HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CONTINUES DICUSSION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, FOCUSING ON PARTICIPATION IN ARMED CONFLICT, PREVENTING EXPLOITATION
Press Release
HR/CN/864
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CONTINUES DICUSSION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, FOCUSING ON PARTICIPATION IN ARMED CONFLICT, PREVENTING EXPLOITATION
19980420 (Reissued as received.)GENEVA, 16 April (UN Information Service) -- The age-limit for participation in hostilities was among the issues raised this evening, as the Commission on Human Rights continued a debate on the protection of children around the world.
The Commission is presently considering the results of the proceedings of a working group set up four years ago to draft an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would limit the involvement of children in armed conflicts. According to the Chairman-Rapporteur of the group, Nils Eliasson, who addressed the Commission earlier today, members agreed that the key issue was that of the age-limit for participation in hostilities, with a vast majority of delegations supporting a minimum age of 18 years of age.
However, there is no consensus in the group on that limit or on other key areas. This evening, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said his organization was not was not satisfied with the limited progress made by the working group. The optional protocol must prohibit all recruitment of children under 18 years of age, whether voluntary or compulsory; the protocol must prohibit any participation in hostilities by children under 18 years, whether direct or indirect, and it must apply to all parties to a conflict, including armed groups.
A representative of International Save the Children Alliance, a non-governmental organization (NGO) said recruitment under age 18 should be prohibited in all circumstances, and any participation in hostilities should be prohibited below age 18. Any optional protocol which failed to meet reasonable standards such as these could not be supported by Save the Children. Save the Children recommended that the working group should be suspended for a year while a report was prepared by the High Commissioner, for Human Rights on a possible new text which could be considered by the fifty-fifth session of the Commission, with a view to adoption and forwarding to the General Assembly.
This evening's debate also touched on such issues as the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as and the fight against the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
The representatives of El Salvador, Libya, New Zealand, Egypt, Honduras, Costa Rica and Iraq addressed the Commission tonight, as did the following NGOs: International Save the Children Alliance, World Organization against Torture, Defence of Children International, American Association of Jurists, Association for World Education, World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women, African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters, World Organization of Former Pupils of Catholic Education, International Federation Terre des Hommes, International Educational Development, Friends World Committee for Consultation and Amnesty International, World Movement of Mothers, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Federation of Cuban Women, Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America, International Institute for Peace, Indian Council of Eduction, Franciscans International, World Federation of Democratic Youth, Pax Christi International, International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies, and Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization.
The representative of Costa Rica also spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
Statements
ROBERTO MEDIA TRABANNO (El Salvador) said it was vital to implement the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international instruments pertaining to children. Worldwide, children were the weakest group. Practices of ill-treatment and abuse, exploitation of child labour, and unmet basic needs such as food and health, simply had to be addressed. The huge majority of children faced such problems. Coordination of effort was essential, and coordination mechanisms should be on a permanent basis and should be strengthened with campaigns to promote respect for child rights. Capacities, proposals and responses had to be increased; progress and compliance had to be monitored and verified. El Salvador's Institute for the Protection of Minors, an autonomous body, played the main role in promoting and protecting children in the country; a family code included very up-to-date concepts relating to children.
NAZIK ESHAOUSH (Libya) said Libyan children were suffering as a result of the embargo imposed on the country. The rate of child mortality had increased, particularly among the newborn, because of the lack of adequate food and medicine. The amount of food and medicine available locally was not sufficient to feed and treat the children who were direct victims of the embargo. With regard to handicapped children, Libya devoted great attention to their protection and integration; an organization named after the child killed during the United States aggression against Libya was active in
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carrying out activities to assist orphans and other vulnerable children. Libya was also organizing an international conference in which children and international organizations would participate.
PAUL ASH (New Zealand) said that in many societies, children were a particularly vulnerable group; because of this, their basic human rights were at times drowned out by other voices. The Government acknowledged the role played by non-governmental organizations in continuing to push forward children's rights, as well as the important contribution made by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). Protection of today's children was a safe investment in the future and there was a need to work together to improve conditions faced by children around the world. The state of children's health was of particular importance, and the Government had taken this up as one of its primary concerns. It also took steps to encourage the right to education.
