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 Editorials | At Issue | August 2006 
United Nations Report Slams Child Abuse Levels in Mexico
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - The Miami Herald
| | A group of indigenous Mexicans wait to participate in a traditional dance 'The Negritos' in Ocozotla, in the mountain range north of Mexico's state of Puebla, August 7, 2006. The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 49/214 on December 23, 1994, declaring August 9 of every year as International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. (Reuters/Imelda Medina) |
The rights of Mexican children are being abused at unacceptably high levels, according to a United Nations report released Monday, with adolescents from age 12 to 17 suffering even more than the younger children.
After two years of study, the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) scored Mexico at 5.53 on a 0-10 scale measuring adherence to international standards of health, education and freedom from exploitation for adolescents. Even that low grade masks more serious problems in the poorer southern states, with Guerrero getting a 4.44, Campeche 4.40, Oaxaca 4.18 and Chiapas the lowest score of all at 3.49.
"The results are a call to government institutions in Mexico to pay more attention to complying with adolescents´ basic rights," said Yoriko Yasukawa, UNICEF representative in Mexico.
KEY PROBLEMS
Three of the major problems, according to the report, are high rates of death by vehicle accidents, poor access to adequate education and exploitation in the workplace by being underpaid, overworked or too young for the job.
Young men are much more likely to be victims in those areas, which is why a gender breakdown gives adolescent women a rights advantage in every state except Nayarit, Chiapas, Hidalgo and Yucatán.
For example, of the 1,434 adolescents who died in traffic accidents in 2004, all but 286 were boys. Murder victims that year included 505 males 12-17 years old, compared to 120 females. Males were also responsible for four-fifths of the 537 adolescent suicides.
In Mexico, almost 4 million youngsters 12-17 don´t attend school, most of them boys.
Sexual exploitation was not used as an indicator in the UNICEF children´s rights survey and is not mentioned in the report.
In reports issued last year, UNICEF gave Mexico a 5.71 for compliance with the rights of children aged 0 to 5, and a 6.53 for ages 6-11. Noting the lower score for adolescents, the report pointed to familiar characteristics of the mostly teen-age sector, including the difficult transition to adulthood. But Clara Jusidman, a member of the Consulting Council that carried out the UNICEF study, added, "Much of society is afraid of this age group."
BETTER PRACTICES
UNICEF and the Consulting Council called for more rigorous investigation of individual adolescent deaths from accidents and violence as a step toward better prevention. They also urged a thorough inventory of all children not attending school, complete with names and addresses, and stricter enforcement of child labor laws.
The 5.53 score is actually slightly better than the 4.47 given to Mexico in 1998 for its compliance with rights standards for adolescents. While lauding the progress, Jusidman pointed out that without improvement in this 3.6 growth rate, Mexico won´t reach the goal of a 10 score until 2022, meaning almost all of the first Mexican adolescents to receive their due rights have yet to be born. |
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