Brasília, March 15, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - On Thursday (11) youths who came from all over the country to participate in the I Encounter of Adolescents and Youth to Confront Sexual Violence handed lawmakers a document containing suggestions for the fight against sexual violence.
Senator Patrícia Gomes, president of the Joint Parliamentary Investigation Committee (CPMI) on sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, said that the document will be included in the Committee's final report and the proposals will be advanced by the Parliamentary Front in Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents.
"Nothing better than talking with the youths themselves, who end up being victims of this network of exploitation, because they have opinions and suggestions on how to handle the problem," the Senator said.
Federal Deputy Maria do Rosário, rapporteur of the CPMI, said that the youths' proposals will be incorporated into government policies to combat sexual violence.
The document has over 20 proposals, grouped into two segments: youth mobilization and suggestions for government policies to combat sexual violence.
"It is important to underline that the youths didn't make proposals for others to carry out. They defined goals within their own possibilities of execution," affirmed the coordinator of the National Committee to Confront Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents, Neide Castanha.
When the document was delivered to the lawmakers, the Committee's youth representative, Inês Dias, recalled that the legislators have the capacity to discuss these problems politically and want society to understand the importance of listening to young people.
One of the youths who attended the meeting, Fernando Rodrigues da Silva, who is 10 years old, said that the group found that the lack of dialogue at home is one of the major aggravating circumstances contributing to the persistence of abuses.
"There are cases in which children tell their parents that they are being abused, but because they are not taken seriously, they end up becoming more frightened," he disclosed. (DAS)
