Investing in children

Investing in children

Facts presented at the sixth ministerial consultation of the
East Asia and Pacific region, which ended on Wednesday in
Denpasar, make it clear that children continue to be the objects
of abuse and neglect at the hands of adults.

The latest reports published by Unicef and the Indonesian
government reveal, among other things, that children in this
region feature prominently in cases of human trafficking and
exploitation, either sexual or otherwise. This is the case
despite the fact that many nations in the region, Indonesia
included, have ratified the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child.

While recognizing progress, for instance in the area of
education, delegations from 26 countries reported that crimes
such as the trafficking of children, mainly girls, for labor,
sexual exploitation and forced marriage continued to take place.
Delegates issued the "Bali Consensus" in which they pledged
greater support for the region's children.

In an interview with this newspaper, chairman of the United
Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jaap E. Doek, said
that in the case of young victims of sexual exploitation, finding
a way out was not impossible.

While he confirmed that disclosed cases of sexual
exploitation, including for Indonesia, were likely the tip of the
iceberg, or only the "camel's nose", he said the demand for
children as sexual objects had declined in areas where
governments sent a clear message that perpetrators faced legal
consequences, a case in point being Sri Lanka.

Our own government's report at the meeting said only a few
cases of pedophilia had been processed in the courts, while
reports of such crimes had been found in major cities such as
Medan, Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya.

In the meantime, human trafficking is only one of the plights
children in the region face. The condition of Indonesia's
children has worsened since the onset of the economic crisis in
1997, as reflected in the latest available data. An increasing
number of children in the country face malnourishment, have been
forced to drop out of school, live on the streets or work in
dirty and dangerous jobs while their parents strive to make ends
meet.

The average Indonesian child, the country report says, "spends
two and a half months a year with a cough, 40 days a year with a
fever and two weeks a year with diarrhea".

Basic health services have suffered since the crisis,
contributing, along with other factors, to "a lost generation in
the long run", the document says. As cited by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, 10 million of our children, according to the
latest available data, do not even live to see their fifth
birthday.

Children also continue to be part of our refugee population
fleeing conflict areas. In Aceh, children have repeatedly emerged
on lists of civilians caught in the cross-fire, even as more
military operations in the province await and advocates of such
operations emphasize that all will be done to ensure minimum
"collateral damage".

Recent victims included two girls in Bireun -- Ina Rahmati,
10, who was killed, and her friend Fitriana, 12, who was
seriously wounded.

As the Denpasar talks closed, a report from the International
Commission of Jurists (ICJ) revealed that thousands of
Indonesia's children do not even have the basic right of
citizenship, having been born stateless among families living
along the Indonesian-Papua New Guinea border. Now "forgotten
people", the ICJ report said, the families fled military
operations over the past two decades.

It must be noted that not only has Indonesia ratified the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but last year a
law on child protection was finally passed after the draft had
gathered dust for years in the legislature.

All this should be enough to help us implement the UN's
"Millennium Development Goals", which include reducing child
mortality rates and eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. But
to get adults to act on a situation, even when it concerns life
and death, one must talk in terms of money.

Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy thus hit the right
note when she urged us to invest in our children. "The
eradication of poverty, the fostering of peace, the nurturing of
human potential, all start with one thing: Investing in
children," she said at the Denpasar forum.

It does not take an economist to grasp that a large portion of
the state budget is at present allocated to paying the debts of
recalcitrant businesspeople, and that remaining funds continue to
be subject to corruption -- making any statement of "investing"
in children on our part mere rhetoric.

A prerequisite for ensuring "a world fit for children", in the
parlance of the UN campaign, is to learn how to place the needs
of the young at the center of policy-making, as a number of
earlier international meetings on children have pointed out.

Indonesia now has the renewed support of our East Asia and
Pacific neighbors in saving our children. But distracted as our
policymakers are by next year's elections, we sincerely hope that
they will still find the time to consider the interests of the
next generation.