Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents. As a consultation, study and articulation body, it is up to the commission to formulate proposals for actions within the scope of the national plan to combat this type of violence.

The act took place during a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto, alluding to the National Day to Combat Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, on May 18.

For the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, to combat child sexual exploitation, a system of intersectoral relations is needed that involves various actors from the State and civil society.

“We need to have a prevention system, which involves, to a large extent, training, education, and intersectoral relations,” he said. “Protecting children is protecting children’s families and, in this sense, protecting families is ensuring that people have food, that people are healthy, that people have quality education. That is, what destroys a child’s life is also the destruction of his family’s material capacity to provide what is necessary for his subsistence. So, we have to think of a playful dimension, in the formation of the child’s imagination, but it is necessary that the child has the material bases for his full development”, he highlighted.

Today’s event was held in partnership with the United Nations Global Compact, Childhood Brasil, Rede Ecpat Brasil, Freedom Fund, National Committee to Combat Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents and Instituto Alana. On the occasion, other government actions were also announced to prevent, combat exploitation and defend the rights of children and adolescents in situations of sexual violence.

Since the beginning of the month, the National Secretariat for the Rights of Children and Adolescents of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship and its institutional partners, including civil society, have promoted a series of actions with the objective of disseminating, developing and implementing strategies for combating sexual violence and other types of violence against children and adolescents.

Among the deliveries made today is the signing of a protocol of intentions by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, the Alana Institute and the Brazilian Coalition for the End of Violence against Children and Adolescents with the aim of strengthen the engagement of companies with the adoption of effective measures to promote the rights of children and adolescents in all their activities.

According to the ministry, the signature seeks to guarantee the commitment of the private sector in promoting the rights of these groups, as established in Article 227 of the Federal Constitution.

make beautiful

The D-Day of the Make Beautiful campaign. Protect our children and adolescents is on May 18th in memory of the 8-year-old girl Araceli Crespo, who on this date in 1973 was kidnapped, drugged, raped, raped, murdered and charred by middle-class young people from Vitória, who until today have never were punished. The tragic episode turns 50 in 2023.

Young Raul Zainedin, 15 years old, member of the participation committee of adolescents of the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Conanda), said that the crime is one of the most atrocious that Brazilian society has ever witnessed and that it is the duty of all “fight tirelessly for these abuses to be eradicated”. For him, a broad work of awareness is needed for the recognition of the different types of sexual exploitation that exist in social relations and institutions.

“This crime [contra Araceli] it must be remembered, it must be a wound that cannot heal in our society, because those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it. Unfortunately, child sexual exploitation is a sad and disturbing reality in our society. Each child who suffers from this terrible violence is an innocent life whose dreams and dignity are brutally violated,” he said in a speech at the event.

Annually, 500,000 children and adolescents are sexually exploited in Brazil, but only about 7.5% of cases are reported. According to data from the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, in the first four months of 2023, Dial 100 registered 69.3 thousand complaints and 397 thousand violations of human rights of children and adolescents, of which 9.5 thousand complaints and 17.5 thousand Violations involve physical sexual violence – abuse, rape and sexual exploitation – and psychic violence.

The home of the victim, suspect or family members is among the worst case scenarios, with nearly 14,000 violations. For specialists, the sexual abuse of children and adolescents is a complex issue, mainly because it involves people known to the family. Therefore, dialogue with minors is also a mechanism for preventing and identifying this violence.

aggravation

In a letter read during the event, First Lady Janja Lula da Silva recalled that the situation of violence against children and adolescents was aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic and by “the attitude of government officials who have acted in recent years against the protection system of childhood and adolescence”.

“We will continue working together, as it is in the ECA [Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente]: State, civil society and families united, guaranteeing a safe and happy childhood for little Brazilians – and also non-Brazilians, who are very well received in our country. My last message for you is this: the partnership between civil society and the State in the reconstruction and execution of protection policies for children and adolescents is the only climate that can paint”, he highlighted.

Janja’s phrase refers to the episode in which former president Jair Bolsonaro said he “painted a climate” when referring to Venezuelan refugee teenagers in Brasília. In an interview with a podcastin October 2022, Bolsonaro narrated that, on a visit to the town of São Sebastião, in the Federal District, in 2021, he came across well-groomed Venezuelan teenagers, which, for him, would demonstrate that they were subjected to sexual exploitation to “earn a living” .

“I was in Brasília, in the community of São Sebastião, if I’m not mistaken, on a Saturday, on a motorcycle. I stopped the bike at a corner, took off my helmet and looked at some little girls. Three four. Beautifuls. 14, 15 years old. Tidying up, on a Saturday, in a community. And I saw that they were kind of similar. Painted a mood, came back. ‘Can I come to your house?’ I entered. There were about 15, 20 girls, Saturday morning, getting ready, all Venezuelan. And I ask: cute girls of 14, 15 years old, getting ready on Saturday for what? Earn a living,” said Bolsonaro in the podcast.

Faced with the repercussions, Bolsonaro explained himself by saying that the speech was taken out of context and that his intention was to demonstrate indignation at the situation in which Venezuelan girls were living.

In 2023, Brazil rose two positions in the Out of the Shadows index, ranking which evaluates the fight against sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents in 60 countries, including Latin America and the Caribbean. In the first edition of the study, published in 2018, Brazil ranked 13th, and five years later, the country rose to 11th.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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