CRINMAIL 116:
In this issue:
In this last Children’s Rights at the UN CRINmail for 2013, we thought we would start by getting everyone thinking about what’s coming up early in 2014, which includes the Committee on the Rights of the Child session (and the Holy See review), the Syria peace conference and the 18th session of the Universal Periodic Review.
The second part of this CRINmail gives a round-up of the main highlights for children’s rights at the UN this month, including a General Assembly resolution on the right to privacy and the outcomes of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ latest session.
As always, we’d love to hear suggestions for stories and feedback, so please email us at [email protected].
We hope you enjoy reading, and Season’s Greetings!
Best wishes
The CRIN team
WHAT'S COMING UP IN 2014
UN to review the Holy See on church child sexual abuse
As we’ve previously reported, the Committee on the Rights of the Child is reviewing the Holy See during its 65th session (13 - 31 January), and among the list of issues to be reviewed are cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, monks and nuns around the world brought to the Holy See’s attention.
The date is currently set for 16 January, but of course this can change at the last minute and we will update you via our website and Twitter feed (#HolySeeConfess).
The Holy See replied to the Committee’s list of issues earlier this month, and did not provide the evidence the Committee asked, stating that it was not responsible for cases outside its territorial borders. Read a press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights, who, with the the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed the ultimately unsuccessful case with the International Criminal Court against the then Pope Benedict XVI for crimes against humanity.
You can find the Committee’s list of issues and the Holy See’s reply on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) website. All alternative reports for the session (including for all the States under review) can be found on our session page, which we will be updating with regular coverage as the session unfolds in January.
The other countries under review during the Committee’s 65th session are Congo, Germany, Portugal, Russian Federation and Yemen. Again, you can find all documentation via the OHCHR website, and on our session page.
Read our latest Children in Court CRINmail for details of court cases in Poland and the United States tackling the issue of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Access to justice for children: Annual Day on the Rights of the Child
The Human Rights Council’s Annual Day on the Rights of the Child takes place during its March session each year, and it is the only day dedicated to children’s rights in the world’s main human rights body.
The 2014 theme is “Access to Justice for Children”, and the date is set for 13 March during the HRC’s 25th session. Download the draft programme for the HRC’s 25th session. Preparations for the day are ongoing and we will be providing up-dates to give you a more detailed preview of what to expect in the new year. The deadline for submitting requests for side events during the HRC’s 25th session is 3 February. Our session page has links on how to register.
Access to justice for children, meaning the ability to challenge a rights violation and get an effective remedy, is what makes children’s other human rights a reality. You can read more about access to justice for children in CRIN’s submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the annual day.
Date set for international peace conference on Syria
The long-sought international peace conference on Syria is set to begin on 22 January with a one-day meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. The conference will be held in two parts, with the second day on 24 January in Geneva.
The Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of more than 126,000 people, including well over 11,000 children. The violence has also caused the world’s worst refugee crisis in 20 years, with approximately two million people forced to flee the country, half of whom are children. A further two million children have also been internally displaced.
On 29 November, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) published its first in-depth survey of Syrian refugee children since the conflict began. The survey reveals that children in Lebanon and Jordan suffer from widespread psychological distress, with many living alone and separated from their parents, and most receiving no education and involved in illegal labour in dangerous and exploitative conditions. The survey’s researchers also note reports of boys being trained to fight in preparation for return to Syria. There are also a large number of babies born in exile without birth certificates – an essential document in the battle against statelessness. UNICEF has recently produced a report on the inequalities of birth registration.
The purpose of the conference starting 22 January, dubbed “Geneva II” following the first international meeting on 30 June 2012, is to bring the Syrian Government and the opposition to a negotiating table for the first time since March 2011 to achieve a political solution to the conflict.
Further details about the conference are expected following a meeting taking place today between Lakhdar Brahimi, who is the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States, (and who is also organising the conference), and officials from the United States and Russian Federation, who are then to be joined by the other permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France and the United Kingdom), as well as representatives from the League of Arab States, European Union and Syria’s neighbours Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. Further details.
Human Rights Council: call for a special session on CAR
The Central African Republic’s permanent mission to the HRC has called for a special session to take place in January 2014 on the “very grave crisis” concerning human rights in the country. The call has been backed by others, including the African Group, France, the European Union and the United States.
The HRC has also been urged to accelerate the appointment of the independent expert on the Central African Republic, which it decided to establish during its 24th session in September.
News reports indicate CAR is on “the verge of genocide” as thousands of people, including children, are being killed by soldiers and militia gangs. A UNICEF assessment in July this year revealed how the situation for children in the country is worsening, including lack of access to vital healthcare across the country.
