23/03/2011 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Participants at a hearing in Paris today organised by the Social Affairs Committee looked at the steps Europe could take to help children in the aftermath of natural disasters and crisis situations, with the focus on Haiti. "Children are the most vulnerable at every level in crisis situations", said Françoise Hostalier (France, EPP/CD), the rapporteur on the subject. "Because the social structures – family, school, police, rule of law and so on – that normally protect them are destabilised or even destroyed by disasters and because of their particular needs for food, care and protection, they are the first to suffer from any disaster or conflict".
Haiti offers an illustration of all these situations, she continued: "a long-term political conflict that a few years ago was verging on civil war; a major natural disaster with the earthquake of 12 January 2010 and now a national health crisis resulting from a cholera epidemic".
The experts who spoke, Michel Forst, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Haiti, Isabelle Moussard-Carlsen, desk officer in charge of the Action Against Hunger mission in Haiti, Pierre Salignon, Director General for Humanitarian Action, Médecins du Monde France and Pierre Poupard, UNICEF's principal emergency co-ordinator, said that the Council of Europe member states had to recognise that in crisis situations children were automatically vulnerable and that the responses offered had to take this into account systematically at all stages of intervention. What had to be avoided at all costs, they warned, was a second earthquake, this time a social and economic one.
Parliamentarians and experts agreed on the urgent need to restore human security in Haiti. In particular, they had to ensure that all rights were guaranteed and re-establish the rule of law, while protecting the population against disease, violence and hunger. These measures must be accompanied by measures to combat illegal adoptions, including ratification of the Hague Convention on Adoption, and to prevent the abduction and trafficking of children. At the same time, there had to be effective oversight of illegal placement agencies and steps to combat problems such the use of children as domestic servants.
Finally, the European countries involved in resolving the Haitian crisis also had to accept their humanitarian responsibilities. Nearly a year ago, 9.8 billion dollars had been pledged in medium and long-term aid for reconstruction. One year after the earthquake, reconstruction projects valued at 3.1 billion dollars had been approved by the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti. Yet only half that amount has actually been paid out.
The key to an effective long-term response lies in the ability of the key international players involved in crises to offer support to their national counterparts in order to re-establish basic essential services, restore the main forms of infrastructure and promote activities that generate income. Yet according to the participants, such support to local authorities and those involved in development is only rarely effective and co-ordinated.