Situational analysis
PANDEMIC COVID-19
Without a doubt, the pandemic caused by the new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the infectious disease associated with COVID-19, has unleashed an unparalleled global health crisis, which has not only exposed weaknesses of public health services, but has shown the limited availability of social and protection systems for the most vulnerable people, including girls, boys and adolescents.
INEQUALITY AND COVID-19
The profound inequality that prevails in the Latin American and Caribbean region has been compounded by a global crisis with very serious consequences for Latin American children. Various international organizations have already warned about the repercussions that the pandemic will have in the region: the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) indicated that the effects of the health crisis represent the greatest economic and social challenge facing humanity since the Great Depression of 1930 and the Second World War (ECLAC-1, 2020; ILO, 2020).
It is important to remember that regional growth in 2019 was 0.1% and its forecast for 2020, before the pandemic, was for a modest growth of 1.3%. At this stage of the health crisis, it is estimated that a contraction of the regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of -1.8% may occur, which could lead to an increase in the unemployment rate of up to 10%¹.
For its part, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), within the framework of its Coordination and Timely and Integrated Response Room for the crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, pointed out that, in a hemisphere marked by gaps in inequality, the effects on human rights have more pronounced and differentiated impacts on people in situations of greater vulnerability, such as girls, boys and adolescents (NNA) ².
CHILDHOOD AND PANDEMIC
The impact of the pandemic on children is evidenced by an increase in poverty and, as a consequence, the lack of access to basic services, mainly in health (CONEVAL, UNDP and IDB, 2020); food insecurity, increase in acute malnutrition (IDB, 2020), child food crisis (UNICEF, FAO, WTO and WHO, 2020), and an increase of between 10% and 50% in global infant mortality, predicted by the Inter-American Bank of Development (2020) ³.
Faced with this situation, it is necessary to reorient the containment, care and prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic to the human rights approach, complying with the international recommendations signed by the countries regarding the rights of the child, taking into account the "best interests of the child ”As the main criterion of public action, and of economic priorities.
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnosis for the installation of an Observatory for monitoring the rights of girls, boys and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean
AUTHOR: Vanessa Crowley
YEAR: 2020
CLASSIFICATION: Diagnosis
SEE SYNTHESIS
In order to strengthen the Latin American and Caribbean platform that works in favor of children, it was contemplated to install a Regional Observatory as a priority activity of the #TejiendoRedesInfancia project. This diagnosis serves as the basis for determining and addressing the needs and gaps between the qualitative and quantitative information available to monitor children's rights in the region, as well as to conceptualize the platform format.
The document contains the findings from documented interviews with more than fifteen international experts on the rights of children and adolescents, and the review of a wide bibliography related to the matter, which serve as the foundations to found Infancia Latina.
Children in Latin America and the Caribbean in the context of the pandemic: proposals in the face of their social crisis
AUTHOR: Collective work document #TejiendoRedesInfancia
YEAR: 2020
CLASSIFICATION: Diagnosis
SEE SYNTHESIS
In 2020, a multisectoral platform called the Social Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ISALC) began to be configured, with the objective of promoting, together with ECLAC, a strategic plan that allows the economic and social reconstruction of the region, in the face of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
#TejiendoRedesInfancia, articulated the agenda of girls, boys and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean, for which it prepared a base document for discussion: “Children in Latin America and the Caribbean in the context of the pandemic: proposals in the face of their social crisis ”.
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic and in view of Resolution 1/2020 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the document presents aspects that reflect ethical and Human Rights dilemmas in public policies for mitigation, prevention and assistance, with a focus on children's rights.
REFERENCES:
1. UN News. Recovered from: https://news.un.org/es/story/2020/03/1471522 Consultation date: September 29, 2020
2. OAS Press. Recovered from: http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2020/090.asp Consultation date: October 1, 2020
3. Network for the Rights of the Child in Mexico (REDIM) (2020). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's rights in Mexico. Challenges and opportunities.