resolution

Violence Against Children in Latin America and the Caribbean

2016 Book of Resolutions, #6102

Whereas, millions of children in Latin America and the Caribbean struggle daily to survive in the midst of the violence that forces them to migrate out of their homes, cities, and country in search of safety and better living conditions; and

Whereas, the root causes of migration and immigration are:

violence of armed conflict;
scarce resources taken from children’s health and educational needs to support inordinately large military budgets;
poverty linked to the massive concentration of wealth in a very small percentage of the population; high unemployment; and lack of affordable education opportunities;
hunger;
culture of violence permeating television and other mass media;
lack of medical facilities accessible to the general population, leading to high child mortality;
violence created by organized crime engaged in the traffic of illegal drugs en route to the US;
violence caused by gangs (maras) infiltrated by drug cartels who recruit children as young as eight years of age in Honduras, El Salvador, and other countries;
widespread domestic violence;
ecological violence that is destroying and polluting the natural world and all live creatures;
HIV-Aids, with the second highest incidence in the world in many Caribbean nations, destroying children’s lives from birth;
very high infant mortality.

Therefore, be it resolved, that MARCHA’s petition to the 2016 General Conference to request the United Methodist Women (UMW), the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), and the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) to develop programs, in cooperation with the member churches of CIEMAL, to address the grave crisis of children struggling to survive in the midst of violence and poverty.

Be it further resolved, that the Council of Bishops and the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) support the implementation of these programs.

ADOPTED 2004
READOPTED 2008
AMENDED AND READOPTED 2016
RESOLUTION #6102, 2012 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #6071, 2008 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #324, 2004 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS

See Social Principles, ¶¶ 162C, 164A, and 165.

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