CRINMAIL 104:
CRIN at the Human Rights Council - Day 3

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CRIN at the Human Rights Council - Day 3

Persons with disabilities, freedom of religion, enforced disappearances and development in the context of the environment and foreign debt were all issues that were discussed in depth today at the Human Rights Council. But once against the Council failed to adequately discuss children’s rights in any area.

The session is running a bit behind, meaning the Special Representative to the Secretary-General on violence against children, Ms Marta Santos Pais, will now deliver her annual report tomorrow between 12 and 3pm. Other activities, including side events, may also be affected. Visit our website and twitter feed for updates.

Tomorrow is the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child (7 March) - this year on the right of the child to the highest attainable standard of health - which everyone has been eagerly awaiting all week. We hope it makes up for a lack of children’s rights discussions, and provides for some informative and provocative debates on children’s rights abuses around the world, as well as developments in thinking about how to define and combat these.

Children’s right to choose their own religion, or not

The interactive dialogue between States, NGOs and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, continued from where it left off yesterday. We were disappointed that no State made reference to Mr Bielefeldt’s comments yesterday about parents’ ‘human right’ to educate their children on religion. It is important to remember that it is not just adults who have human rights – children do too, including the freedom to choose their own religion (or not). Although interestingly, Malaysia noted its concerns around the indoctrination of children of religious minorities in public schools.

On the NGO front, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) said that every individual must have the right to choose their own religion or belief, and the International Humanist and Ethical Union said: “No baby is born with a religion. To deny rights to change belief is to deny freedom of thought and consciousness.”

Violence and health

Foreshadowing tomorrow’s annual full day meeting on the rights of the child, an event organised by the International NGO Council on Violence Against Children (NGO Council) focused on the impact of violence on children’s right to health.

At an event certainly not lacking in children's rights content, Marta Santos Pais, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, stressed the importance of considering violence as a health concern. Whether with regards to the direct violence of harmful traditional practices, or abuse leading to risky behaviour, Ms Pais was keen to emphasise the need not only to prohibit all forms of violence against children in law, but to pursue the abolition of such violence in the communities where it is practised.

Violence and detention

Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on Torture, took the opportunity to talk about violence against children in the justice system, particularly the estimated 1 million children deprived of their liberty. Labelling the overuse of the juvenile justice system a product of an under developed welfare system, Mr Mendez called for best interests to be placed at the centre of detention practices and for the minimisation of the difference between life inside and outside detention. This should include health care, whether for physical or mental health conditions.

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is the most common form of violence that children face, a fact raised by Peter Newell in his statement critical of attempts to separate child abuse from corporal punishment. He also criticised the pretence that effective child protection and child health systems can exist while the law authorises hitting, hurting, even injuring children as punishment. In a children’s rights focused approach sometimes lacking this week, Mr Newell said, “we don’t look for proof that domestic violence against women damages their physical or mental health in order to justify prohibiting it and ending impunity. It would be insulting to women to do so, and it is equally insulting to children to suggest we have to prove harm in order to justify extending to them the legal protection that we as adults take for granted from being deliberately assaulted”.

Harmful practices - culture, tradition, religion and superstition

“Why is it so difficult to move on from grotesque practices that so obviously harm, disfigure, injure, in many cases kill, children?” Judith Mulenga posed an interesting question in her speech on harmful practices based on tradition, culture, religion and superstition, a speech that didn’t flinch from challenging the justifications for the wide range of such practices affecting children.

Ms. Mulenga’s presentation, based on a report by the NGO Council published last year, highlighted not only the readily accepted practices, including female genital mutilation and child marriage, but also challenged attempts to legitimise non-therapeutic and non-consensual male circumcision on the basis of a parent’s religious convictions. Echoing statements made in the Human Rights Council this morning, Ms. Mulenga said: “Children are not born into a religion, every individual has the right to religious freedom. Thus, parents and others cannot quote their adult religious beliefs to justify perpetrating harmful practices on a child, before she or he has the capacity to provide informed consent”.

Coming up tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day that many people here at the Human Rights Council have been waiting for this week – the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child. Click here for the High Commissioner’s report, which raises the issues of child morbidity, malnutrition, childhood illnesses, violence against children, mental health, substance use and sexual and reproductive health as areas in need of a children’s rights focus.

The morning session will look at challenges in achieving the full realisation of children’s right to health, and in the afternoon the Council will discuss the implementation of the right and how to make States accountable. It will be interesting to see how changes to the structure will affect discussions this year – this is the first year the High Commissioner’s report was available in advance, and the focus will be on an interactive dialogue rather than presentations.

We will be live tweeting throughout the day, and will pay specific attention to issues which have mostly been ignored so far at the Council, including access to information on LGBT, sexual and reproductive health for children, non-consensual male circumcision, over-drugging of children (e.g. children diagnosed with ADHD) and all forms of corporal punishment.

Visit our website to find out more details.

Side events:

• "Health in juvenile detention" (12pm, 7 March / Room XI)
• "Rights of children in alternative care" (2pm, 7 March / Room XXI)

IGNORED AT THE HRC: VIOLENCE

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