Govt neglects child abuse, Seto says<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government's decision to omit from its UN report, allegations
\nof child abuse during the May 1998 upheavals and the ongoing war
\nin Aceh smacks of defiance and misrepresentation, according to a
\nNational Commission for Children's Protection (Komnas PA) member.<\/p>\n
Government representatives will present a periodic report to
\nthe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child next week in Geneva,
\nSwitzerland.<\/p>\n
Seto Mulyadi of the National Commission for Child Protection
\n(Komnas PA) said on Friday that important data on rampant child
\nabuse in the strife-torn province of Aceh as well as in Jakarta
\nduring the May 1998 violence and recent evictions were not
\nmentioned in the report, despite specific requests from the UN
\nCommittee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).<\/p>\n
The CRC had rejected Indonesia's earlier report compiled
\nbetween 1993 and 2000 due to lack of data on child abuse in Aceh
\nand Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"The government should be more serious about children's
\nproblems in the country and more serious about preparing the
\nreport,\" said Seto after a meeting with State Minister of Women's
\nEmpowerment Sri Redjeki Soemaryoto in which they discussed the
\nGeneva report on Friday.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's report has been prepared by Sri Redjeki's office,
\nand according to Seto they claimed the omissions were due to lack
\nof statistical evidence.<\/p>\n
The country will be the first UN member state to present its
\nreport, and will send a 24-member delegation to the Convention on
\nthe Rights of the Child from Jan. 13 to Jan. 20 but,
\ninexplicably, it will not include any members of Komnas PA.<\/p>\n
The government earlier claimed that it was having difficulties
\ncollecting data on child abuse as demanded by the UN due to the
\neconomic crisis in 1997 and political instability thereafter.<\/p>\n
\"But that's what we've been doing ... supplying the government
\nwith the necessary data,\" Seto said.<\/p>\n
The Komnas PA report revealed, among other things, that 1,536
\nchildren would be unable to continue their schooling due to
\nevictions in Jakarta from September to December 2003.<\/p>\n
Seto said he wished the government would tell the truth about
\nchildren's problems in the country and offered to cooperate in
\nsolving the many cases of rampant child abuse.<\/p>\n
No Indonesian non-governmental organizations will be attend
\nthe Geneva meetings as the government has allocated all the seats
\nto government officials from the State Minister for Women's
\nEmpowerment office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry
\nof Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs.<\/p>\n
Seto said NGO activists, as well as Komnas PA, were excluded
\nfrom the delegation because they already got a chance to go to
\nGeneva to discuss the implementation of the CRC convention in
\nOctober last year.<\/p>\n
The UN committee has invited NGOs to Geneva for next week's
\nconvention as observers.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-neglects-child-abuse-seto-says-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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