The relativity of the figures and their public presentation should not lead us to downplay troubling and harmful social phenomena. Such is the case of the interesting information that the Cuba Interior Ministry just offered about the low incidence of crimes of violence and sexual abuse against children and adolescents.
According to information released this Tuesday by Prensa Latina news agency, during 2012 there were reported in the country 2,117 complaints of crimes against children and adolescents , which gives an incidence of 0.09 % related to a population of 2,260,751 people up to 16 years of age .
The data Colonel Idaís Borges, head of the Directorate of Children’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT), offered, could confirm that, indeed, such crimes do not constitute a social problem in Cuba.
But be careful! A simple arithmetic division gives us an average of 5.8 complaints from this scourge. So, every day there are at least five children involved in alleged acts of abuse that come to the hands of justice. And anyway, this is a kind of problem in which a single case, for us, should be one too many.
And even if we could agree with ” that, as the official said, in the Caribbean nation , there are no networks involved in trafficking and child abuse, and that the authorities have a policy of zero tolerance for crimes against the normal development of sex , family and children and youth ” , I personally do not settle for the triumphalism approach .
For we must be very clear that in this, as in other sexual offenses or violence, the cases that come to the knowledge of the authorities as a complaint are far from being all.
In addition, there are multiple ways to go against the rights of children and adolescents that are not necessarily sexual abuse. For example, today, I see very strong police action against the use of children in informal income-generating activities or particular tasks.
I particularly remember a time when I shared with some friends working on the Malecon a few years ago, and observed a man at late night representing his street show in the company of a very young child.
And this type of employment of children in acts or behaviors that denigrate them or take them away from rest, study or other activities appropriate to their age, we also have to repudiate and, if necessary, report it to the police, which, indeed, has quite a presence on these sites that are public, and may also be more alert in this regard, perhaps instead of focusing so much attention on the sites and how homosexual, bisexual and trans share their time.
Another element that we cannot ignore is that the legal instruments to which the Minint official referred as mechanisms to ensure the rights of children and adolescents, in particular ” the Family, Children and Youth Codes, and a decree on Adoption “, while requiring a review and update, which is a complaint of many human rights activists and experts in family matters today.
It is very consistent and logical with our social project that “the Cuban State was among the first 10 to ratify the Palermo Convention on the rights of children”, and I feel it is great that “the Minint Department of Juvenile and protection centers working to prevent and detect offenses against this sector of the population, and to assess and education and specialized treatment to victims and their families.”
But, please, let us not to stay in the simplicity of mathematical percentages and the accommodation of the figures to sweeten our reality.
Author
Francisco Rodríguez Cruz
