From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: IPS:Panama: Children & Aged
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:20:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700298:000:4230
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 30 11:20:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS:Panama: Children & Aged

/* Written 12:09 am  Jul 30, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: PANAMA: CHILDREN AND THE AGED ARE VICTIMS OF PUBLIC CONTEMPT


an inter press service feature

by david carrascoso

panama city, jul 27 (ips) -- often deprived of affection and
security, many children and the elderly are being abused and
abandoned in panama, according to an extensive report by criminology
experts.

''panamanian society is becoming more violent and less
affectionate each day,'' say aida selles and fernando murray,
researchers for the university of panama's institute of criminology.

both researchers say many of panama's children and elderly
people, two frequently helpless groups which society must protect
but whose families often abandon in the streets, have become victims
of a new kind of abuse: public contempt.

murray said the phenomenon could be explained by the ''change in
society's social, economic and political values '' and the
''accumulated frustrations'' of the people due to the lack of
housing, jobs and opportunities.

''violence is an institutional phenomenon and the maltreatment of
children, women and the aged, particularly in poor homes, is part of
it,'' he added.

the report, which was based on about 200 cases of child abuse,
showed an increase from 11.4 percent in 1987 to 26.8 percent in
1989, amid the country's worsening of social and economic
conditions.

over one million children below 18 years live in panama and
represent about 40 percent of the country's total population of 2.4
million. of this number, one third are minors below five years,
considered as the most vulnerable group in society.

''constant physical abuse (beatings. whippings and burning) are
committed against children who are also victims of psychological and
indirect maltreatment in their homes,'' selles stressed.

she noted that 65 percent of the abused minors (52 percent are
males) are between 1-9 years old.

according to the report, over 55 percent of the children were
beaten up by their mothers while the fathers participated in 13.4
percent of the cases.

selles said that although in most of the cases the conduct of the
guardians was ''normal,'' about 41 percent maltreated their children
while under the influence of alcohol. (more/ips)



panama: children (2)

''child abuse can range from deprivation of food, clothing and
shelter to parental love,'' said panamanian psychiatrist heraldo
martinez.

when adults assault children, the minors generally suffer from
physical injuries, and sometimes the incidents end in death,
martinez said.

such was the case of braulio lobon (not his real name), a 14-
year old child residing in panama's caribbean city of colon, who
died in february when a neighbour shot him in the head.

murray said the elderly can also suffer from abuse and
abandonment, and their image has been destroyed by the media in a
consumers society where business relations reign.

he said the panamanian society tends to reject them, thinking
that ''everything old is ugly, black and bad''.

''the golden age'', a prestigious monthly magazine in panama,
said about 12,800 old people in the country are the object of some
kind of physical abuse from children and close relatives.

over 100,000 people over 65 years, who make up about five percent
of the country's total population, are included in this group.

while doing their report, the researchers discovered that ''in
many homes, the refrigerators are locked with chains so the elderly
cannot have access to them''. in other cases, they are abandoned in
asylums or stripped of their monthly pension.

murray said there is evidence that the old suffer from violence,
but they suffer most from abandonment.

the experts concluded by saying that to overcome this problem, it
would be necessary to develop adequate policies to protect these
groups and put at their disposal programmes which would value them
as human beings that make up part of the country's fundamental
resources. (end/ips/trd/dc/cs/cir/92)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human,alt.society.sovereign,alt.activism