Under-18 zone: Profiles
Punish child abusers, says Rishtha
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Fathimath Rishtha Abdulmajeed, 15, of Maldives
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"Child abuse is a big problem.... Far too many children are
being sexually, physically and mentally abused," says 15-year-old
Fathimath Rishtha Abdulmajeed from Malé, Maldives.
"I want to find solutions to these problems. Proper rules
and regulations which can be included in the outcome
document [of the UN General Assembly's Special Session
on Children]," she says. "The punishment for
offenders should be harsher when disabled children are
abused."
Rishtha, as she likes to be called, is in New York representing
young activists from the Indian subcontinent at the Third Preparatory
Committee meeting for the Special Session on Children. She was picked
at last month's regional preparatory meeting in Kathmandu.
"We all had to give a speech and they liked mine the best.
I promised to go back to them with solutions," she says, adding:
"I would like to go home and say that all the leaders here
(in New York) listened to what children had to say and gave us full
cooperation. We want the same thing from leaders in the Maldives
too.
"My ideal world is a peaceful, child-friendly world with
no distance between boys and girls. All abusers would belong in
jail."
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