This website is possible by the support of Christian Aid,  Rights and Democracy,  OXFAM NOVIB  and OXFAM GB

Monitoring alternative report from Uruguay to the CEDAW
   

Return
 

 

CLADEM - ECUADOR

ALTERNATIVE REPORT TO THE CONVENTION ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

PERIOD: 1996 – 2002

 

 

Silvana Sánchez, Susy Garbay (INREDH)

Gardenia Chávez

Azucena Soledispa

Natalia Tapia

SORED

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Ecuador’s Political, Social and Economic Context

 

During the period under review, the governments of Sixto Durán Ballén, (1992-1996), Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz (1996-1997), Rosalía Arteaga (1 day), Fabián Alarcón (1997-1998), Jamil Mahuad Witt (1998) and Alvaro Noboa Bejarano (2001-2003) adopted structural adjustment policies and privileged the payment of foreign debt, leaving social investment unattended, which affected directly the living conditions of the most vulnerable sectors: women, girls, boys and adolescents, third-age people, indigenous people and afro-Ecuadorians, causing an increase in the population on poverty situation to 70%.

 

The Political Constitution considers childhood and adolescence top priority; however, the characterization of age as well as gender is not taken in consideration at the time of designing and executing public policies, and neither is the ethnic/racial category.

 

Non-compliance with the obligation of maintaining statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, and ethnics, in the State offices, precludes showing the real situation regarding the State’s compliance with international obligations related to these sectors.

 

This situation has already been an issue of concern for the Children’s Rights Committee, which, in the list of issues that must be addressed when examining Ecuador’s second and third periodic reports, expressly requests the Ecuadorian State to present statistical information data disaggregated by sex, age group, indigenous and ethnic groups, and rural and urban zones.[1]

 

 

ARTICLE 19

 

THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENCE

 

In spite of the obligations contracted by Ecuador as State Party to the Convention on Children’s Rights and the Belem do Para Convention, from the data attached it is evident that these obligations have not been duly complied with, thus:

 

Ø       Data from the “Isidro Ayora” Gynecology/Obstetric Hospital, between July 2000 and January 2001, in the Adolescents’ Integral Attention Service, reveals 34 cases (12.83%) of pregnant girls that entered due to severe battering.[2]

 

Ø       The Boys, Girls and Adolescents Specialized Police Bureau (DINAPEN), has no data disaggregated by sex that would allow appreciating the actual impact of violence against girls and adolescent women.

 

Ø       The Women’s National Council (CONAMU) and the Corporation for the Promotion of Women/Women’s Communication Workshop evidences that which is common and permanent in relation to sexual violence manifestations on the life and environment of young girls.[3]

 

 

ARTICLE 22

 

SITUATION OF THE MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDHOOD

 

The obligations derived from the subscription of the Convention on Children’s Rights and the Belem do Para Convention in relation to the migrant childhood have not been duly complied with:

 

According to the official statistics issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25,272 refugee applications have been received from the year 2000 until May 2004. Regarding the statistical data, it is not registered by sex or age, therefore it is impossible to know exactly how many of the under-18 group that have requested refugee status are men and how many are women. Nevertheless, it is known that of the total persons requesting the status, approximately 27% are under 18 years of age.

 

Most of the refugee boys and girls in Ecuador face the same limitations as the majority of Ecuadorian boys and girls, mainly related to poverty, which is undoubtedly the major obstacle to ensure the quality of life to the country’s boys, girls and adolescents. Between 1995 and 1998, boys, girls and adolescents increased from 38% to 45%.

 

 

ARTICLE 28

 

THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

 

The obligations assumed through the subscription of the Convention on Children’s Rights and the Belem do Para Convention in relation to education have not yet been duly complied with, thus:

 

In Ecuador, “… 3 out of every 10 boys and girls drop out of primary education and only 4 out of every 10 adolescents finish the 10 years of basic education. 9 out of every 10 children under the age of 6 do not have access to pre-school education or daily care; 1 out of every 3 boys and girls do not get to finish the 6 years of primary schooling and 1 out of 5 children drop out of school in the fourth grade (fifth year of basic education).”[4]

 

 

Of the population aged 12 to 17, only 68% attended an educational institution.[5] Only 45% of the boys and girls in the age of studying high school were actually doing so.