DAVID ROBINSON, of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the WHO wished to draw attention to the rights of both young children and adolescents to health and health care. Health was of crucial importance not only for survival but for the overall well-being and development of the child. Health matters tended to be overlooked. Child and infant mortality was still unacceptably high in many areas of the world; low socio-economic status added to the health vulnerability of children; and WHO and UNICEF had developed a strategy of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness to focus action on the most important child-health problems for which practical prevention and treatment were available. Although adolescents generally were perceived as being healthy, many died prematurely -- more than 1 million annually, mostly from accidents, suicide, violence, pregnancy-related complications and illnesses that were either treatable or preventable. The WHO and its international partners were advocating an approach to such matters through a programme called "Common Agenda". Clearly there was a need for putting such health care more prominently on the human rights agenda.
TAREK ADEL (Egypt) said his country had intensified its activities relating to the rights of children by mobilizing broad sectors of the society. The first measure the Government had taken was to tackle the root cause of poverty, launching a number of development programmes. The country's legislature had also enacted a series of laws aimed at the protection and promotion of the rights of the child.
Egypt was of the view that international trade restrictions could affect a country's national economy and thereby affect the right of the child to adequate food and medicine, as well as to other basic necessities for his or her healthy growth said. The Government of Egypt was concerned by the worsening conditions of children in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine. It was also worried by the negative impact of the economic sanctions on the rights of children in Iraq, Libya and Sudan.
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GRACIBEL BU FIGUEROA (Honduras) said the Convention on the Rights of the Child had become part of Honduran law after its ratification by Parliament in 1990. Children made up 51 per cent of the population of Honduras; the promotion and protection of their human rights was therefore more than a peripheral issue. The Government had promoted the participation of citizens in the formulation of national social policies for children. Therefore, to speak of the right of children was to speak of democracy and social development. There were still challenges which faced the Government in relation to, among others, the right to education and the monitoring of the welfare of children. Among the steps taken, the Government had set up special investigative offices to ensure that the laws for the protection of minors and handicapped persons were complied with. Child labour and street children were also challenges that the Government faced; it required international support to deal with those problems.
BERNADINA VARGAS (Costa Rica) said the country had historically taken special steps and passed special legislation to protect children. There could not and must not be abandoned homeless, or street children; or children used by adults for illicit purposes or as objects of sexual exploitation. The mass media must be better used to combat the trafficking and exploitation of children. Costa Rica had taken ever-more severe measures against anyone who committed such heinous violations of the rights of Costa Rican children. A national commission had been established to combat commercial sexual exploitation of persons under 18 years; a special programme had been set up to help children caught up in such abuses, especially in the metropolitan area of the national capital, and to prevent other children from becoming involved. Investigations were undertaken where called for, and a publicity campaign had been set up in connection with the Costa Rican Tourist Agency to prevent sex tourism.
MOHAMMAD A. HUSSAIN (Iraq) said arbitrary economic sanctions on Iraq had resulted in the deaths of 1,350,450 children since the beginning of the embargo. Malnutrition and disease were rampant around the country; the negative consequences of the economic sanctions had already been highlighted by numerous organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF's 1997 report had indicated that millions of Iraqi children were suffering from acute malnutrition. Also, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had underlined that 25 per cent of Iraqi children were forced to leave school in search of work. Further, the national plan of action on behalf of children, undertaken jointly with UNICEF, could not be achieved because of a lack of financial resources.
