{"id":32484,"date":"2014-07-17T09:15:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=32484"},"modified":"2014-07-17T09:15:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T09:15:51","slug":"uganda-police-abuse-street-children-says-hrw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=32484","title":{"rendered":"Uganda police abuse street children, says HRW"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\">Street children in Uganda face constant abuse from police and other government officials, a human rights group says.<\/p>\n<p>Police beat children with whips and wires, throw them into jail and extort bribes from them, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.<\/p>\n<p>Street boys and girls were also raped by men and older boys, it added.<\/p>\n<p>A Ugandan official, Mondo Kyateka, said some street children were &#8220;hard-core criminals&#8221; but police only used minimum force against them.<\/p>\n<p>The government should focus on improving the lives of street children, and prosecute those responsible for abusing them, HRW said.<\/p>\n<p>More than half of all Ugandans are under 15, and children are the single largest group living in poverty, HRW said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Scores of street children told Human Rights Watch that they fear the authorities and that police are a source of violence, not protection,&#8221; the group said in a\u00a0<a title=\"HRW report\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/node\/127138\">report entitled &#8220;Where Do You Want Us to Go?&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how many street children there are in Uganda, but one study, conducted in 2013, put the figure at around 10,000, it added.<\/p>\n<p>Many children live on the streets because of poverty, or because their parents have died of HIV\/Aids.<\/p>\n<p>The rebellion in the north, waged by the Lord&#8217;s Resistance Army (LRA), had also forced children to flee their homes, HRW said.<\/p>\n<p>HRW interviewed more than 130 current and former street children from December 2013 to February 2014 in seven town centres across Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For children to be effectively protected and cared for, the government should ensure that all children, including those on the streets, can find shelter and get an education,&#8221; said Maria Burnett, HRW&#8217;s senior Africa researcher.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They should be treated with dignity and have the opportunity to find a safe way off the streets,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Street children in Uganda face constant abuse from police and other government officials, a human rights group says. Police beat children with whips and wires, throw them into jail and extort bribes from them, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. Street boys and girls were also raped by men and older boys, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-32484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}