 

“In 2001, 75% of the boys and girls aged 12 to 14 attended classes in some educational level, whilst 46% of the adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 studied. This explains that the population’s educational deficit is so large: currently, slightly over two out of every ten adolescents aged 18 or more have finished high school.”

 

According to the 2000 World Bank Report[6], at the national level, with minimal differences, the girls’ rate of enrollment was higher than that of boys in all the levels, except for the 12 to 17 age group.

 

The teaching practices as well as the school texts used in the Ecuadorian educational system tend to reproduce and reinforce the gender stereotypes and the separation of the private environment-public space.[7]

 

Regarding the female adolescent dropouts, one of the causes is pregnancy. A qualitative research performed in young Ecuadorian boys and girls[8], evidences that “according to the last 2001 population census, in Ecuador, 118,264 adolescents have a child and 25% of them dropped out due to pregnancy (sic)”.

 

 

 

ARTICLE 30

 

SITUATION OF THE INDIGENOUS CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

 

The international obligations derived from the subscription of the Convention on Children’s Rights and the Belem do Para Convention have not been duly attended:

 

The situation of the indigenous childhood and adolescence and particularly the specific situation of the girls and adolescent women are of special concern, taking into account that poverty affects mainly the provinces with larger indigenous concentration, zones that concentrate the highest illiteracy rates.[9]

 

Nevertheless, the Ecuadorian State does not possess statistical data that reflects the real situation of the indigenous girls and adolescent women.  The only data available was the one related to data on the exploitation of infantile work: 39% of adolescent women and 61% of adolescent males are forced to work.[10]

 

 

ARTICLE 32

 

THE RIGHT TO THE PROTECTION AGAINST ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION OF CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

 

Ecuador’s commitments when signing the Convention on Children’s rights and the Belem do Para Convention, related to the protection against the economic exploitation of childhood have not been yet been attended:

 

As evidenced by research performed by Human Right’s Watch, which interviewed 45 boys and girls working in banana plantations, 41 had started working in the sector when they were between 8 and 13 years of age; and out of these 41, most of them place starting work at the ages of 10 or 11.

The boys and girls described workdays of 12 ½ hours and dangerous working conditions that violated their human rights, aside from suffering sexual harassment.  More than 60% of the boys/girls interviewed had not gone to school at age 14.

 

 

 

ARTICLE 34

 

THE RIGHT TO THE PROTECTION AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

 

The Ecuadorian State undertook to protect children against all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, by subscribing the Convention on Children’s Rights.  Likewise, by subscribing the Belem do Para Convention, it committed to adopt measures to prevent and eradicate violence, including sexual violence against women, girls and adolescents, guaranteeing their physical, psychic and moral integrity.  For this it committed to act with due diligence to prevent and investigate violence against women, girls and adolescents.

 

Article 50 of Ecuador’s Political Constitution points out that: “the State shall adopt the measures that ensure for the children and adolescents the following guarantees: 4. Protection against trafficking of minors, pornography, prostitution, sexual exploitation, drug abuse, use of psychotropic substances, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.”

 

The Ecuadorian Constitution and the Code of Childhood and Adolescence foresee a protective framework for childhood and adolescence; however, in spite of four bills that have currently been presented to typify the offenses against the sexual integrity of children, still National Congress has not proceeded to the reform.

 

Neither has the national legislation been adapted to the standards of the international instruments ratified by Ecuador regarding the trafficking of minors to subject them to labor and/or sexual exploitation.

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

1.      The Ecuadorian State must comply with its international obligations derived from the Convention on Children’s Rights and the Belem do Para Convention related to the effective enforcement of girls’ and adolescent women’s rights, by means of an effective promotion and education of the population on the rights of these and the mechanisms to enforce them.

 

2.      The Ecuadorian State must adapt its internal legislation to the international standards that typify the offenses of sexual violence against women, girls and adolescents.

