'Our' child Madeleine

It will never happen to us" - that is probably what parents always choose to believe as they send their son or daughter off to the video shop to rent a DVD or to the grocer round the corner to buy a packet of crisps or a can of ice tea. "Our child will always come back," they say. Well, there are a couple of lessons to learn in the story of little Madeleine McCann, who disappeared while holidaying with her parents in Portugal over three weeks ago.

Evidence confirms that the reasons why children are abducted can be varied; political, social and economic crises, civil war, religious or ethnic conflicts, children left to themselves and a growing (sexual) demand for young women and girls and for unprotected sex - all issues brought about by adults who should be busy investing energy into mentoring, guiding and nurturing our children! But this is a deranged world we seem to be living in.

Child prostitution

Conversely, numbers speak loudest. Allow me to list some statistics:

Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing in the United States (that is over 2,000 per day or 800,000 children a year); 500,000 go missing without ever being reported.

In 2000, over 875,000 missing persons were reported; 85 per cent of those missing persons were juveniles.

Around 120,000 women and children from Southeast Europe are sold annually in EU states.

Between 200,000 and 500,000 people are working in the illegal sex industry in the EU. Two-thirds of them come from Eastern Europe.

One quarter of all adoptions from abroad have a commercial or criminal background. The 'medium' for private placements is often the Internet. Children can be bought this way for $10,000 to $20,000. For example, a child from Moldova can be adopted for about $3,500.

In Britain, in the past five years, 44 children have been listed as missing and unaccounted for, with 11 having disappeared when five years or younger, and four under a year old.

According to UNICEF over three million children are abused, tortured, raped and killed every year.

Some 50,000 paedophiles are prowling the Internet at any given time.

UNICEF estimates that 1,000 to 1,500 Guatemalan babies and children are trafficked each year for adoption by couples in North America and Europe.

Mexico's social service agency reports that there are more than 16,000 children engaged in prostitution, with tourist destinations being among those areas with the highest number.

In Lithuania, 20 to 50 per cent of prostitutes are believed to be minors. Children as young as 11 are known to work as prostitutes.

Studies indicate that 25 per cent of children between 10 and 13 are being exposed to pornography on the Internet.

Some 12 million children live in the semi-arid region comprising Brazil's most vulnerable and impoverished states.

Victims of war

An estimated 20 million children across the globe have been forced to flee their homes because of conflict and human rights violations, and are living as refugees in neighbouring countries or are internally displaced within their own national borders.

More than two million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the past decade. At least six million children have been permanently disabled or seriously injured. More than one million have been orphaned or separated from their families. Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year.

An estimated 300,000 child soldiers - boys and girls under 18 - are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide.

Protection from exploitation

A protective environment is about living in safety with dignity. It helps to ensure that children are at school, laws are in place to punish those who hurt our children, governments are genuinely, legitimately and indisputably committed to protection, communities are aware of the risks which children face and we are scrutinising what surrounds our children to identify the risk of mistreatment.

Children will never be free from exploitation until all echelons of society - from the family to the international community - work together. When any of the layers of the protective environment are stripped away, a child becomes more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence.

We need to restructure our society, making it fit for children, that allows the development of every child, looks over the innocence of these children and respects their joy for life, virtuousness and blamelessness

Rightly, there is this outpouring of empathy for the McCann family, whose four-year-old daughter Madeleine, went missing from her bedroom at a resort in Portugal. The ordeal of this little one is even painful just to think of, let alone imagine. But, let's not be mistaken. There are many other children that Madeleine represents.

I appeal for us all to protect our children. It is great to stroke our egos and tell ourselves what great work we are doing with our children through social services and welfare services. But let us not be distracted! Social welfare structures, educators, politicians and policymakers alike are in duty bound to listen to the cries of the little Madeleines out there. As we read, these numbers keep growing.

Centre of Children's Rights

Now if society will not take the responsibility, listen to the cries, respond to the pain and remove the executioners of evil - the loss will be big or, should I say, bigger. Our future is being drawn into this black hole of no return.

Civil society has a responsibility. Let us all come together (at least on this), people of good intentions, and develop a children's movement.

Let all societies of good meaning call on a strategy that looks squarely at the gaps in our systems and realise that there is something intrinsically wrong, as our little ones are being stolen from us, massacred and wiped out.

Something (else) needs to be done. I am proposing that Malta use its passion for values, its moral fervour and its zeal for family ideals to construct a niche within the European Union.

Let us take the initiative and establish a Centre of Children's Rights, hosted, led and managed by European Malta in partnership and tandem with other EU member states.

This is an opportunity to put another indelible and ineffaceable mark in this Union that has so far given us much. This centre would combine the positive forces of religion and moral well-being and devotion towards our progeny to create an awareness on this sore situation and steer an international effort towards a stratagem for change.

It will complement the great work done by UNICEF but would focus on the EU dimension. This will be a centre rooted in the creation of a child-dominated and subjugated association - naturally with the help of people of goodwill.

This centre would have a clear brief: to assemble children's voices, appraise education and social services, design appropriate protection mechanisms (sharing of techniques), evaluate parental proficiency, and establish a debating platform - thus ensuring that children will at all times be on the political agenda.

Some may find all this too emotionally appealing, but I am sorry, I know no other way and, for Madeleine's sake, don't forget our babes in suffering!

Dr Azzopardi is a lecturer in the Department of Youth and Community Studies of the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta.

andrew.azzopardi@um.edu.mt