STEPHANE JEANNET, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said the ICRC had been invited by the Commission to participate in the open-ended working group on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts. The
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ICRC had submitted a document to the working group which summed up its position as follows: the optional protocol must prohibit all recruitment of children under 18 years of age, whether voluntary or compulsory; the protocol must prohibit any participation in hostilities by children under 18 years, whether direct or indirect, and it must apply to all parties to a conflict, including armed groups. The ICRC was not satisfied with the limited progress made by the working group on these issues and was not in favour of the adoption of the present two texts. At the same time, the current efforts to raise standards should not detract from the need to pursue vigorously the effective implementation of existing law, including establishing better mechanisms to prosecute suspected perpetrators of violations.
DAN SEYMOUR, of International Save the Children Alliance, said children's rights needed to be mainstreamed in the Commission's work; there were a lot of speeches under this agenda item but few references to children otherwise. Save the Children strongly opposed involvement of children in all forms of armed conflict; it welcomed recent developments towards making the use of children as soldiers an international war crime; recruitment under age 18 should be prohibited in all circumstances, and any participation in hostilities should be prohibited below age 18; any optional protocol which failed to meet reasonable standards such as these could not be supported by Save the Children. The working group attempting to draft the protocol had made little progress in recent years; it should be suspended for a year while a report was prepared by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on a possible new text which could be considered by the fifty-fifth session of the Commission, with a view to adoption and forwarding to the General Assembly.
BEN SCHONVELD, of the World Organization Against Torture, said that in Bahrain, at the beginning of this year, at least 50 minors as young as 10 years had been reportedly detained in a new wave of arrests by police. The reason behind the arrests appeared to be to discourage anti-regime activities, such as participation in demonstrations or gatherings, painting graffiti, burning tires and distributing pamphlets. The arrests were a part of an official campaign to muzzle political dissent. The use of torture in such circumstances placed those children at extreme risk. The life of children living and working on the streets was another subject of concern. In Guatemala City, on 7 April, more than 40 street children had been detained by the police in order to prevent "vandalism during the Easter Week celebrations".
HELENE SACKSTEIN, of Defense of Children International, said the growing phenomenon of the sale and sexual exploitation of children was among the most important and urgent child protection problems to be tackled by the international community. Unfortunately, the optional protocol on the issue could not offer an appropriate solution. Rather than attempting to elaborate an optional protocol, the Commission should look at alternative ways to enhance the monitoring of the entire Convention on the Rights of the Child,
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which would strengthen the relevant articles considered by the proposed optional protocol. Ways and means should be studied to link the Convention to existing implementation mechanisms serving other international instruments, in order to establish an individual communications mechanism and an urgent-appeal procedure. This should also ensure the right of non-governmental organizations or groups of individuals to file complaints on behalf of child victims, and the right to financial compensation for child victims of rights violations.
MERCEDES MOYA, of the American Association of Jurists, said children deprived of identity through fraudulent adoptions and children whose organs were subject to trafficking were not the province only of developing countries; in fact, the rich countries were the destination of most fraudulent adoptions and stolen child organs. In the United States, some 3 million children annually were abandoned, maltreated or suffered sexual violence, and the country had some 300,000 child prostitutes. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, meanwhile, was no guarantee of respect for child rights. In developed countries, for example, sweatshops employing child labour were widespread. Organized international crime involved in trafficking in children required an organized international response, which to date had been far from sufficient. Some States maintained that a child of 12 or 13 years had reached the age of sexual consent and so could participate in pornography without interference. Instead, such a child was a victim and deserved protection, while the adults involved in the exercise deserved punishment.
RENE WADLOW, of the Association for World Education, said the Special Representative on children in armed conflicts had clearly set out his mandate on that crucial aspect of human rights as well as on the first steps taken to build a community of persons -- drawn from governments, the United Nations system and NGOs -- who shared the common concern for the full development of the child. His report had highlighted the vast suffering of children and women in areas of conflict and the necessity to draw particular attention to the needs of children in post-conflict situations. The General Assembly had proclaimed the year 2000 as the International Year of the Culture of Peace. It was only in such a culture of peace and non-violence, devoted to the full development of the child, that one could build a world society.
