The violence that confronts Mexico places children and adolescents as one of the groups most unprotected and vulnerable to physical, mental and emotional abuse, said Silvia Solís San Vicente, from the National School of Social Work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM).
On the eve of the International Day of Innocent Child Victims of Aggression, commemorated this June 4, the academic said that in addition to family aggressions, Mexican children suffer social, political and economic violence.
Official figures show that two children under 14 years die every day because of the violence in Mexico. Meanwhile, information from the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) indicates that our country occupies one of the first places in physical violence, sexual abuse and murder of children and adolescents, which is often inflicted by parents themselves.
According to the international organization, six in ten Mexican children have directly experienced some form of violence at home or at school. Several reports generalize that the mother was responsible in almost half the cases (47 percent), and the father was responsible in 29 percent of cases.
Indicators of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] declare that Mexico occupies first place in physical violence, sexual abuse and murder of children under 14 years of age. The National Commission on Human Rights warns that 60 percent of children between one and 14 years of age are victims of various violent actions that damage their integrity.
For Solís San Vicente, the State has the obligation to implement educational policies that promote living together, foster the construction of freedom and modify cultural patterns starting with family and social cohesion. Institutions for providing assistance to victims are required--she said--to have specialized programs for children, in order that they be considered as subjects of rights.
Indicators of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] declare that Mexico occupies first place in physical violence, sexual abuse and murder of children under 14 years of age. The National Commission on Human Rights warns that 60 percent of children between one and 14 years of age are victims of various violent actions that damage their integrity.
For Solís San Vicente, the State has the obligation to implement educational policies that promote living together, foster the construction of freedom and modify cultural patterns starting with family and social cohesion. Institutions for providing assistance to victims are required--she said--to have specialized programs for children, in order that they be considered as subjects of rights.
Meanwhile, Óscar Galicia Castillo, from the Department of Psychology at the Iberoamerican University, indicated that parental neglect is another form of abuse against children as it contributes to causing disorders of insecurity, anxiety and depression. The fact that parents do not pay enough attention to their children, to educating without setting limits and not exercising their obligation to protect them, should be considered as abuse. Spanish original