Brazil World Cup - concerns voiced over lack of child protection

A few days before the start of the World Cup, to be held from 12 June to 13 July, in 12 Brazilian cities, a group of institutions have raised the alarm about the safety of children and adolescents. While great efforts have been made to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to serve the world event - they say child protection issues have been ignored.

On 7 June, officials of the Ministry of Public Works and the Regional Controller, identified five children and eight adolescents selling World Cup products at the corners of four major streets in the city of Fortaleza. However they said, Fortaleza, one of the cities hosting the World Cup, does not have any support network for children and adolescents who are victims of sexual violence.

When managing investments they said: "public resources were allocated to the works, according to the agreement with FIFA, rather than using these resources for basic assistance such as housing, health and education", says a report by the Child Protection and Adolescents Centre.

According to the ECPAT Brazil network , of the 275 638 complaints of violations of the rights of children and adolescents recorded between May 2003 and March 2011, in the 12 cities that will host the football World Cup, 27, 664 are those related to sexual exploitation.

Source: Fides