a1699L Group tells Haitian government to stop child slavery (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina     <kpinbox@hotmail.com>




Group tells Haitian government to stop child slavery - Associated Press (Apr
13, 2002)


Group tells Haitian government to stop child slavery
Sat Apr 13, 1:30 PM ET

MIAMI - About one in 10 children in Haiti are used as domestic slaves and
the Haitian government is not doing enough to stop the centuries-old
practice, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights said.


The human rights group said the children, known as restavecs — from the
French rester avec, meaning to "stay with" — are given to wealthy families
by their parents.

The parents are told the children will be given a better life. Instead, they
are used as domestic servants and often abused physically and sexually, the
coalition said.

The group on Friday released a yearlong study on restavecs during a two-day
conference of Haitian-American leaders.

The report recommends that the Haitian government criminalize the use of
children as slaves and increase the minimum age for domestic help from 12 to
15.

The Haitian government said it is trying to address the problem by combating
the conditions that force parents to give away their children. Minister of
Social Affairs Eude Saint-Preux Craan said Haiti recently passed a law
against violence against children. She also said the government is
encouraging peasant cooperatives, providing literacy training and expanding
school access for children in rural areas.

A 1990 study by the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee
found 240,000 restavecs in Haiti.

By making the recommended changes, the human rights group said, the Haitian
government will prevent the spread of child slavery from outside of the
country.



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