NCJ Number
208493
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 26 Issue: 6/7 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 587-617
Date Published
June 2002
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Five articles address issues that are facing the majority of the world's children, notably poverty, HIV/AIDS infection, and war.
Abstract
The first article focuses on what is happening to children in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere ("South"), i.e., the less developed countries outside the Western democracies (the "North"). Poverty, a pervasive issue in the "South," not only directly affects children's health and survival, but also prevents countries from addressing the needs of children at risk. In many African and Asian countries, the AIDS pandemic has changed the social structure of society, with AIDS orphans and children infected by HIV/AIDS becoming more common. Further, many societies are in continual war zones, which inevitably impacts the mental and physical health of children. In examining poverty as a specific issue for child protection, the second article focuses on Africa, with attention to the burden of national debt for sub-Saharan African countries (excluding South Africa), learned dependency and a sense of helplessness among African populations, and political leaders' thirst for personal wealth at the expense of the needs of their people. The third article examines the influence of HIV/AIDS on child protection, notably the plight of orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. The fourth article considers whether child protection is possible in areas of war and violence; and the concluding article focuses on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a tool for improving the protection of children in the face of the threats discussed in these articles. The discussion of the implementation of the CRC considers the commercial sexual exploitation of children, children in armed conflicts, and child labor. References accompany each article.