You can find out more about the children’s rights situation in CAR by visiting CRIN’s country page. Please do contact us at [email protected] with any further information you may have.
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) - 18th session
The 18th session of the UPR will take place between 27 January and 7 February 2014. The below countries are up for review. The first links provided are to children’s rights extracts from the State’s first review, including the UPR’s recommendations rejected by States (which are usually where the real human rights issues are). The second are to CRIN’s country pages where we have more information on the children’s rights situation in each State.
You can also use our library to search for follow up reports to the UPR that NGOs have submitted, detailing whether or not the State is following the UPR’s recommendations from the first review cycle.
Yemen is one of the 39 countries that still allow for the inhuman sentencing of children (which includes the death penalty, life imprisonment and corporal punishment). As part of our campaign to end this practice, CRIN submits reports on this issue to the UPR for each of the 39 States, including Yemen, when they are up for review. Read more about the inhuman sentencing of children in Yemen in our campaign country report.
CRIN’s Children’s Rights Wiki includes (among other things) a list of persistent children’s rights violations raised by international bodies, including the UPR, for each country. For more information on the UPR’s 18th session, including the timetable, visit UPR Info.
Calls for contributions
Children with a disability
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is inviting people to comment on the two draft general comments which were adopted during its 10th session in September 2013. One is on “equal recognition before the law”, and the other is on “accessibility”. See the OHCHR’s website for more. The deadline is 21 February.
The impact of advertising and marketing
The OHCHR and the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights has asked for submissions on the impact of advertising and marketing practices on the enjoyment of cultural rights by 3 March 2014. Further details, including the questionnaire to be filled out, can be found on our website.
Special procedure visits
The below special procedure visits are set for January 2014. Visit the OHCHR website for more information.
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Special Rapporteur (SR) on independence of judges and lawyers: Qatar, 19 - 26 January.
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SR on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association: Rwanda, 20 - 27 January.
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SR on health: Madagascar, 20 -31 January.
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SR on truth: Spain, 22 -31 January.
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SR on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: Seychelles, 27 - 31 January.
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SR on independence of judges and lawyers: United Arab Emirates, 28 January - 5 February.
KEY ISSUES IN DECEMBER
Human Rights Day - UN experts call on world governments to work with civil society
Over 70 independent experts in the UN used Human Rights Day (10 December) to urge governments to co-operate with them and allow human rights organisations and individuals to engage with the UN “without fear of intimidation or reprisals”.
The 72 special procedures are the largest body of independent experts in the UN, and it is their role to investigate human rights situations in specific countries and/or across themes.
“The work we do relies heavily on our interaction with civil society, national human rights institutions, human rights defenders, other individuals working on the ground and victims of human rights violations,” explained Mr Chaloka Beyani (Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons), on behalf of the group. “It is of utmost concern that some of these become victims of intimidation and reprisals. The protection of these vital partners is of utmost importance,” he said, calling on world governments “to respond firmly against any act which threatens them and seeks to obstruct human rights work.”
2013 saw the UN take significant steps to help protect human rights defenders. In its 23rd session, the Human Rights Council passed a record number of resolutions calling for the protection of human rights defenders, and its 24th session saw a strong resolution passed calling on the Secretary-General to appoint a high level official to coordinate the international response to reprisals.
However, 2013 also saw a spike in governments targeting and harassing human rights campaigners. Restrictive laws defining NGOs as “foreign agents” have been passed in a number of countries, and children’s rights activities have been detained throughout the year. Read our special edition CRINmail on Human Rights Day for more.
There are two special procedures with specific children’s rights mandates, namely the Special Rapporteur on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornogrophy and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. But it must be remembered that special procedures work on children’s rights because children, like adults, have all human rights. See below for an example.
Slavery in Ghana
After a visit to Ghana earlier this month, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, highlighted the use of girls as sex workers in cities across the country as a serious child labour concern. Ms Shahinian said she spoke with girls, some having fled early marriage, who sleep on the streets in appalling conditions and are regularly exposed to sexual violence including rape and other forms of exploitation, abuse and slavery.
Ms Shahinian also raised her pressing concerns about the involvement of children in domestic servitude. Children working in private homes - some 15.5 million worldwide - are among the most exploited and abused workers due to persistent social discrimination, exclusion from labour laws, isolation and the invisible nature of their work.
In an effort to correct this injustice, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention sets out the first global standards enshrining the rights of all domestic workers, including children, in international law. The Convention came into force in September 2013. An NGO coalition campaign to encourage more governments to ratify the Convention, called the “12 by 12” campaign, continues to organise worldwide and is now active in 92 countries. CRIN is also part of a campaign to encourage governments who have not yet ratified the Domestic Workers Convention to do so. You can read more about this on our website.
Resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age
The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution which states its deep concerns around electronic surveillance, interception of digital communications and collection of personal data and their impact on human rights. The resolution, which was passed during the General’s Assembly’s Third Committee on 18 December and crafted by Brazil and Germany, strongly backs the right to privacy and calls on all countries to take measures to end activities that violate this fundamental “tenet of a democratic society”. For the first time, the General Assembly has made it clear that people have the same rights online as they do offline when it comes to privacy.
The resolution, entitled “the right to privacy in the digital age” (A/HRC/23/40) also requests the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to report on the issue during the Human Rights Council’s 27th session (September 2014).
Back in April this year, the UN Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, released a report on communications technology and the increased capacity it has given States to spy on individuals. The report came down strongly against mass surveillance and the chilling effect this erosion of privacy is having on freedom of expression and human rights activism.
Technology, particularly the internet, has changed the way we communicate forever, and children are at the forefront. This means they can be particularly vulnerable to violations of their privacy. For instance, a high school in the US used spyware software installed in school laptops to spy on children in their homes.
Previously during the General Assembly’s Third Committee, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Violence against Children and the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict delivered their annual reports, and the new Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Kirsten Sandberg, delivered her first oral report to the GA. The UN Secretary-General’s annual report on the Convention on the Rights for the Child was also delivered. Read our coverage and analysis of these.
Round-up of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) 51st session
The 51st session of the CESCR, the UN body charged with implementing and enforcing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), took place on 4 -29 November. Concluding observations have been released, and below is a quick snapshot of the main children’s rights rights issues raised.
For Albania, the CESCR noted its concern about the prevailing discrimination and marginalisation of Roma, including Roma children, and children with disabilities and recommended the State ensure a specific budget for facilities and services for Roma in the country to ensure they can access housing, education and healthcare, and to improve protection services for children with disabilities as well as their access to services. The Committee also noted its concern about the high number of children working in hazardous conditions in Albania, particularly Roma children. Other important children’s rights issues, including violence against children and child trafficking were also raised.
Issues regarding children from minority backgrounds were also raised during Australia’s review, with the CESCR expressing its concerns around high education drop-out rates for migrants, particularly Roma children and girls. The CESCR recommended that Australia intensify its efforts in providing education and training for all children.
The CESCR recommended Belarus abolish compulsory labour as a punitive measure for parents who have had their parental rights removed, and work to ensure that, wherever possible, children can be raised by their parents.
For Bosnia and Herzegovina, among other issues, access to education (including primary) for Roma children was a concern for the CESCR, with the Committee urging the State to better cooperate with all organisations, including Roma associations, and allocate adequate financial resources to help Roma children access education.
For Djibouti (only available in French at the moment) the CESCR said it regretted that children working or living on the street were currently cared for by civil society, and recommended that the State provide access to healthcare, housing and education for these children.
The CESCR noted its concerns around the high prevalence of child labour in rural areas in Egypt and a lack of resources put into education and healthcare across the country. The Committee recommended that the State take steps to change its laws so they are more in line with the principles outlined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and increase budgets for education and health.
Child labour was also an issue raised during Gabon’s review (only available in French at the moment), with the CESCR recommending the State strengthen laws, prosecute employers and offer rehabilitation to victims. Discrimination against people with disabilities, the LGBT community, migrants and children born out of wedlock were also a concern to the CESCR, and the Committee recommended that the State guarantee that these people can enjoy all the rights in the ICESCR.
Statelessness of ‘Bidoun’ people was a key issues raised during Kuwait’s review, as the CESCR is particularly concerned that these people are routinely denied their education, cultural and social rights - for instance, a primary education is not compulsory for non-Kuwaiti children living in the country. The CESCR urges Kuwait to speed up its efforts to find a solution regarding the legal status of Bidoun people by 2015.
Healthcare services, education and housing for migrant children, including Roma and asylum seekers, in Norway were of a concern to the CESCR, with the Committee urging the State to take steps to ensure these children could access vital services.
Update on UPR’s 17th session outcomes
The draft reports of the UPR’s 17th session are available on UPR Info’s website, and the final reports will be published after the 25th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2014. In addition to the draft reports, you can also read the OHCHR’s media briefs for each State’s review to get a sense of what was discussed. We will provide some analysis on the children’s rights issues raised once the final reports are published.
Useful contacts and resources
Useful Resources
Contacts and Organisations
THE LAST WORD
“I can think of nothing I would rather see in 2014 than for world leaders to emulate his example in upholding their moral and political responsibilities.”
- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paying tribute to Nelson Mandela.
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