RENATE BLOEM, of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women, said she was also speaking as the convener of the Geneva NGO Working Group on the Girl Child and for others who monitored progress in the implementation of the Vienna and Beijing Platforms of Action. In Beijing, Governments had made commitments and had since passed new laws to improve the situation of women, but these laws were not consistently or fully implemented. Although public awareness about violence against girls was increasing, sexual and physical abuse, within and outside the family, remained a prevalent and serious problem in all regions of the world. According to the results of a
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survey of 248 NGOs in 87 countries, education and violence emerged as two prevailing issues affecting the rights of the girl child.
CHARLES GRAVES, of the African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters, said the interim report on the impact of armed conflict on children called for a recovery of "local values", which protected the dignity of the child and would normally protect a child from being conscripted. Unfortunately, a more active programme was needed to assure children's rehabilitation after such activities as participation in armed conflicts. Several African countries had established national commissions to further the rights of the child, and in some cases national constitutions had been modified to take account of international instruments protecting child rights. Grass-roots African organizations had initiated a number of programmes for the health, rights and rehabilitation of children in Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda, Mauritania, Angola and other States. It was important in general to make local populations more aware of their responsibilities for preventing children from being misused in armed conflicts; all African countries should ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which as yet had only a few ratifications.
NANCY DARGEL, of the World Organization of Former Pupils of Catholic Education, said she supported the mainstreaming of human rights throughout the organs of United Nations systems in order that they might be understood and observed throughout. Education planners, in their efforts, should include all children, without distinction as to physical or mental handicaps. The life of children depended on the actions of decision-makers and on the awareness of the society at large. There was reason for hope in such things as the work of human rights representatives and rapporteurs, as well as and in the setting up of the High Commissioner's office in Colombia last year. The group also welcomed the holding of a diplomatic conference in Rome in July 1998 aimed at establishing an international criminal court.
JOANNA TYLER, of the International Federation Terre des Hommes, said child labour, child prostitution and the use of children in armed conflicts were violations of human rights; they were different manifestations of the exploitation of the vulnerable and the poor. A recent study, entitled "Children, the Invisible Soldiers", showed that the majority of child soldiers came from poor or otherwise disadvantaged sections of society. Another study by International Federation Terre des Hommes showed that unaccompanied minors, children belonging to ethnic minorities, and children living in extreme poverty were particularly at risk of sexual exploitation during a conflict. Thus, there was a correlation between the vulnerability of a child and the extent to which his or her rights were violated. With respect to a specific situation, International Federation Terre des Hommes was gravely concerned about the number of children being killed in the Brazilian state of Bahia.
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MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER, of International Educational Development, speaking on behalf of several other NGOs, said the situation of unborn and newborn children, especially from economically deprived countries, was a matter of great concern, as many were considered to be carriers of HIV/AIDS. Despite the questionable nature of these suspicions and the scientific basis behind it, many pregnant women were now given highly toxic drugs, such as AZT, if they were expected to be HIV-positive, especially in Africa and Asia. Governments did not have information about the toxic effects and they certainly were not known to the women involved. The manufacturer of AZT sought to make it widely available in underdeveloped countries, especially in Africa. The data used to "prove" its benefits came from the manufacturer itself. Side-effects were often severe, and could include damage to the mitochondria, responsible for oxygen transportation in the cell. Also, over 60 conditions could falsely cause a positive HIV test result, and many were common in regions where HIV was supposed to be rampant. The international community must stop all anti-HIV treatment trials which posed a danger to human health and life until further understanding of the causes and mechanism of AIDS was achieved.
RACHEL BRETT, of the Quaker United Nations Office/Friends World Committee for Consultation, said since the International Year of the Child in 1979, NGOs and others had drawn attention to the use of children as soldiers. Some groups were encouraged at the increasing recognition that exploitation of children in that way was totally unacceptable. It was, therefore, regrettable that the working group charged with drafting an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflict had reached an impasse. The primary problem was the refusal of the United States, which was not even a party to the Convention, to allow the establishment of 18 years as the minimum age for participation in hostilities. That limit was considered as essential for the protocol by the vast majority of States participating in the working group.
