Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Speaking at the Second World Congress on Children and Young People’s Rights in Lima, Peru, Jaime Conde, a law scholar in child and family law, exposed the bleak realities of being young in Puerto Rico. He commented that the country’s colonial status prevents its people from enjoying their full rights as US or world citizens. The implications for children and young people’s rights have been damaging and far-reaching.
- PUERTO RICO: Invisible Citizens of an Invisible Country Speaking at the Second World Congress on Children and Young People’s Rights in Lima, Peru, Jaime Conde, a law scholar in child and family law, exposed the bleak realities of being young in Puerto Rico. He commented that the country’s colonial status prevents its people from enjoying their full rights as US or world citizens. The implications for children and young people’s rights have been damaging and far-reaching. As a result of the Puerto Rican government’s complete subordination to the legislature of the United States, which has chosen not to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Caribbean country is unable to ratify the CRC as a political entity in its own right. It must be noted that Puerto Rico lacks effective representation in the US Congress: its only delegate in the legislature has a voice, but no vote, and Puerto Ricans do not have the right to vote for the US President. The Puerto Rican national government’s own policies for children and young people are inadequate and are based on protection, not rights. Unable to enjoy their basic rights as citizens, many young people live in situations of extreme poverty and social exclusion. This has led to some of the highest rates of teenage motherhood and of drug-related murders among males. Murder has been the first cause of death among young men between 15 and 19 years-old for more than a decade, according to Panamerican Health Organisation statistics. Between 1999 and 2002, almost one in two deaths for this group was a result of murder. Puerto Rico has the second highest murder rate among young people in the world after Colombia. The invisibility of children and young people in Puerto Rico is made plain by the fact that no international NGO operates there and no US NGO covers Puerto Rico in its national programmes. For example, Save the Children U.S.A. works in some of the poorest communities in the United States but not in Puerto Rico. This is in spite of the fact that the percentage of children who live below the poverty line in the island – 58.4 per cent – is more than twice that of the poorest state in the US, Mississippi, which is 27 per cent. The rate of children living below the poverty line in Puerto Rico is more than three times greater than the national rate of the United States which is 16.6 per cent. Conde concluded by urging that international civil society sit up and take notice of the realities that face Puerto Rico’s young people. In the light of its failure to ratify the CRC, it will not be through the United States that young Puerto Ricans will make their voices heard. The government of Puerto Rico must take measures to include its socially marginalised citizens. The fact that this country is legally prevented from ratifying the CRC does not prevent it from implementing its principles through its local legislation. For more information, contact: Jaime E. Conde Defensores PROCDN Tel: 1+ 787 724 1377; Fax:1+ 787 721 0022 Email: [email protected] To read the full paper in Spanish, visit:: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?ID=6672&flag='news'
P.O. Box 9020946
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902-0946