UK Christians highlight hundreds of child deaths in Brazil
-01/03/05
The international website, www.stopkillingchildren.com, set up by Christian human rights group the Jubilee Campaign, has documented more than 385 cases of children and young people killed in Brazil since the websiteís launch in November, 2004.
The websiteís findings confirm the National Movement of Street Childrenís assessment that four to five children are being killed every day.
On Tuesday of this week, a fourteen-year-old girl died in the city of Boa Vista (Roraima). In a typical example of the armed violence so prevalent in Brazil, the girl was reportedly killed by three teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17, engaged in gang fighting in her neighborhood.
In a further case, a sixteen-year-old boy died last week at a hospital in the municipality of Cascavel (Paran·). The victim and three other teenagers were shot in front of their school on February 17th. One of the teenagers died on the same day. The other two victims are still receiving treatment. Adair JosÈ DezidÈrio, 19, and four other teenagers under 18 were arrested for the crime.
Danny Smith, Jubilee Campaignís Founder and Director said ìWhen a child is killed in the UK, it is front page news. People are rightly enraged. When the same happens on an unparalleled scale in Brazil, there is barely a flicker of interest. Brazil is susceptible to international pressure. We must play our part in protecting the lives of Brazilís children.î
The web site’s ‘Take Action’ section enables people to write to President Lula, urging him to tackle the endemic violence against Brazilís young people.
Following a visit to Brazil last year, Jubilee Campaign is calling on the President to take specific action to curb the loss of life. Their recommendations include challenging the inherent and systematic corruption of police through the re-education of police officers and instituting a code of best practice and ensuring that the murder of every child and young person is reported with the collection of data centrally published and regularly reviewed to bring responsible parties to justice.
The group are also urging that the quality of schools be improved to provide children in the favelas the opportunity to climb out of abject poverty and destitution.
www.stopkillingchildren.com was launched simultaneously on November 16th 2004 in the House of Commons by Alistair Burt MP and Lord Alton of Liverpool and in the US by Senator Brownback, Congressman Franks and Congressman Pitts.
The initiative is the latest in a series of steps that Jubilee Campaign has undertaken since the early 1990s when they were one of the first UK groups to highlight the killing of children in Brazil by police death squads.