Pauline Etienne
28 November 2007
Port Louis — The youths who took part in the workshop against violence organised by the Ombudsperson for Children last July.
The authorities will have a lot of challenges to tackle. This is at least what the Ombudsperson for Children's fourth annual report, published recently, points at. The case of the young boy who was victim of ill treatment at the Correctional Youth Centre (CYC) is among them. Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra's report dedicates a whole chapter to concrete complaints made to the office and especially the one concerning the "minor placed in the Correctional Youth Centre who has been placed in the punishment wing without any clothes on and had been made to sleep on the floor without any bedsheets and bedding of any sort for 48 hours".
More than an additional case of violence, this case was an "eye-opener on the lack of efficiency of reform institutions for minors generally" for the Ombudsperson and she "has therefore made proposals for reform". The report also makes it clear: "The background of the minor also confirms all modern research regarding child neglect. If this child had been identified as being at risk and been protected in time, he may not have ended up in the Correctional Youth Centre at all."
1616 complaints registered
This is one of the major cases that the Ombudsperson for Children (OC) had to deal with this year. But this was a sufficient example for her to take action and ask the appropriate authorities to tackle the issue of correctional youth centres in general. This is just what this annual report aims at, as underlined in the introduction. "It attempts to reflect on the main issues dealt with by the OC and which constitute in fact the challenges for both public authorities and private organisations and individuals dealing with children. The OC considers that this report should be a tool for members of the Assembly in carrying out their own duty to defend children's rights".
The report points out that there have been "1616 complaints in all, out of which 544 were registered after September 2006". It attempts to give some data on the first 1,000 cases just to show the trend of cases being reported to the Office. However, it also makes it clear: "Cases are obviously underreported be it to our office, the CDU or the police".
These data can however give an insight of the types of violence against children. "Most cases reported concern problems in the family (85.4%) with child neglect/abandonment as being the most reported (17%)." This was the case of the minor in the detention centre, as his father was in prison while his mother was ill and incapable caring after him. There are also cases of battered children, children beyond control and domestic violence.
The Parental Empowerment Programme launched by the ministry of Women is among the initiatives that should prevent more violence. Just as the Mentoring project, on which the ministry is said to be seriously working, the programme involves the strengthening of the family and the idea of maintaining the child in his environment.
Although it would be desirable that every child at risk be put in a place of safety, "there are not enough rooms in either institutions or the 30 foster families now functioning". But the report clearly states that the "most important principle is that a child should only be removed from his family as a last resort".
"Regarding problems at school, cases reported amount to 26.1%. Most of these concern school drop-out (11.1%), request for school transfer, corporal punishment, humiliation and bullying," the report points out. This year, the OC has paid particular attention to violence at school. The kit on prevention of violence at school is one of the most important tools introduced by the OC. School can help fight violence and one of the ways would be to introduce Human Rights Education as the OC "has always advocated"
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