Millions more Maddies
2008-05-05 13:45
Praia Da Luz, Portugal - A small Portuguese town's search for a British girl who went missing during a family vacation a year ago has broadened into a global quest.
But one year after Madeleine McCann disappeared in Praia da Luz, she is still counted among the many thousands of children worldwide who vanish without a trace.
Church services in Britain and in the Portuguese beachside resort on Saturday marked the first anniversary of the McCann family's widely-publicised ordeal.
The disappearance of Madeleine, who was a few days short of turning 4 when she went missing on May 3, 2007, has engaged public sympathy across continents, and advocates of improved child protection measures are harnessing the attention to press their case for change.
Galvanising international efforts
Ernie Allen, president of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, a non-profit organisation based in Alexandria, Virginia, says the McCanns' high-profile campaign to find their daughter has helped galvanise international efforts.
"You have these transcendent cases that capture the attention of the media and people around the world and as tragic as they are, they shine a spotlight on the problem, and we need to be ready to seize those opportunities to make fundamental changes," Allen said in a telephone interview.
Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry - both doctors from central England - built a worldwide online campaign that recruited public help for their search.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling and soccer star David Beckham were among celebrities who made appeals, and a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI further amplified their efforts.
The McCanns sustained the momentum even after Portuguese police named them as formal suspects in September. They deny any wrongdoing, and the investigation remains open.
Early warning system
The McCanns have used their fame to press for the adoption of an early warning system for child abductions in Europe.
Gerry McCann travelled to the US in June to view a national programme for such emergencies.
The Amber Alert system, which quickly airs descriptions of missing children and suspects, was adopted throughout the US in 2003. It helped recover 68 kidnapped children in 2007 and several hundred over the past five years. Australia and Canada have similar programmes.
At the European Parliament last month, the McCanns urged the continent's lawmakers to introduce a standardised child rescue alert for Europe.
The EU has no cross-border mechanism even though 15 of its 27 member countries, including Portugal, have removed border controls between them. EU countries have adopted a shared hot line number - 116000 - to enable early alerts, though not all member nations use it.
"Progress is always slow on these things ... and the effort of the McCanns is really timely," Allen said.
Too much emphasis on Madeleine
Some have voiced criticism that there is too much media emphasis on the Madeleine McCann case.
But Catherine Meyer, London-based president of non-profit organisation Parents and Children Together, said the family's endeavours have been "tremendously beneficial" for long-standing attempts to underscore the scale of the threat.
Public interest in Madeleine's disappearance shows no signs of ebbing. Detectives are still working on the case, and a man who lives near the Praia da Luz hotel where she vanished is a formal suspect along with the McCanns. He also has strenuously denied involvement.
Police declined to speak about their investigation, saying it is confidential.
1.2m children trafficked each year
A UN study in 2006 estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked across the world each year, though there has been no indication that Madeleine was snagged by criminal rings.
But Kate McCann wrote on the family's website that their ordeal had brought them into contact with a shadowy global menace that they, like most people, were barely aware of.
"The scale of the problem is huge. In fact, it is terrifying," she wrote.
- AP