 

3.      The Ecuadorian State must implement through its public policies, and with the allocation of adequate budgets, an effective social investment that guarantees to the girls and adolescent women, without discrimination, the right to education; to a life free from violence; to the protection of girls and adolescent migrant and refugee women; to the protection against sexual and labor exploitation.

 

4.      The Ecuadorian State must maintain statistical data disaggregated by sex, age, and ethnics, to the effect of being able to monitor the degree of compliance and demand, based on that data, the adoption of public policies that allow respect for and real enforcement of, the rights of girls and adolescent women.

 

5.      It is indispensable that the Ecuadorian State adopt efficient educational measures to eradicate conducts that discriminate girls and adolescents of any kind.

 

 


 

ALTERNATIVE REPORT TO THE

CONVENTION ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

PERIOD: 1996 - 2002

 

 

Ecuador’s Political, Social and Economic Context

 

During the Report’s period, in Ecuador structural adjustment policies were adopted in the implementation and consolidation of the neo-liberal economic model, which affects directly the detriment of the construction of a democratic and participative State, respectful of the principle of account rendering; on the contrary, political instability has prevailed. All these factors have had negative repercussions on the real status of human rights, especially those of girls and adolescents.

 

The government of Sixto Durán Ballén (1992-1996) adopted policies tending to the privatization of state companies and to a weakening of the control organs set forth in the Political Constitution, which determined the beginning of a period tainted by corruption in the management of the State’s resources and causing the government’s inability to cope effectively with the unleashing of the financial and banking crisis of the latter part of the 90’s.

 

The government of Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz (1996-1997), which lasted only six months, weakened even further the State’s control mechanisms, determining extremely high levels of corruption, which precisely brought about his ousting as a result of a national mobilization.

 

Jamil Mahuad Witt (1998) succeeded the interim governments of Rosalía Arteaga (1 day) and Fabián Alarcón (1997 – 1998) and adopted the Dollarization of the economy, with an exchange rate of 25,000 Sucres per dollar, in observance of one of the most drastic impositions of the IMF. At the same time, Mahuad decreed an illegal and onerous “banking holiday”, freezing the national banking system’s deposits. All of this caused the people’s discontent and subsequent mobilization, which together with the indigenous’ uprising, succeeded in overthrowing the government on January 21, 2001, 15 months after having been elected.

 

On that date an ephemeral triumvirate assumed the Administration, for less than 24 hours, and was followed by Vice President Alvaro Noboa Bejarano (2201 – 2003).

 

During the decade the successive governments privileged payment of the foreign debt, paying no attention to social investment, and the health, education, housing, employment and social security sectors were the most affected with the reduction of the allocated budgets, which had direct repercussions in the living conditions of the population’s most vulnerable sectors: women, girls, boys and adolescents, senior citizens, indigenous people and Afro-Ecuadorians.

 

At the same time, the economic model adopted, together with inequity structural factors in the distribution of wealth, discrimination and racism rampant in Ecuadorian society, determine the manifestation of poverty and extreme poverty.

 

Ecuador, as of 1995, enters into a period of successive crises of economic, political, and cultural nature, aggravated by natural factors, such as the El Niño phenomenon. As a result, the population’s living conditions experienced great transformations and a deep deterioration at all levels. Thus, the percentage of poor for the year 2000 went from 34% to 71%; the population under extreme poverty conditions doubled from 2.1 million to 4.5 million. This is summarized in larger inequalities since the poorer 20%, which in 1990 received 4.6% of income, decreased to 2.5%; whilst the richer 20% that received 52% increased to 61%; for 1999 GDP decreased by 32%.[11]

 

Likewise, the national productive sector has been ostensibly weakened, which together with the above-mentioned factors, has determined the configuration of a policy of de facto expulsion of unemployed nationals, who have been forced to migrate under precarious conditions.

 

Regarding public policies, the Ecuadorian State defines itself as a Social State of Law, which implies that it has, as its obligations, among others, deploying all its resources to enforce the fundamental rights of persons, and guaranteeing compliance with the aspirations of dignity, freedom and equality.

