Children fleeing violence in Central America: A major regression for the right of the child
By Amanda Rives, Regional Advocacy and Mobilization Director, Latin America and the Caribbean, World Vision
As we come upon 25 years after the passage of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, there is much to reflect on in Latin America, a region that championed and led the way on children’s rights. Within one year of the CRC being available for signature, 21 countries in the region had already ratified it, representing both a third of the region as well as a third of the total ratifications at that point. Civil society movements and coalitions for child rights were formed; the convention was codified in national legislation and constitutions; children and adolescents claimed their places in decision making; and an inspiring commitment to child rights was born that continues today throughout the region.
Though progress has been made in the past 25 years, most children in the region are from having their rights realized, and are in some ways much more vulnerable and marginalized than their parents were. While advances have been made in terms of child focused legislation, policies, and even budgets, increasing violence and debilitating inequality has led to serious setbacks in child protection and well-being, even in the advancement of rights such as education and health, which should have been areas of great achievement in this region.
In Central America, raging violence has stopped the advancement of the CRC in its tracks. Spiraling organized crime and gang violence in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has resulted in an exodus of children fleeing their communities, many running for their lives. In their home countries, the lack of protection in their communities leaves them vulnerable to violence in all aspects of their lives, ranging from extortion on the street to domestic and sexual abuse. As the crisis has deepened, more and more children are deprived of their right to education, health, and the right to grow up in a loving, secure environment.
Not only must they live in neighborhoods teeming with violence, children in Central America are intentionally targeted. Gang leaders force children to work for them from as early as age 10, threatening those who refuse with death. Many children have stopped going to school, as classrooms have become recruiting grounds. The situation more closely resembles that of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, where children are forcibly recruited, than a conflict where children are accidental casualties caught in the crossfire between two sides. Their rights are being deliberately violated at ever increasing rates, and the failed nature of the states charged with their protection leaves many children with no choice but to try to escape across the border to the United States.
While migration north and within countries in the region is not a new phenomenon, the recent flood of unaccompanied child migrants can be directly attributed to the violence epidemic and the lack of state response. The governments at hand fail to protect them the way they committed to by ratifying the CRC 25 years ago. They have the unequivocal responsibility to make ending this violence a priority regardless of the inherent difficulties and dangers.
By fleeing, children often face even worse fates; the terrible irony of their plight is that these children attempting to reach a safe haven often face even worse trauma on the migrant trail, even falling into the hands of human traffickers and disappearing into forced labor and sexual exploitation rings. On the migrant trail, they experience sexual abuse, extortion, and even death. These children have been failed by the international community, the United States, and Mexico, as well as their home countries in realizing their rights under the CRC.
In this type of crisis, the failure of the United States to ratify the CRC becomes particularly debilitating. It weakens the ability of this government to pressure Central American governments to prioritize child rights, and has allowed an additional crisis to form, namely, that of overwhelmed border shelters where arriving children are kept for long periods of time in confined, crowded spaces, deprived of the rights guaranteed by the CRC.
As the 25th anniversary of the CRC approaches and many countries plan celebrations and commemorations, we should critically reflect on where we are failing children in the region and globally. We need to hold governments to account to the commitment they made in 1989 to protect and prioritize children’s rights. We need to look at the factors that not only prohibit the realization of children’s rights but are also creating serious setbacks in child protection and their well-being. The current situation in Central America and on the US border is a stark reminder of the unspeakable violations children still face today 25 years later.