encontradas na defesa dos direitos das crianças e sugestões de como superar estes obstáculos. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, coordenador do CEPID / NEV, assina um destes textos.
Em comemoração aos 20 anos da Convenção Sobre os Direitos da Criança, a ser celebrado no dia 20 de novembro, a publicação anual "State of the World's Children" está lançando uma série de ensaios chamados "Perspectivas a respeito da Convenção sobre os Direitos da Criança".
Diversos colaboradores escreveram textos com suas perspectivas a respeito dos significados da convenção, seu impacto, dificuldades encontradas na defesa dos direitos das crianças, além de apontarem caminhos para superar os desafios restantes no século XXI.
A série de ensaios, publicada no site da UNICEF, instiga governos, organizações internacionais, empresas e indivíduos a trabalhem em conjunto para assegurar que as promessas da convenção se tornem realidade para as crianças.
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, coordenador do CEPID / NEV-USP, foi responsável por um desses ensaios. A partir de sua experiência como Ex-Relator da ONU para a Violência contra Criança e de sua atuação recente como Comissionado e Relator da Infância da Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (CIDH-OEA), Pinheiro defende o fim da impunidade para casos de violência contra à criança, bem como o aperfeiçoamento da justiça juvenil.
Children behind bars: Promoting restorative juvenile justice
by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
Institutional violence perpetrated against children in
conflict with the law is a fundamental concern for child
protection and adolescent rights. International standards of
human rights, such as the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, have identified these youth as being the very groups
that need special assistance and protection for
rehabilitation and reintegration into society. In reality, they
are often the most vulnerable members of society, and are
routinely submitted to the worst forms of violence.
Legal systems were designed to be the final protectors of societies and individuals, yet it is not
uncommon for those in power to violate the rights of the state’s own citizens. Authorities
throughout history and in all regions of the world have exploited political unrest, economic
hardship or natural disasters as an excuse to promote repressive and arbitrary strategies against children and youth. These actions often contradict international human rights laws and
agreements. Stigmatized and vulnerable, children and youth in conflict with the law have difficulty in their communities, and are habitually subjected to degrading treatment by state authorities and institutions.
Violence against children
Twenty years after the introduction of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, increased levels of violence against children in many regions of the globe are undermining the important and decisive achievements of the Convention. With its specific references to a human rights‐based approach to child survival and development, protection, and participation, the Convention has made an invaluable contribution to the rights of children behind bars. In my mind, this is the most important impact the treaty has for child victims of institutional violence. Yet despite this
achievement, the role of security and justice systems in oppressing youth remains a major source of violence against them.
In 2003, I was appointed to work on a United Nations mission examining violence against children. For several years, I collaborated with experts across the globe to identify threats children face, and to analyze the vulnerabilities that plague them. Our work, published in the 2006 World Report on Violence Against Children, demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of children in the criminal justice system do not belong there.
Many of these children come from communities and homes without a stable social network or
access to education and basic material needs. As a result, they are subjected to inadequate care
and protection systems, leading them to fall through society’s cracks. For these children, the
likelihood of turning to drugs and petty crime, becoming a party to sexualized commerce and
coming into conflict with the law is greatly enhanced.
Children face a high risk of violence at virtually every stage of contact with the justice system, and the misuse of detention puts large numbers of them at risk for violence. Perhaps of greatest
concern is the impunity and lack of accountability that many state perpetrators of violence have. I believe this has created an entrenched culture of abuse towards youth in many legal systems
throughout the world.
Juvenile justice
The Convention is the most important instrument concerning the promotion, respect and
implementation of the human rights of children. For the past 20 years, it has embodied the core
norms for the development of legal instruments, programmes and policies concerning children.
The juvenile justice system is one of the sectors that has benefited the most from the nearuniversal ratification of the Convention.
Several articles assert the rights of children to physical and personal integrity, and establish high standards for the protection of children against violence. Article 19 is central in this context,
providing that states must take all measures “to protect the child from all forms of physical or
mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation,
including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who
has the care of the child.”
Article 37 mirrors the Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, declaring that every child has the right to protection from “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” from capital punishment and from
life imprisonment without possibility of release.
These articles provide a basic foundation for policies to decrease the number of children coming
into conflict with the law in the first place, by addressing the root challenges they face relating to
care and protection. But for these efforts to be successful, a more comprehensive application of
the Convention – focusing on the decriminalization of such survival behaviours as begging,
loitering and vagrancy – is urgently needed.
State sanctioned care
Likewise, youth who are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation must be treated with care and
respect by state authorities, instead of being treated as criminals. There is an urgent need to
reserve the formal criminal and juvenile justice systems for only the most serious and violent of
offenders. Ensuring comprehensive, child‐focused restorative juvenile justice systems is the best path for an effective implementation of the Convention and other international standards.
There are no quick or easy solutions to transforming formal and societal attitudes towards child
rights. Nor are there universal plans that can be developed and replicated across countries
without regard to local contexts, resources and behaviours towards child rights. Accountability for crimes of violence against children must be achieved, and I am convinced that by utilizing the Convention, governments and communities can make lasting changes to the way youth are
treated.
It is imperative for all those who work for child rights to recognize that children are indeed people. As Maud de Boer Buquicchio, Deputy‐Secretary‐General of the Council of Europe, poignantly observed, children are not mini‐human beings, with mini‐human rights. Thanks to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world’s governments no longer consider them so.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro is the Commissioner and Rapporteur on Children for the Inter‐American
Commission on Human Rights. From 2003 to 2008, he served as the Independent Expert of the UN Secretary‐General for the study on violence against children. Currently, he is a research associate at the Center for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Fonte: NEV/USP
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário