Vow to stop child abuse
IN 1998, Pacific representatives attending a two-day conference on Preventing the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children agreed on the recommendation that they would stop this act in their home countries.
According to an article published by in June 4 of that year, the representatives agreed to have a network through which they could help prevent the exploitation of their children back home.
Statistics from the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) alone indicated a total of 153 child abuse cases were seen by counsellors from Suva, Ba, Lautoka and Labasa from 1993 to May of that year.
The centre coordinator, Shamima Ali, said 38 per cent of sexual abusers were either biological fathers, grandfathers or stepfathers.
Twenty-three per cent of the abusers were relatives and 32 per cent were family friends, neighbours, teachers, priests or boyfriends.
Only seven per cent were strangers.
Fifty-nine cases were reported, she said.
Ms Ali said the previous four years, the number of adult survivors who had presented at FWCC had increased.
“It is difficult to determine whether the incidence of child abuse is actually increasing or whether the increasing number of survivors seen at FWCC can be attributed to an increasing awareness of the issue,” she said.
“The statistics are not an accurate reflection as child abuse is a highly underreported crime.”
Ms Ali said the commercial sexual exploitation of children was suspected to be a problem for some time.
It was feared that because of the crackdown on child trafficking and prostitution in Asia, the market would move to the Pacific where there were loopholes in the law, she said.
Poverty was a serious problem here and according to the statistics, 25 per cent of the population were below the poverty line, Ms Ali said.
“This type of situation makes the children vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation,” she said.