JULIET SAYEGH, of the World Movement of Mothers, spoke also on behalf of the following NGOs: Family Voice, General Arab Women Federation, JMJ Children's Fund of Canada and the Union of Arab Jurists. She said that while there was much to praise in the Convention on the Rights of the Child's extension of important protective rights to children, the world was beginning to see that freeing children from the protection of families, churches and other institutions that had traditionally cared for and nurtured them had serious consequences. Children's rights were granted without focusing on the necessary mechanisms to teach and inculcate responsibility. Society was now beginning to reap the consequences of such an approach: a harvest of neglected and violent children. It sufficed to recall a few of the most flagrant problems, like the brutal massacres that were ravaging Algeria, Afghanistan and Bosnia, where children were among the worst offenders. There were also violent school incidents in France and the United States. The Commission should, among other things, launch an initiative to end mounting
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violence inflicted by and upon children and youth. It should take necessary preventive measures to ingrain human values and a sense of responsibility in children, families, schools and communities.
DAN CUNNIAH, of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said there were some 250 million children working worldwide, aged 5 to 14 years, of whom at least 120 million worked full time. That was nothing less than forced labour. The debate should not be about the "morality" of such labour but about how to stop it. The IFCTU had attracted international attention to child labour in football production in Sialkot, Pakistan; and the FIFA had adopted a code of labour practice on the matter. The Olympic Games in Sydney had agreed to a code for production of goods for the games, banning child labour; the Welsh Rugby Union and Irish Soccer Association had concluded similar agreements with relevant trade unions. Italian trade unions had worked for four years to get an agreement with Artsana, a toy company that had most of its toys produced by subcontractors in China. The ICFTU and international trade secretariats would continue to expose companies which exploited children while thousands of adults remained unemployed.
YAMILA GONZALEZ FERRER, of the Federation of Cuban Women, said that to the shame of humankind, millions of girls and boys around the world barely survived, living in subhuman conditions without access to education or health care. Two hundred million children under the age of 13 were forced to work to earn a living; another 200,000,000 children slept in the streets. In the last decade, more than 2 million children had perished in armed conflicts; the figure for those seriously injured or maimed was thrice as much. For girls, the odds were even more ominous: in addition to all the evils boys faced, they suffered the consequences of discrimination and deep-rooted traditions that curbed the development of their potential and prevented them from contributing to society.
FACTOR MENDEZ, of the Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America, said that in Central America there were laws to protect children's rights, but they were not implemented. There were cases of torture, trafficking and prostitution among street children in Honduras and Guatemala. A recent documentary on child prostitution in Costa Rica showed the authorities saying they had insufficient legal instruments to combat the problem. Around 500 Guatemalan children travelled to the United States every year for illegal adoptions, and there were reports of the participation of prominent Guatemalan lawyers in that practice. Trafficking of children was very common in Central America, but it took different forms in different countries. In Honduras, for example, people working in hospitals were tricked by thieves who stole babies. The treatment of young offenders was also problematic in Central America. A recent investigation on the human rights of detained children in Nicaragua showed that cells which had a capacity of 40 held more than 100 children. That and other problems should be looked at by a special rapporteur.
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TATIANA SHAUMIAN, of the International Institute for Peace, said that Asia had some 40 million child workers. Girls there began working as young as ages 5 or 6, boys at ages 6 to 8. Girls faced more hazards, were paid less, and were at risk of being sexually exploited or abducted by traffickers. Abductions were quite common, even in developed European countries. Children detained on grounds of mental ill-health had been subjected to psychiatric maltreatment and misuses of psychiatry, including torture by drugs and sexual exploitation by medical personnel in special clinics. A disgraceful act was the sexual exploitation of boys as well as girls at secondary, primary and sports schools by teachers and trainers. It was vital to protect the women and children who accounted for over three quarters of victims of armed conflicts in over 50 countries. The current generation must take responsibility for its children, who would observe the situation of human rights in the twenty-first century.
