Stronger anti-child abuse measure heads to Teno

The Senate yesterday passed a proposed measure that improves the protection of CNMI children against abuse and neglect, in line with the celebration of April as the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month.

Senate Bill 12-03, passed on second and final reading by the upper house, now heads to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio for approval.

SB 23-03 seeks to impose harsher penalties against violators of child rights, as part of overall government efforts to curb the increasing number of child abuse and neglect in the Northern Marianas.

Sen. Joaquin Adriano said amendments to the child abuse law should be addressed immediately to discourage people from committing crimes against children.

“No one gets away, no abuser should go scot-free and I ask all of you to support this bill,” said the Mr. Adriano during a senate session yesterday.

Amendments to the statute include damages of $2,000 and imprisonment of not more than five years. The bill also added a subsection which gives tantamount responsibilities to healthcare providers and daycare workers by reporting suspected child abuse and neglect cases.

The bill also increased penalties of individuals who failed to report child rights violation from $100 to $1,000 fines and one year imprisonment.

The governor earlier underscored the need to expedite the approval of the proposed changes to the anti-child abuse law in hopes to prevent violations of children’s rights in the CNMI.

He urged legislators to impose stiffer penalties to stop child abuse and neglect cases which continue to flood local courts.

Division of Youth Services records disclosed that there are more than 200 child abuse and neglect cases in the year 2000. While this figure represents a significant decline from previous years, officials insisted that more should be done to totally eradicate the problem.

DYS records showed that there were 750 cases of child rights violations in 1997. This dropped to 670 the following year and then to 368 cases in 1999.

Of the 208 cases of child rights violation in the year 2000, 99 cases were physical neglect; 47 were physical abuse; 44 cases were sexual abuse; and 18 were emotional abuse.

Studies have said that chronic illness, depression, school problems and unexplained injuries are but few of the signs that a child is living in a violent home where abuse is literally a daily occurrence.

Abuse cases are likely to result on cognitive, developmental delay, stress-related physical ailments of a child, affecting even their emotional and mental behavior.

Physical abuse include hitting, slapping, pushing, shaking while emotional or verbal abuse include put-downs, insults and threats. Neglect include failing to provide for a child’s physical or emotional needs and sexual abuse include any sexual contact with a child, using a child for pornography, or exposing a child to adult sexual activity. (EGA)