Child Rights at the Human Rights Council 24

22 March 2007 - Child Rights at the Human Rights Council 24

 

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- Top human rights experts discuss racism and discrimination [news]

- Access to Education for Children with Disabilities [event]

- UN expert briefs NGOs on organ trafficking and disappeared children [news]

**Coming up**

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Children Have Rights Too!
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Read the daily briefing on child rights at the Human Rights Council in Word: http://www.crin.org/docs/HRC_Daily_briefing_3.doc

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Top human rights experts discuss racism and discrimination [news]

[GENEVA, 21 March 2007] A high-level panel of human rights officials, including UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and Human Rights Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba, met today to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

At the meeting, ‘Racism and Discrimination: Obstacles to Development’, panel members touched on a number of issues including the relationships between racism and other forms of discrimination, development, poverty, economic growth and conflicts.

Ms Arbour said: “Racism, discrimination and poverty form a vicious cycle…This International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is the occasion to mobilise public opinion, as well as to remind governments of their duty to combat racial discrimination in all its forms.”

For more information, visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12849

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Access to Education for Children with Disabilities [news]

Vernor Muñoz Villalobos, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, denounced ‘special education’ and championed inclusion for disabled children at a briefing on ‘Access to Education for Children with Disabilities’, presented by World Vision.

Arguing inclusive education could put us “on the threshold of a new era”, Mr Muñoz Villalobos insisted the paradigm of education should be that “all children learn together,” and that “the only perquisite to being a student is to breathe.”

People with disabilities represent ten per cent of the world’s population and approximately 150 million children are disabled. The majority of these children live in poverty in developing countries, and most of these disabilities are preventable, stemming largely from poor maternal nutrition and land mines.

Mr Muñoz Villalobos said disability for children usually means exclusion. They invariably suffer stigmatisation and discrimination, which is reinforced by special education. The schooling rate in developing countries is as high as 86 per cent, yet only one to five per cent of those pupils are children with disabilities.

He said the principle of children learning together includes a number of key facets, namely that:

  • every child is unique and also different
  • every child has specific needs
  • a plan centred on child needs is paramount
  • inclusion is related to all aspects of a child’s life
  • inclusion involves not only those with disability but also those without

Mr Muñoz Villalobos added: “If we want to include all children, the whole school must change. We cannot just change just the physical set up to eliminate the physical barriers, but also change the mentality of children and teachers.”

His general recommendations to States were:

  • States must not interfere in the enjoyment of the right to education
  • States must protect against discrimination in all its forms
  • States should use the maximum available resources for improving the content and quality of education for all children.

His specific recommendations were:

  • inclusive education is a human right
  • States must identify the meaning and standards determining the right to education
  • States should develop a transition plan that can guide the training of teachers, advisors, and develop support resources to eliminate physical barriers.

He said social stigma and the belief that inclusion is expensive were the main barriers to the realisation of these recommendations. He added integration, whereby children with disabilities are not completely included but take part in a different classroom, is favoured by most countries.

Mr Muñoz Villalobos concluded by saying:

  • education is not a competition
  • success cannot be based on the failure of others
  • knowledge is a common good and must be encouraged among all people
  • most of the big changes in the world come from those who are different and, as such, diversity must be fostered. Indeed, sometimes the best teachers are children
  • every time we fall down, we have the right to expect that someone will help us up

Ms. Hitomi Honda, Disability Adviser for World Vision International, then spoke. She acknowledged disability mainstreaming had only just begun, and said World Vision realised disabled people has been left out of the development process. They intend to work out how to include children with disabilities into education, economic development, and health programmes.

Her recommendations include:

  • to recognise that all children can learn
  • to transform education systems
  • to promote inclusive environments, including parents
  • to prioritise teachers and train them effectively
  • to ensure funding promotes education for disabled children

For more information, contact:
World Vision International
6 Chemin de la Tourelle, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland
Website: http://www.wvi.org/wvi/home.htm
 

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UN expert briefs NGOs on organ trafficking and disappeared children [news]

[21 March 2007] - Juan Miguel Petit, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography today warned NGOs against becoming entangled in State bureaucratic values in a briefing organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He said NGOs are more up to date on developments and must remain open to new interventions and new ways of working. The challenge, he believes, is to create flexible programmes to compensate for “moving children”, such as those forced into prostitution.

“You can fill a country with schools,” he said, “but that doesn’t help the moving children. If we are not on the move [with them], they will not count.”

Mr Petit focused on two topics for his report to the Human Rights Council, which he presented this week: 1) the trafficking of organs and 2) disappeared children.

Regarding the first topic, he noted the huge concern about the market for trafficking of organs and children. The organs are used in rituals in South Africa and other African countries.

Speaking on the subject of disappeared children, he said when cases of children who had disappeared are brought to the attention of the authorities, a task in itself, officials often disregard the issue, or merely conclude the child has “run away”.

He said instruments are needed to prevent and combat such disappearances so that “we will have the security to know that everything that could be done was done”. He added such mechanisms should include local and national police, media, communities, and voluntary groups in order to create an invisible network of security.

Read the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (Mr. Juan Miguel Petit)

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12854

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**Coming up - 22 March**

9 -10 AM, Room 3023: Child Rights Caucus morning briefing with the with Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Juan Miguel Petit

12 – 2 PM, Room VII: “Third Generation” Human Rights – Reflections on the Collective Dimension of Human Rights, Friedrich Ebert Foundation

6 – 8 PM, 1 Rue de Varembé: Without the Special Procedures, the efficiency
of the Human Rights Council will be compromised, États Généraux

4.30 – 6PM, Room XXIV: Intersecting Human Rights Crises – HIV and AIDS and Violence against Women and Girls

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This update has been produced by CRIN, in collaboration with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Subgroup on the Human Rights Council. To subscribe, unsubscribe or view archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.

Further information about the Human Rights Council is available on the CRIN website at: www.crin.org/chr. To submit information, contact [email protected]. CRIN, c/o Save the Children, 1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK.

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