Lack of urgent response for the protection of children in Venezuela’s humanitarian situation
Prologue
Official censorship and the economic crisis are merely two of the factors that directly affect the access to free, timely, verified and plural information in Venezuela. In the case of children and adolescents, there is no disaggregated data, issued by an appropriate authority on the topic of children, to account for the fulfillment of this population’s fundamental rights. Due to this, REDHNNA (Network for Human Rights of Children and Adolescents) found it relevant to activate in 2019 a weekly review of 28 digital media outlets and social networks, as well as the reports of 10 national and global NGOs, to establish a system to monitor the various issues affecting the wellbeing of children in the context of the country’s humanitarian emergency.
The review of 371 news reports during the first half of 2019 and of 466 reports of digital news outlets recorded and categorized during the first quarter of 2020, to study them in accordance with the minimum standards for child protection in humanitarian action, CPMS, points out relevant actions and omissions of the Venezuelan Child Protection Council (IDENNA), in six essential areas of child protection during this period: Health and nutrition, food security, education, adequate standard of living, personal safety, and justice. This work seeks to highlight how vulnerable children are within the country, but also to promote an improved official response to offer protection in accordance with the humanitarian obligations assumed by the country within the current international legal framework.
Bedridden Health
Currently, the figures of maternal, neonatal and child mortality show a setback of 60 years and there has been a reappearance and increment of eradicated diseases such as malaria (788,077 cases) measles (365 people) tuberculosis and syphilis (309 expectant mothers and 176 children) whose spread is attributed more to poverty than contagion. For instance, 800 cases of malaria were reported weekly in Sucre state in March alone.
The government announced the creation of the Salud-Petro card and claimed that 2019 had been successful in regards to health with 95% of coverage and immunizations. However, news indicate that there is no access to vaccines that are crucial in the first months of life, and the waiting list for surgeries in a pediatric hospital as important as the J.M. de Los Ríos surpasses the 4,500 children, while in the Concepción Palacios Maternity Hospital, out of 300 monthly surgeries, only 56 are performed.
The absence of supplies, declining infrastructure, unhealthiness, lack of medicines (3,000 children and adolescents with HIV without antiretroviral treatments,) closure of medical services, labor protests, failures of basic services, increasingly unaffordable medication and medical supplies, speak of a healthcare system on the brink of collapse.
The children hospitalized in the Hematology Service of the J.M. de los Ríos can only receive transfusions if they have donors. Julio Rangel (11) and Víctor Pino (12), patients of this hospital’s Hematology and Nephrology Services respectively, died in January while waiting for transplants. Both were under the Protective Measures issued by the Inter American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) for 13 services of this healthcare center in 2019.
Health and nutrition for indigenous children
The warao people, located in Bolívar and Delta Amacuro, lack of water, electricity, paved roads, public hospitals or funerary services. At least 10 children of this ethnicity died of malnutrition and at least two newborn babies (2 and 6 months old) from the Cambalache sector, Bolívar state, died after suffering from vomit and diarrhea. Also, out of the 2,100 children attended by UNICEF Venezuela in February, 840 showed stunting and 640 were underweight or at risk of wasting. 13 cases of malnutrition in breastfeeding children between 0 and 11 months were reported between February 5th and 7th alone.
Stressed childhood and adolescence
In addition to the various incidents of domestic and gender violence, against which children and adolescents are utterly helpless, there is also the issue of structural violence and the lack of conditions, programs, actions, treatments or access o medication, to face the increase in emotional and psychosocial afflictions, and mental trauma caused by the anguish and deprivation of the country’s general situation.
A 15-year old adolescent girl suffered a kidnapping attempt in Trujillo, and a 5-month old baby girl was kidnapped by her stepfather for 11 days to force her mother to remain in the relationship. Similarly, in Monagas, two adolescent girls were held for a night by agents of the National Anti-Extortion and Anti-Kidnapping Command, CONAS, to pressure a union leader, who had denounced the lack of medical supplies, to turn himself in.
In February, emotional issues and sleep deprivations suffered by children and adolescents due to the constant power outages, caused a protest before the Ombudsman’s Office of Mérida.
COVID-19 and the quarantine
The pre-existing complications in the healthcare system are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the lockdown decreed against the outbreak.
There are concerns for the lack of necessary personnel and supplies to face the virus. Healthcare centers have been militarized and there have been reports of repression, harassment and arrests of health workers, especially medics, when they denounce the situation in their hospitals.
The quarantine complicates the attention of people with chronic health conditions or disabilities. An example of this is the case of children and adolescents with autism, who require special food and confinement measures that have not been considered.
Eight indigenous ethnicities: Yekwana, Sanema, Jivi, Piaroa, Kariña, Pemon, Piapoco and Wayuu, report that they have received very little support to stop the pandemic. They do not even have regular water supply. Their precarious living conditions and the lack of assistance makes them particularly vulnerable against the COVID-19.
Out of the 143 COVID-19 cases diagnosed up to March 31st, four were children.
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