CRINMAIL 106:
CRIN at the HRC: Day 5
In this issue:
This is CRIN signing off from the Human Rights Council’s 22nd session with our final daily CRINMAIL rounding up what’s happening on children’s rights at the Council.
You can find our previous four daily CRINMAILs from this week, including our report on the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child yesterday, here on our website. You can also see our live Twitter feed here.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage and that it has given you useful insights and analysis into what is happening at the Council regarding children’s rights this week. If you have any comments or feedback, please email us at [email protected].
We need a change in attitudes towards children
Following on from yesterday’s Annual Day on the Rights of the Child, the Council was once again focused on children’s issues this morning. Ms. Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and Ms Najat Maalla M’jid, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography continued and concluded their dialogue with States and NGOs.
There was a lot of talk about a worldwide lack of legislation and regulation to protect children from sex exploitation and other forms of violence. Ms. Pais stressed in her closing remarks the very important point that while legislation is a vital first step in safeguarding children from violence, it is far from sufficient. She emphasised the need for the international community to mobilise a change in attitudes towards children, including ideas around violence as a form of discipline.
In urging States to establish clear implementation plans to stop violence against children, Ms Pais reminded the Council that good intentions enshrined in legislation are likely to fail unless other important considerations are implemented, including financial implications and society’s attitudes towards children.
Resolution on the health rights of the child
Debate on the draft Human Rights Council resolution on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health continued today. Debate was wide ranging, from the purely grammatical to fundamental disputes about the nature of children’s rights.
The most contentious issue of the morning revolved around the section of the resolution related to access to sexual and reproductive health services. Norway led the charge in defending children’s rights to “full access to confidential, youth friendly and evidence based sexual and reproductive health services”, alongside Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Iceland, while Egypt sought to introduce caveats and requirements for parental guidance.
Abortion too was controversial. El Salvador and Egypt in particular wanted to remove all reference to such practices, but as Norway pointed out, the current draft does not take a stance on whether abortion should be legal and only requires that where it is, States must provide quality services to manage complications.
In another controversial move, the United States suggested removing mentions of substance abuse from the resolution, something quickly rejected by Namibia.
The draft is still young and vital rights based provisions could easily be lost. The session will continue on Monday - look out for news in our UN CRINMAIL.
Human rights v traditional values
“Traditional values have nothing to do with the mandate of the Human Rights Council, and are completely irrelevant. Evoking traditional values in the Council is like talking about swiss cheese”, said Leah Hoctor from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in a passionate address at a side event organised by Arc International and others today. She went on to differentiate cultural rights and traditional values by pointing out that the former have a basis in law, whereas traditional values have no legal basis and are completely subjective. “I may have traditional values, but I still have all my human rights,” she said.
At the same event, a member of the Russian Mission made a fascinating address challenging everyone in the room on their apparent misunderstanding of Russia’s initiative around traditional values. He said: “We are not just talking about traditional values of certain groups - it is about traditional values of humankind. Human rights as a term has yet to be defined, and we condemn harmful traditional practices, and we make a distinction between harmful traditional practices and positive ones. We will win.”
This was followed by an enlightening and combative debate on the role of traditional values in human rights in the context of LGBT rights in Russia.
Viacheslav Samonov from the Russian LGBT Network gave the room an insight into the laws against the “propaganda of homosexualism” in ten Russian regions and the similar proposal before the Russian national parliament. The ‘moral well being’ of children and protecting them from ‘harmful information’ is often dangerously used as a rationale for these discriminatory laws.
Mr Samonov asked the Russian delegate: “How is homophobia a traditional value that needs to be protected?”
The Russian delegate said that homophobia is not a traditional value.
Ms Hoctor then rebutted the Russian delegate’s logic: “If you are serious about human rights and you say homophobia is not a traditional value, then why is your highest court evoking traditional values when justifying laws prohibiting information about homosexuality?”
Applause from the audience (bar the Russian delegate).
Coming up at the Human Rights Council next week
Discussions on the resolution following the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child will continue at the start of next week. Then the bulk of the sessions later in the week will concern the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). You can find about more about the UPR, including how the process works on our website here.
The following States will have their UPR reports considered from 13 - 15 March:
Czech Republic - Argentina - Gabon - Ghana - Peru - Guatemala - Benin - Republic of Korea - Switzerland - Pakistan - Zambia Japan - Ukraine - Sri Lanka
IGNORED AT THE HRC: ACCESS TO JUSTICE
"The right to health means more than the bare bones of survival.
It also means having access to justice if your right to health is violated.
Children must be able to access appropriate and effective remedies, including compensation, if they are victims of any violation of their rights in any setting. This means they must have access to an effective and child-friendly complaints mechanism, to representation, to advice and to the assistance they need to be fully involved in the defense of their rights.
Children have human rights too, not because they are "the future" or "the adults of tomorrow", but because they are human beings today.
Ignored at the HRC: Day 5 Access to justice. But next year's topic for the Annual Day of Discussion on the Rights of the Child has been confirmed as access to justice. A little something to be looking forward to...
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