Subject: [Stop-traffic] News/Asia - children / sex tourism
From: Jyothi Kanics (jyothi@odihr.osce.waw.pl)
Date: Fri Jan 01 1904 - 15:41:28 EST
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-
pacific/newsid_926000/926853.stm
Asia's child sex victims ignored
Children who have been sexually abused in Asian
countries are badly neglected by grossly inadequate
health and social services according to two United
Nations reports.
The research, unveiled in Bangkok found victims of
abuse as young as four.
The UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP) said Asian governments are
failing the children caught up in the region's sex
industry.
The report highlights the
failure of social services in
countries like Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam to
provide adequate
psychological support for
child victims of rape and
incest, or for those used
as prostitutes or in
pornography.
While the physical health
of the child victims is
sometimes dealt with,
psychological assistance to help them overcome the
trauma of sexual abuse and exploitation is virtually
non-existent.
'Shocked'
Nanda Krairiksh, from ESCAP human resources
development section the unit which carried out some
of the research, says it is essential the psychological
problems are dealt with.
"We were quite shocked in terms of the psychological
findings."
" We didn't expect them to be so severe," she said.
The reports on the Greater Mekong subregion and
South Asia found sexually exploited and abused
children often suffer mental problems such as
depression, suicidal tendencies and substance abuse.
Taboo subject
While there is some public awareness of sexual
exploitation of children, incest and child rape were
taboo subjects in Asia which made the problem harder
to tackle, she said.
Poverty, lack of education,
drug abuse and family
problems were listed as
contributing factors in the
abuse and exploitation of
children.
In Cambodia 98% of girls in
prostitution are the main
providers for their families and in Vietnam 49% of girls
in prostitution were victims of prior sexual abuse, the
studies found.
Some 80% of sexually exploited children in Thailand
were from dysfunctional families and 31% had been
victims of sexual abuse.
Many Asian governments would rather ignore the
issue than admit they had a problem with sexual
abuse and exploitation of children, Nanda Krairiksh
said.
_______________________________________________
Stop-traffic mailing list
Stop-traffic@friends-partners.org
http://fpmail.friends-partners.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/stop-traffic
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a22 : Mon Dec 04 2000 - 17:13:12 EST