KANTA GUPTA, of the Indian Council of Education, said the expectations of common people were rising. Poverty-stricken people in south Asia were sometimes forced to sell girl children as a sexual commodity. Poor and rich nations alike were today becoming party to the trade in young boys and girls, which could have a devastating effect on the future of mankind. That future lay in the values that today's children would pass on to their offspring. Traumatized children could only pass on their traumas. If the evil that afflicted today's children was ignored, the international community alone would be responsible if future generation looked back in shame upon it.
ALESSANDRA AULA, of Franciscans International, said the International Labour Office estimated that the number of working children worldwide was a staggering 250 million, of which at least 120 million between the ages of 5 and 14 years worked full time, with many subjected to the most intolerable practices. Millions of those children were involved in child labour in India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, child labour involved dangerous and hazardous work; the Government was urged to deploy greater efforts to fully comply with the provisions of its Constitution and national legislation.
It should be noted, the speaker continued, that meeting the challenge of eliminating the exploitation of children would require ongoing efforts both by governments and civil society. Policies for the progressive elimination of child labour must be linked to long-term strategies on education and health services.
ABDELRAHIM ABU YAZID HASSAN, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said Sudanese authorities had armed groups patrolling streets and the entrances of cities, kidnapping students and taking them to military training centres; children as young as 14 were being captured. The authorities wanted to conscript 2 million youth to use them as cannon fodder in light of their desperate situation and the expansion of the Sudanese military conflict. The Government had persistently used children as human shields on the
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battlefields. Lately, the regime had been extrajudicially killing children in some training camps to prevent discovery of its cruel crimes in using child soldiers; more than 140 students had died two weeks ago in two different massacres. The Commission and international community must condemn such acts. There should be independent investigations, the return of the dead bodies of children to their families, and rapid legal trials of those who committed those crimes.
ROBERT FALIZE, of Pax Christi International, said his group was committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, an essential condition for peace. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children in particular had the right to be protected from economic exploitation and should not be subjected to any form of labour which risked their lives. War also violated all the rights of the child. He asked how one could not act against the recruitment of children for armed conflicts. In the war in northern Uganda, for example, the Lord's Resistance Army had forcibly recruited -- kidnapped -- some 10,000 children. Direct and indirect participation in hostilities exposed children to irreversible shock and made their reintegration into society difficult and even impossible.
GOVIND NARAIN SRIVASTAVA, of the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies, said children in developing countries were increasingly deprived of their basic needs and compelled to become breadwinners for their families. The most contemptible forms of such exploitation were the sale of children for labour, particularly bonded labour, and child prostitution. Bonded labour was a widespread practice in south Asia. The evils of child labour or prostitution were born of rapid population growth, poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the situation of children became worse every day; the international community should look into the humanitarian aspect of sanctions, which should be lifted immediately. It was only by safeguarding the basic rights of children and enabling them to grow up in a healthy environment that the prosperity of a civilized society could be ensured.
MASOOMA ALI, of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, said that in Pakistan, there was no federal law on compulsory education, and neither the federal nor provincial governments provided sufficient resources to assure universal education. The country's education system was in disarray, with only 70 per cent of children under age 12 enrolled, and less than half of them completing primary school. On the other hand, there were several madrasa (religious schools) where children were illegally confined and kept in unhealthy conditions. An English-language paper in Pakistan had detailed the death of one 9-year-old boy who was killed while trying to escape such a school. At higher levels of education, there was an atmosphere of violence and intolerance fostered by student organizations tied to political parties. Pakistan was both a State of education and socialization and a place where there were increasing cases of sexual abuse and trafficking. The
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Commission must take note of such situations and intervene to save children from such abuses.
Right of Reply
JOAQUIN ALVAREZ (Costa Rica) said he could not remain silent before the unfounded allegations concerning child prostitution made against his country. Although no country was free from such plagues, his country was exerting many efforts to fight it. The Government was making all efforts to ensure that child pornography, child prostitution and the sale of children did not occur in Costa Rica.
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