[더오래]Sneaky human rights abuses in the family “who can beat my child

As Jung-in faced the incident, I felt sorry for the trainees I had met so far. Because until recently, while giving lectures on the human rights of children, I said these things here and there. “If you are at home, you hear a child crying. Listening carefully, it seems that the child is being beaten by the parents in the lower house. Then what should we do?” “You must call 112’immediately’. To stop child abuse, we must all be required to report.” In this way, he emphasized that he would report’immediately’ at any time 24 hours a day. It was said that we should all detect and report child abuse with a sharp hawk’s eye to prevent child abuse.

However, looking at the post-war of the unfortunate child abuse incidents that took place last year, the words I have spoken have become the ones I had spoken to the trainees. This is because Jungin reported child abuse several times’immediately’ even if he saw the incident, but no one with the responsibility has been able to save the child.

There is a saying that’laws related to children grow on the blood of children’. In 2013, an eight-year-old child said, “I want to go on a picnic with my friends,” but was beaten by his mother and suffered serious injuries in which 16 out of 24 ribs were broken. The broken ribs penetrated into the lungs and eventually died. At that time, this case raised awareness about child abuse in the name of discipline at home, and the Child Abuse Special Act (2014) was established to punish child abuse that can predict death even life imprisonment. .

There was a child who slowly died of hypothermia after enduring the cold and hunger in a cold bathroom for three months from November 2015. Parents did not send their children to school to cover up child abuse, and the incident made it mandatory for students to attend elementary school preliminary convocations, and if they did not attend, police investigation was possible depending on the case. However, even after that, we have been living at home, school, daycare centers, and so on, receiving terrible news about child abuse.

In June 2020, in Changnyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, there was news of a nine-year-old child who was struggling with chains on a terrace, taking charge of household chores, and escaping from the roof to escape the abuse of hungry parents. There was also a case of abuse in which the child was locked in a suitcase for seven hours to die for lied at the same time. This brutal incident led to formal discussions on the procedure to revise the disciplinary rights of parents under civil law, and an unusual request for life imprisonment for child abusers. This method of strengthening little by little can be said to be the cost of life for a poor soul.

We have talked about the punishment and problems of abusers whenever there have been abuse cases. It is said that on January 8, 2021, a partial revised bill of the Special Cases Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse, etc., passed the National Assembly plenary session. Of course, more punishment is necessary. But, has there been no law in Korea so far? There are already very good laws and manuals on child abuse. However, it does not provide a barrier to protect children. In such a situation, I wonder if it is so meaningful to make more fences. In order for the fence to function properly, it would be the first priority to find out what are the hidden holes in it.

In the case of child abuse, it is secretly carried out at home, and it is difficult to prove the damage because the parental authority in the home is often the abuser. Also, since the victim is a child, it is not easy to report the damage. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the priority interests of children stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are considered over other issues.

Even if Jung-in looked at the case, neither the agency responsible for the adoption, the police officer who received the report, or the specialized child protection agency considered the child’s top interests. Without a doubt, they only believed what their adoptive parents said. Even consoling. In order for the child’s top interests to be considered, it was necessary to abandon prejudices such as’I couldn’t do that’ and’I was a good person’, and thoroughly question and monitor.

Another thing to consider is the current law (Article 4 of the Children’s Welfare Act) that says,’If children are separated from the home and protected, support must be provided so that they can quickly return to their home’. After a child is separated due to child abuse, it is necessary to consider the problems of the law that allows parents to return to their homes when they want or when they want. In the case of a five-year-old child who died from parental abuse in Incheon last year, there was a case of death within a month after being in a foster care facility and returning to the original family at the request of the parents. This is the case. Many children, ironically, are beating parents, but they often crave constant attachment. So it’s hard to say that parents are abusing them.

In the movie’Miss Baek’, which deals with child abuse, there is a scene where people say, “No, there are tens of thousands of victims of child abuse a year in Korea, and it makes sense that there is no place to enter even if the child is separated from the abused parent?” If a method for separating children is created in a situation where there is no place to separate children, as in the movie, the effectiveness of this is also questioned.

The current government has pledged to actively protect the human rights of children while advocating the’Child Policy for an Inclusive State’ in 2019. It was a good intention to change the area of ​​investigation of child abuse, which was in charge of the private sector, into a public role, and to perform professional case management of children victims of abuse at private child protection institutions. But I am curious if it is working fine. Last year, several municipalities had an opportunity to educate officials in charge. In the case of Seoul, there are only two or three public officials in charge of child abuse in one borough. With such a small number of people, it seems insufficient to properly fulfill the role of protecting children’s rights. Safety evaluation, service planning, service provision, re-inspection, case closure, and follow-up management are required to reflect on the failure to fulfill the agency’s role despite the meticulous manuals.

Along with that, I want to think about the overwork problem of many child abuse counselors I have met. The number of abused children managed by one counselor is 60 to 80 (average about 20 in the United States), which means that there are physical limitations. It is natural that the turnover rate is high due to excessive work load and verbal language during work, and it is difficult to expect expertise.

In addition, it is necessary to address various issues such as the problems of adoption led by private adoption agencies and the strengthening of the capacity of police officers in charge of child abuse cases, but fundamental changes are needed to prevent child abuse. It is a shift in the perception of the abuser, above all parents.

For what reason is a child abuser who ruthlessly violates a small life beating a child? Because I couldn’t learn, my mind and body were weak, because of a mental problem… . Of course, this may be the case, but most of them are “because they think they can beat my children.” The actor doesn’t carelessly beat other people outside the home. As a parent, I exercise domestic violence because I have the power and qualifications to beat my children, and I think it is okay to do so. Eventually, a grim violation of human rights, trampling on life toward the weakest in the family, is committed. No parent in the world has the right to tamper with their children.

Even at this time, there will be a child who is living a more bloody reality with his whole body than in the harsh winter weather. What did Jung In want to say to an adult? From now on, if you meet a child victim of abuse that you have a little suspicious about, let’s listen to it, thinking that it is our voice.

Sung·Human Rights Instructor [email protected]