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.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 12-03, passed on second and final reading by the upper house, now heads to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio for approval.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sen. Joaquin Adriano said amendments to the child abuse law should be addressed immediately to discourage people from committing crimes against children.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The bill also increased penalties of individuals who failed to report child rights violation from $100 to $1,000 fines and one year imprisonment.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He urged legislators to impose stiffer penalties to stop child abuse and neglect cases which continue to flood local courts.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Abuse cases are likely to result on cognitive, developmental delay, stress-related physical ailments of a child, affecting even their emotional and mental behavior.<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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