violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

When tradition meets superstitionViolence against children labelled as witches or sorcerers has been documented inmany countries. Reports from West Africa (notably Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Liberiaand Nigeria) have documented cases of children who have been driven out from theirfamilies, marginalised by society, and subjected to physical violence including torture,sometimes resulting in fatalities. 74 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, wherechurches specialising in the exorcism of evil spirits have increased in number, accusationsof sorcery are no longer exclusively made against older women living alone (thetraditional target of such charges) but also against children, many of whom swell the30,000 children already living on Kinshasa’s streets. 75298Violence against children in the communityreported that victims of police violence and summaryexecutions tend to be young Afro-Brazilianmales between the ages of 15–19 years, whoare often involved in criminal gangs. 81Violence by other authority figuresWhile police are the authority figures mostoften mentioned in relation to communityviolence against children, it is clear that manyother people with responsibility to superviseor defend children regularly abuse the trustimplicit in their positions. These include sportscoaches, religious authorities, youth club workers,and teachers (the latter are discussed in thechapter on violence against children in schoolsand educational settings).In recent decades, long-held assumptionsabout the purely positive impacts of organisedactivities for children have been shattered byreports of physical and sexual violence againstchildren in sport- and faith-based activities. In1998, studies in Canada and Norway revealedthat over one-third of young athletes had hadnegative and uncomfortable experiences, rangingfrom mild sexual harassment to abuse. ADanish pilot study (1998) also revealed thatabout 25% of athletes under 18 knew about orhad experienced situations of harassment by acoach or trainer. A Norwegian study comparingthe prevalence of sexual harassment in andoutside the context of sport suggests that twiceas many athletes as non-athletes have experiencedsexual harassment from coaches andother authority figures. 82 In the case of faithbasedorgsanisations, information tends to belimited to media reports and systematic datafrom various faiths is seriously lacking.Although these cases do not represent the completespectrum of situations, they are warningsigns that should be taken very seriously.Violence against sexual minoritiesMedia reports, cases documented by humanrights groups, and anecdotal evidence by victimsthemselves indicate that violence againstyoung lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and