 

During the last decade, the State’s investment in the social sector has been decreasing, in such a way that every time less and less resources are allocated to health, education, and in general to fight the poverty faced by around 70% of the Ecuadorian population. For this year, of the State’s general budget, only 26% is earmarked for social expense.

 

According to the Political Constitution, the Ecuadorian childhood and adolescence are considered as top priority; however, the characterization of age as well as that of gender is not taken into account at the time of designing and executing public policies and neither is the ethnic/racial category taken in consideration.

 

Political instability, politization of the justice administration and the ever-increasing corruption, indicates an institutional deterioration that aggravates the country’s situation and the enforcement of human rights and is expressed in the following situations:

 

·                         10% of the economically active population is out of the country, approximately 2.5 million persons.[12]

·                         As of the implementation of the Colombia Plan, Ecuador receives a significant amount of Colombian population, some 300,000 persons and there are around 30,000 requesting refuge. There is no data disaggregated by sex or age.

·                         At the internal level, from 1985 to 1990, over half a million persons have left their homes to locate themselves in the two largest cities: Quito and Guayaquil. An average of 29,000 persons per year, and the trend is increasing.[13]

·                         Due to the effect of the Colombia Plan, (fumigations and insecurity situation) in 2001 several Ecuadorian families went to the frontier zone; officially there are some 300 families in these conditions.[14]

 

The Ecuadorian State has, among other obligations, deploying all its resources to achieve the enforcement of the fundamental rights of persons, guaranteeing compliance with the principles of dignity, freedom, and equality. However, during the last decade, the State’s investment in the social sector has been decreasing, in such a way that each time fewer resources are allocated to health and education.

 

 

The situation of childhood and adolescence, especially girls and female adolescents

 

Ecuador’s Political Constitution determines that boys, girls and adolescents are priority groups. Art. 47 of the Magna Charta establishes that: “In the public and private spheres, children and adolescents shall receive a priority, preferential and specialized attention…”

 

Furthermore, Art. 48 sets forth that: “It shall be the obligation of the State, society and family to promote with maximum priority the integral development of children and adolescents and to ensure the full exercise of their rights. In all cases shall be applied the principle of the children’s greater interest and their rights shall prevail over those of others.”

 

Additionally, Art. 49 of the Ecuadorian Constitution indicates that: “Children and adolescents shall enjoy the rights common to the human being as well as those specific of their age…”

 

Nevertheless, the Ecuadorian childhood and adolescence is one of the most relegated demographic groups because the State’s policy tends to reduce the resources aimed at it; for example, according to official data, the budget for infantile immunization was reduced, therefore coverage decreased from 95% to 65%.[15]

 

Another case that evidences this trend showed up in the handling of the School Nutrition Program by the Social Welfare Ministry[16], in which the reduction meant the channeling of US$ 2.3 million to other non-priority purposes[17], which drastically affects the country’s childhood living under extreme poverty conditions, considering that 45 out of every 100 children suffer chronic malnutrition, constituting one of the main attacks on the right to health and a cause for infantile mortality in Ecuador.

 

The Ecuadorian State does not maintain statistical data disaggregated by sex or age, therefore it is not possible to assess the degree of real compliance with the obligations contracted by the State regarding the rights of girls and adolescent women.

This situation has already been matter of concern for the Committee on Children’s Rights, which in the list of issues that must be addressed when examining Ecuador’s second and third periodical reports, expressly requests the government to present statistical data disaggregated by sex, age group, indigenous and ethnic groups, and urban and rural zones.[18]

 

The age and gender characteristics are not considered at the time of the design and execution of public policies, and neither is the ethnic/racial category. In spite that State programs exist, these are not framed in public policies that guarantee sustainability of their results, producing small impact in the improvement of the population’s social conditions.

