Latin America, below average for child abuse laws

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Latin America lags behind the world average in terms of laws that protect and respond to sexual violence against minors — a problem that affects millions of children every year — and, more , it does so very unevenly even within the same country, which weakens protection.

This was the diagnosis of the regional report “Out of the Shadows”, prepared by the analysis unit The Economist for the Ignite Philanthropy foundation and published on Tuesday, which places Brazil and Mexico at the top of the region. and Venezuela and Argentina at the bottom.

The document analyzes the situation in nine countries in the region – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela – based on a global survey last year that assessed how 60 countries on five continents deal with sexual violence. against children and adolescents in its laws and public policies.

Interestingly, the performance of nations has nothing to do with their income, as shown by the fact that the United States is behind Brazil and Mexico or that Argentina is worse off than other poorer countries. from Latin America, such as Guatemala.

According to 2021 UNICEF data, one in six girls and one in 10 boys have experienced sexual abuse in Latin American countries.

And the big problem is that, generally, minors are not listened to, the abusers are their caregivers and if they report they are re-victimized. Justice may never come.

The current survey does not give the number of victims, but Víctor Sande-Aneiros, of the International Network for the Rights of the Child (CRIN), an organization that collaborated in its publication, assured that the number was increasing in most of the countries, although it could also be due to the fact that there are more complaints.

However, he pointed out that “if there is a lot of impunity and if they continue to occur systematically, it is because something is missing”.

One of the widespread problems mentioned in the report concerns the inconsistencies in the criminalization of all types of sexual violence against minors and in the prevention of the recidivism of the aggressors.

Another, vital according to all the organizations, is that in most countries these crimes have a statute of limitations, which can lead to high rates of impunity since survivors can take decades to prepare to report.

Argentina, for example, does not include all internationally typified forms (such as bribery of minors), which means that a crime is interpretable and therefore penalties can be very light. This country also does not have a police force specializing in child abuse, although the medical care of victims is its greatest strength.

In fact, the entire region is much better at responding to this type of violence than preventing it, with the exception of Peru, which has the lowest score for support and recovery services. It lacks, for example, something basic, a specialized telephone hotline.

Brazil ranks first regionally and globally in terms of legislation that broadly criminalizes sexual activity with minors and is the only one with a clear source to fund its national plan to combat this type of violence. However, she could not consider these crimes as imprescriptible.

Neither does Mexico, despite the fact that the country has strong laws and extensive training plans for judges and prosecutors, according to the report. In fact, the issue was debated in the Mexican Parliament and reached the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule.

Only seven Latin American countries recognize the imprescriptibility of these crimes, the first being El Salvador and the last Venezuela.

Another delicate point is the age of sexual consent, that is to say from which if the minor agrees to have relations, these are not considered a crime. Jamaica and Venezuela have the highest age in the region, 16, while in federal countries like Mexico it differs from state to state (in some Mexican states it is 12 ), leaving many miners in very vulnerable conditions. adults.

Despite the fact that there are advances, the document recalls that the vulnerability of minors has increased with the increase in migration, internal displacement, natural disasters and sexual exploitation on the Internet.

Juan Martín Pérez, coordinator of Tejiendo Redes Infancia in Latin America and the Caribbean, a group that brings together various NGOs in much of the region, adds two general problems: children’s voices are still not valued and “one thing it is the law and another institutionality, that is to say that the norms can be applied” in a generalized and not punctual way.