Children's Rights
Children are the world's most important resource. By working for children's rights
we are also creating the breeding ground for a better future.
Today's seeds are the trees of the future.
Children's rights in Madagascar
Madagascar is far from the tropical paradise it may seem. It is a country where the rights of many children are not met and are incomplete: Malagasy children are confronted with poverty every day.
Main problems children face:
In 2012, according to UNICEF, it was estimated that 82% of children under the age of 18 lived below the poverty line. These children and their families live in extreme need and are unable to maintain their basic needs. Poverty is particularly prevalent in rural areas, where close to 70% of the population lives, mostly in remote and isolated areas without basic infrastructure (such as access to drinking water, sanitation or schools). Only 46% of the population has access to drinking water, and only 15% have an adequate sanitation system.
In addition, the island is one of the six most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. It is not only plagued by cyclones, but also by drought and locust invasions in the southern part of the country. These phenomena send the local population into chaos. As a result, poor families become even more vulnerable and unable to protect their children. The rights of these children are often pushed into the background in light of survival attempts.
According to the World Bank, one of the consequences of such poverty is that one in four Malagasy children aged 5 to 17 have to work to support their families. Normally, they help their parents work in the fields. Sometimes families send their children - mainly their daughters - to work as servants in the city for richer families who can promise to send them to school.
25% of these child workers perform jobs that pose a health risk. The UN recently condemned poverty and impunity that have helped a modern version of slavery develop in Madagascar. It includes forced marriages and children who are forced to work in mines and quarries. In addition, children working in mines are at risk of physical abuse, sexual exploitation and respiratory diseases, all of which can be fatal.
FNs komite for barns rettigheter er opptatt av et annet voksende fenomen knyttet til denne typen slaveri: menneskehandel, spesielt med barn fra Madagaskar til Midt-Østen og andre naboland “for slaveri og seksuell utnyttelse.”
Young girls make up a large number of sex workers. Unfortunately, there is a growing trade in sexual tourism in Madagascar. On July 29, 2013, the UN condemned the common practice of sexually exploiting children in Madagascar, and impunity for those responsible.
The government has not really taken any effective steps to combat this human trafficking. Sometimes a society or even parents themselves will close their eyes, or even accept such exploitation, since it provides a source of income. This can also lead to physical abuse.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regrets the increase in such inter-family violence, which includes sexual violence, especially against girls, which is not punished either by the courts or by society. Every year, more than a thousand children disappear in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. These children are leaving their homes because they are likely to be beaten by family members. Many end up living on the streets.
Unhygienic conditions and unclean water often lead to diarrhea and related diseases. Children under the age of 5 are the most vulnerable: There is a mortality rate of 54 per thousand, a large number. Cases of malaria have increased, and it is still the leading cause of death among children.
Very few medical institutes exist in the rural regions of Madagascar, and most of the population does not have access to basic health care. The national health budget has been cut significantly during the political crisis; Some basic health centers have been closed, very little medicine is available, and there is a severe shortage of trained health professionals.
Adolescents in Madagascar have a significant problem with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), although the number of people infected with AIDS is paradoxically particularly low compared to other African countries. Major prevention campaigns are organized every year to provide knowledge about basic protection against sexually transmitted diseases in young Malagasy.
Right to food
Another serious health problem that has arisen along with the political crisis: 4 million gassers do not know when they will be able to get their next meal, a problem that affects children greatly.
50% of children under the age of 5 suffer from endemic and chronic malnutrition, especially in the southern part of the country: 24% of them are under 6 months old. Such figures mean that Madagascar is the sixth worst country in the world when it comes to stunted growth.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has sounded the alarm: the political crisis threatens to exacerbate the problem in Madagascar, especially if international aid organizations cut their support, such as the World Food Program, which has halted funding for school cafeterias.
Only 66% of the children complete primary school, which is explained by the low attendance rate and the high drop-out rate, especially among girls. The political crisis of 2009 has reduced the government's progress dramatically: the education budget has been reduced, while qualified personnel and infrastructure are still lacking in Madagascar, especially in rural areas.
14.2% of the children have never been to school.
In some rural areas, schools offer only two to three years of tuition due to temporary shelters or staff shortages.
Praktisering basert på tradisjoner og skikker eksisterer fremdeles, enkelte er skadelige for barns rettigheter, som tvangsekteskap og forlate “forheksede” tvillinger.
48% of women aged 20-24 in Madagascar were married before the age of 18. In 2007, the legal marriage age was set at 18 for girls, instead of 14 years as it once was. Despite this reform, however, many girls - and also boys - are forced to marry against their will, sometimes as young as 10 years.
Some young girls are married to much older men. When they become widows, they are discriminated against and excluded from society.
More than a quarter of women in Madagascar become mothers for the first time between the ages of 15 and 19, which poses a threat to the health of both mother and child during childbirth.
Juveniles and the justice system, minors in prison
No legal process exists that deals specifically with minors; children, including girls, are not kept separate from adults in detention centers. Judges, prosecutors and other legal professionals are not trained to deal with minors in the judicial system. In addition, prisons are overcrowded, and living conditions there (violence and lack of food and health care) are extremely difficult for minors, who are sometimes as young as 14 years old.
Partners for a sustainable and prosperous Madagascar