 

The Human Development Bonus (poverty bonus) is one of the State programs defended by the government as a policy against poverty; however, this bonus is received by only 4 out of every 10 persons qualified to receive it[19], hence the discriminatory and stigmatizing nature of the bonus. Additionally, the amount of US$ 12 does not even cover 3% of the value of the “basic basket”, which amounts to US$ 369.95.[20]

 

 

ARTCLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION

 

THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENCE

 

The Ecuadorian State, by subscribing the Convention on Children’s Rights, undertook to adopt the appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children against any and all forms of physical or mental harm or abuse, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, as long as he/she is under the custody of his/her parents, a legal representative or any other person in charge of him/her.

 

Likewise, the Ecuadorian State, by subscribing the Belem do Para Convention, committed to adopt, by all appropriate means and without delay, policies oriented to prevent, sanction and eradicate violence against women, girls and adolescents; as well as fostering and supporting government and private sector educational programs aimed at arising the consciousness of the public regarding the problems of violence against women, legal recourses and the redress that corresponds.

 

Special attention must be given to non-compliance by the State of the obligation to grant protection and priority attention to pregnant women, who in certain cases are under 18 years of age, provided for in Art. 47 of the Political Constitution, since, in spite of there existing a specific norm in the Penal Code that pregnant women cannot be deprived of freedom, this is done, endangering the life of the mother and the fetus, disregarding the constitutional protection to the soon-to-be-born beings, provided for in Art. 49 of the Constitution. Likewise, this protection is contemplated in Art. 9 of the Belem do Para Convention, referred to the special measures to be adopted in favor of women that have been subject to violence while pregnant.

 

The violence situation is also evidenced in the studies performed at the Gynecology/Obstetrics Hospital “Isidro Ayora”, from July 2000 to January 2001: at the Adolescents’ Integral Attention Services, 34 cases (12.83%) of young pregnant women that were attended for severe maltreatment[21].  In psychological care, 501 adolescents entered during the same period for the first time of which 265 (52.9%) needed treatment; of these 81 (30.56%) showed some type of intra-family violence. The study sample had 34 cases (12.83%) chosen as those with larger risk for presenting signs of an important physical and psychological maltreatment.[22]

 

The National Bureau of Specialized Police for Boys, Girls and Adolescents (DINAPEN) has received 911 cases of child abuse nationwide from January 2000 to March 2004. The main causes were different types of physical and psychological maltreatment.[23] This police bureau does not possess data disaggregated by sex that allows gauging the real impact of violence against girls and adolescent women.

 

 

SEXUAL VIOLENCE

 

In a research done by the Women’s National Council (CONAMU) and the Corporation for the Promotion of Women/Women’s Communication Workshop, on sexual abuse and harassment in Ecuadorian schools, with a sample of 600 youngsters, male and female, aged 14 – 17, students of public and private schools in the urban and rural zones.

 

Regarding the perpetrators of sexual assault, the interviewees grant more weight to the male aggressors and within these, to the category “unknown” with a percentage of 49.8% and 64.4%. The adolescents point mostly to neighbors (39.3%), boyfriends (38.8%) and teachers (36.9%)[24].

 

The research shows how common and permanent are the manifestations of sexual violence in the life and milieu of young girls and also that in the educational space this type of felonies occur and teachers are responsible for them.[25]

 

 

The reformatory agreement to Ministerial decree Nº 4708 dated December 13, 2002 has been issued, in which the Special Regulations of the Procedures and Mechanisms for the Knowledge and Treatment of Sexual Offenses in the Educational System was enacted. This document regulates the way in which the denouncements must be filed when sexual harassment is detected in the country’s schools.

 

Likewise, it has been detected that in day-care centers and/or State nurseries, aside from physical maltreatment, there are also denouncements of possible sexual offenses against the children left in care. When NGO officers have presented these denouncements to the authorities, these, instead of investigating the facts, take a hostile attitude against the mother of the child and the officers of the organizations.

 

Certain irregularities have been noted, such as the prohibition that mothers enter the classrooms out of the hours convened; they even are only allowed to drop off/pick up the children without entering the premises so they cannot see the filth, food quality, restrooms and other conditions of the day-care centers and even worse, the treatment given to their children. Some mothers state that their children cry when they are left there, are very nervous, and others state that they seem drowsy. As if this were not enough, the authorities of said centers threaten the mothers that file any type of claims with the loss of the child’s place.[26]

 

DINAPEN has received nationwide 701 cases of sexual abuse from January 2000 to March 2004. The main causes were rape and indecent assault.[27] Data disaggregated by sex is not available, which precludes measuring the incidence of sexual abuse in girls and adolescents.

