Brazil: Homicides of Children and Teenagers Double in 20 Years – UNICEF Report

Human Wrongs Watch

25-year anniversary of the Child and Adolescent Statute presents improvements and challenges, according to UNICEF.*

BRASÍLIA, Brazil, 16 July 2015 – The number of children and teenagers murdered in Brazil has more than doubled in 20 years, according to a new UNICEF report marking 25 years since the introduction of the Child and Adolescent Statute.
In 2013, 10,500 homicides of adolescents were registered in Brazil, compared to 5,000 cases in 1993 – an increase of over 110 per cent.  In 2013, an average of 28 children and adolescents were killed every day, making Brazil the country with the second largest number of homicides of boys and girls under the age of 19 in the world.

The report, #ECA25years – Improvements and Challenges for Childhood and Adolescence, also found that:

• Indigenous children are twice as likely as other children to die before reaching the age of one, and they are among the most vulnerable in areas such as education.
• More than 3 million children and adolescents remain out of school, mostly from poor, Afro-Brazilians, indigenous and quilombolas communities.
• Maternal mortality remains high, with 61.5 mothers dying per every 100,000 births, from complications related to pregnancy and child birth.

However, the report also highlights that the country has made significant progress since the introduction of the 1990 law, implementing policies and programmes that have ensured the survival and development of millions of Brazilian boys and girls.

For example, Brazil has enabled access to basic education for 93% of its children and adolescents from 4 to 17 years of age. From 1990 to 2013, the percentage of children and adolescents who are out of school decreased from nearly 20 per cent to 7%.

The illiteracy rate among 10 to 18 year-old Brazilians also fell by 88.8 per cent, from 12.5 per cent in 1990 to 1.4 per cent in 2013. The drop was even more significant among Afro-Brazilian adolescents (approximately 91%).

The report #ECA25anos was developed with support from ANDI – Communication and Rights, a civil society organization working for over 20 years to protect the rights of children and adolescents through media and development actions.

Access the report here (only in Portuguese) – http://www.unicef.org/brazil/pt/ECA25anosUNICEF.pdf

*Source: UNICEF. Go to Original. 

For more information contact;
Pedro Ivo Alcantara, UNICEF Brazil Telephone: +55 (61) 3035 1947 and (61) 8166 1636 [email protected]
Estela Caparelli, Telephone +55 (61) 3035 1963 and (61) 8166 1648 [email protected]
Rose Foley, UNICEF New York;+1917 340 2582; [email protected]

**Locator map of Brazil. | Author: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) | Wikimedia Commons