Number 467, April 19, 2002.
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Research Shows Profile of Street Children
A recent study done by the Coordination of Studies and Research Concerning Childhood (Cespi) of the University of Santa Ursula, was released and gives a current profile of children and adolescents who live on the streets in Rio. There are an estimated 1,200 kids who live on the streets in Rio. The study followed 67 such youngsters from October, 2001 to January of this year.
One of the questions asked was what the kids found to be good about living on the streets. Words such as food, fun, money and freedom appeared in 50% of the responses to the question. Some of the boys responded further that having fun to them would be to perform acts of violence or using drugs; but they also said that living on the streets was the "wrong road" or it is a "vice" that is hard to let go of.
But a significant number of kids, when asked what is good about the streets, said "nothing." Among the 43 kids who answered the question, what is the worst thing about the street, 26 said "violence," 8 said "the police," 7 said "prejudices against them," 6 said "hunger," and 6 said "drugs." Of the thirty who were asked if they have ever suffered violence, all responded in the affirmative. Fifteen were victims of police violence, 3 victims of security guard violence, and 6 suffered violence from other kids. Many of the kids said that one of their worst nightmares would be to suffer the fate of "Galdino the Indian." [Galdino was an indigenous man who in 1997 was set on fire by a group of upper middle class youths who thought he was a street person.]
The research team, coordinated by sociologist Irene Rizzini, director of Cespi, didn’t go through the streets to count the number of street kids in Rio, but their objective rather was to hear what the kids thought of themselves, society, their fears, plans, and dreams. The goal of the study is to help establish new public policies for this marginalized population. The researchers found that the majority of the kids want what they never had: work, a home, a family, or a place to study.
The study reveals that this portion of the population is fluid--young people who enter and leave the city in diverse groups. The necessity to survive and to have recreation are factors which contribute to this fluidity. The beach especially attracts groups. But for the majority, the kids prefer to circulate throughout the city alone or in small groups. It is only at night that they form large groups--it is a way of defending themselves from "evil" that lurks. But this is not to say that they come and go at will. There are certain restrictions in their wanderings, especially from the drug traffickers. Even if they don’t have a direct connection with organized crime factions, they will often wear signs to identify themselves with a group. Also the study reveals that the so-called "freedom of the streets" is somewhat illusory. According to testimonies, adults (sometimes even the parents) act as "dominators" and "protectors" of the groups, especially as the group is involved in illicit activities such as drug trafficking or begging at stop lights. But the kids speak very little about the exploiters, who act like characters out of a Charles Dickens novel.
The estimated 1,200 street kids in not many more than the number 10 years ago, nearly 900. In absolute numbers, it may seem to be a relatively small problem in a metropolis with over 5 million habitants. But according to the researchers, boys and girls are living on the streets at much younger ages than ever before, some beginning at seven years of age. And survival is more difficult because of the intense increase of violence.
"The scenario has changed where these young people live," comments Rizzini. According to the sociologist, when adolescents and children affirm that between living at home and living on the streets, they choose the streets, they are not saying that the street is a great place to be. "Poverty is on the rise, and there are cases where the home can be worse than the streets. Domestic violence and misery have pushed these kids out of their homes." Rizzini concludes, "With this study as a base, we can see that it is necessary to create mechanisms that build up bases of support for these children in their communities and in their families. We need to offer daycare, options for sports, recreation, culture, health programs and work programs for the families."
Source: Jornal do Brasil
April 10, 2002
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
25 March 2002
AMR 19/006/2002
52/02
34 detainees crammed into cells built to hold 4 - windowless
cells from which prisoners are allowed out only one hour every 15
days - 1000% overcrowding - suspected torturers acting with
impunity for more than thirty years...
Although the horrors described above sound as if they
belong to a medieval work of fiction, they are the reality of the
daily routine of terrible conditions, chronic overcrowding,
torture and corruption suffered by prisoners and witnessed by
Amnesty International in a recent visit to two police stations in
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state.
Against the backdrop of increasing public demands for a
tougher stance against violent crime, and with recent polls
showing mounting support for the reintroduction of the death
penalty among other measures, Amnesty International is today
drawing public attention to the appalling human rights abuses and
overcrowding that have long gone unchecked in two of Belo
Horizonte's busiest police stations.
An Amnesty International delegation visited the Delegacia
de Tóxicos (Divisão de Tóxicos e Entorpecentes - Controlled
Substances police station) and the Delegacia de Roubos e Furtos
( de Crimes Contra o Patrimonio - Robbery and Theft police
station) in October 2001 and found conditions of extreme
overcrowding and squalor, lack of medical attention and evidence
of corruption among the guards, who extort money from desperate
inmates in exchange for basic commodities -- including food and
medicines -- and transfers.
"Despite repeated denunciations by national and
international human rights organizations and the United Nations
Special Rapporteur Against Torture, prisoners in these police
stations continue to endure subhuman conditions -- what could
almost be described as a living death -- in which they are
denied their most basic humanity," Amnesty International said.
"What is even more disturbing, detainees told us of
torture sessions carried out with beatings and electric shocks,
and of windowless punishment cells where they are taken after the
torture and left naked in solitary confinement for a number of
days, without food," the delegates said, adding that these are
not isolated cases, as reports of overcrowding and torture are
abundant for police stations right across Brazil.
The delegation was alarmed to discover that a
long-standing staff member of the Delegacia de Furtos e Roubos is
known to have been involved in episodes of torture that took
place there as long ago as 1969, and to hear that torture methods
used in the 1960s are still in use there today.
"This is just one more example of how the Brazilian
authorities' chronic failure to investigate the widespread
reports of torture and ill-treatment in prisons and police
stations, and to punish those responsible, continues to feed the
cycle of impunity and abuse," Amnesty International delegates
said.
"The situation in these two police stations is
symptomatic of the structural problems of the Brazilian criminal
justice system, which is coming under increasing strain as the
authorities respond to rising crime rates and public pressure by
attempting quick fix solutions," the delegates continued.
In November 2001, following mounting international
criticism, the Brazilian government launched a nationwide
campaign to combat torture. Four months into the campaign,
however, there are concerns that many of the measures adopted
fail to address the root causes of torture and the impunity
enjoyed by perpetrators.
"The campaign has been undermined by poor funding and
lack of a coordinated strategy, and has had very little impact on
the lives of the thousands of prisoners who endure torture and
ill-treatment throughout Brazil," Amnesty International said.
"What is needed is urgent action on the part of state and
federal authorities to improve conditions of detention, stop the
violence and abuse by police and prison staff -- including
through providing them with adequate resources and training --
and curb the use of excessively punitive sentencing which
contributes to extreme overcrowding such as we witnessed in Belo
Horizonte."
"The state and federal authorities in Brazil have
consistently failed to provide structured and effective long term
strategies for reforming public security. This has resulted in
the sacrifice of the human rights of a substantial percentage of
the Brazilian population to violent, repressive, and corrupt
policing methods. At best, these methods have proved ineffective
in tackling crime; at worst they have fuelled the spiral of crime
and violence that is currently posing a major threat to social
stability in the country," Amnesty International concluded.
**The report will be available on the web at
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/AMR190032002
** Note to picture editors: Photographs from the Amnesty
International visit are available. To receive them, please e-mail
pesquisa@amnesty.org
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