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

 

1.                      The State must show its political will to comply with their international obligations related to the implementation of adequate measures to prevent violence against girls and adolescents, by means of an effective promotion for, and education of, the population, on its rights and the mechanisms to enforce them.

 

2.                      The Ecuadorian State must implement measures so that the Fiscal Ministry, the Judicial Police and the Judicial Organ are capable of, respectively, investigating and sanctioning the cases of violence against girls and adolescents.

 

3.                      The Ecuadorian State must adapt its internal legislation to the international standards that typify the offenses of sexual violence against women, girls and adolescents.

 

4.                      It is necessary to implement the full efficacy of house arrest in favor of pregnant women.

 

5.                      The Ecuadorian State must keep statistical data disaggregated by sex, age and ethnicity.

 

 

 

 

 

ARTICLE 22

 

SITUATION OF THE MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDHOOD

 

By subscribing the Convention on Children’s Rights, Ecuador committed to adopting adequate measures to attain that the child that tries to obtain refugee status or to be considered refugee in accordance with applicable international law and procedures, receives, both if he is alone or accompanied by his parents, or any other person, the adequate protection and humanitarian assistance for the enjoyment of the pertinent rights in the present Convention and in other human rights or of any other humanitarian nature, international instruments signed by Ecuador.

 

With the subscription of the Belem do Para Convention, the Ecuadorian State committed to take in special consideration the situation of vulnerability to violence that can be endurered by women, girls and adolescents, based, among others, on their migrant, refugee or displaced condition.

 

The infantile population is related to the phenomenon of mobility in two great fields: as migrant, refugee or forcefully displaced population and as a population confronting the sequels of emigrating.

 

The types of impact they suffer are:

 

·                         The experience of their sexuality: risks of sexual violence, other forms of sexual knowledge and practices, etc.

·                         The psycho/affective experience: the affective losses are frequent, experience of the “abandonment” by the father, mother or both; changes in the notions and representatives of the family authority; complications in the socialization processes; stereotypes and stigmatization of the new generations, among others.

·                         Differentiated economic insertion: infantile work, feminine infantile work, infantile sexual exploitation, etc.

·                         The relationship with and the role in the family: there are serious transformations in the nuclear family with serious difficulties in giving vital sense to new relationships. The mother figure continues being a pillar that when changed does not manage to be satisfactorily replaced.

·                         Guarantee of conditions for a dignified life: the conditions of inequality, exclusion, discrimination and xenophobia do not guarantee the integrity of childhood’s rights, which is being affected by the migration, refugee and displacement processes.

 

During the last two years, Ecuador has received a large number of Colombian population under refugee situation, which is fleeing from the serious insecurity situation that it has to face in its own country due to the internal conflict that it has encountered for several decades, but that has worsened considerably due to the war initiatives called Colombia Plan (Regional Andean Initiative) and the Patriot Plan.

 

 

 

According to the official statistics issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25,572 refugee applications have been received from the year 2000 to May 2004, of which 7,322 have been accepted, 7,731 have been denied, 6,252 abandoned applications and 1,810 applications filed.[28]

 

In view of this official information it is important mentioning that:

 

·                         2,457 applications (9.6%) are pending reply from the Chancellor’s Office.

·                         There is no data on applications being appealed, in administrative or judicial resources.

·                         The terms “abandoned” and “filed”, applied by the Chancellor’s Office to 8,062 refugee applications (31% of total applications), do not exist in the national or international norms regarding the condition of refugee, thus violating the public right, the due process and the rights of the refugee persons.

 

Regarding the statistical data, these are not recorded by sex nor age, therefore it cannot be established precisely how many of the children under 18 years of age are men and how many are women. However, it is known that out of the total of applicants and refugees, approximately 27% are under 18 years old.