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Children's Rights at the United Nations

In this issue:

March is always a very busy time of year for children’s rights at the UN. The Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child - the only day the UN’s main human rights monitoring body focuses on children’s rights - takes place during the Council’s March session each year.

This edition provides an update on some of the key outcomes from the Council’s session for children’s rights, as well as some other happenings at the UN, and as always, provides a breakdown of what to expect in the coming weeks.

Human Rights Council - 25th session update

The 25th session of the Human Rights Council draws to a close this week. CRIN reported live during the week of the annual day on the rights of the child, and you can read our daily CRINmails and editorials on the access to justice to children maze - the theme of this year’s annual day - on our website.

#HRC25 on Twitter has been inundated throughout the Council’s session, with people both in the room and around the globe commenting on happenings at the UN’s main human rights monitoring body. 

We will give you a full update once the Council closes and the session report is released, including an update on the new special procedure mandate holders to be appointed. In the meantime, below is a snapshot of some of the key outcomes from the session for children’s rights, in addition to what we covered in our daily CRINmails.

Access to justice

Access to justice for children means that children, or their appropriate advocates where applicable, must be able to use and trust the legal system to protect their human rights. It covers every instance in which a child comes into contact with the law, whether the child seeks out the legal system or the legal system seeks out the child.

A draft of the Human Rights Council’s resolution on access to justice for children was published this week, following the annual day on the rights of the child’s discussions on 13 March. Below is a short summary and analysis of some of the key points. The final version will be published on the UN’s website shortly.

Equality and non-discrimination: The detailed draft resolution “recalls that children are entitled to the same legal guarantees and protection as are accorded to adults, including all fair trial guarantees, while enjoying at the same time the right to special protection because of their status as children”.

This is an important principle because children’s rights when it comes to access to justice are routinely ignored because they are often not viewed as human beings with human rights.

The child’s right to access justice: In the draft, the Council notes various barriers to children’s access to justice, including restrictions on children initiating and/or participating in proceedings. The Council recommends States ensure children “have the possibility to initiate legal proceedings in cases of violations of their rights.”

Children are barred from accessing justice themselves in most countries. For children to be viewed and treated as human beings with human rights, they ought to be able to access justice themselves. However, this is not to say that adults should never be able to help children access justice, especially when children are very young or particularly vulnerable. But this should never conflict with children’s rights and/or with the best interests of the child. Read an editorial on the importance of emphasising the child’s right to access justice.

Representation: The draft resolution urges States to “[ensure] that all children have access to legal and other appropriate assistance, including by supporting the establishment of child-sensitive legal aid systems” and the “guarantee of legal aid and other appropriate assistance under the same or more lenient conditions as adults.”

Getting the right legal assistance, advice and representation from a trained professional is crucial to children accessing justice. Read an editorial on the importance of legal representation.

Right to be heard: The Council expresses its “deep concern” that “this right in many parts of the world has yet to be fully realised” and that “children are still seldom seriously consulted and involved” in matters affecting them. The Council “recalls the right of the child who is capable of forming his or her own views should be given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child, and urges States to ensure that children are provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial or administrative proceedings affecting them, either directly or through a representative or an appropriate body.”

The right to be heard is vital for anyone accessing the justice system - otherwise their side of the story will never be told. Recognising the right to be heard for children is even more important, because so often children’s views are overshadowed by adults who have louder voices and higher platforms to shout from. Read an editorial for more.

Remedies: The draft “reaffirms that every child whose rights have been violated shall have an effective remedy”. It also urges States to ensure “that their national legal systems provide effective remedies to children for violations and abuses of their rights”.

The right to a remedy is firmly established in international law, and a justice system that respects human rights is one that holds perpetrators responsible, provides remedies for victims and works to prevent the wrong from happening again. Read an editorial on the importance of remedies when it comes to access to justice for children.

Time limits on accessing justice: Time limits for filing a case, often called limitation periods, restrict victims’ ability to access justice because it means they have to make a complaint about a rights violation within a specific time frame. Such rules pose problems for many children trying to access justice - many are barred from using legal systems, or may not be aware of their rights or that they have suffered a violation because of their young age.

With this in mind, the draft resolutions says States need to ensure limitation periods “are not unduly restrictive….including, where appropriate, that they do not begin running before the child has reached majority”.

Class actions and public interest litigation: The draft resolution “encourages States to allow children, their representatives, civil society organisations and national human rights institutions to bring cases on behalf of or in support of a group of children, or in the public interest, including group litigation and collective or class action suits, as a way to challenge laws, policies, norms and practices that negatively affect the rights of the child”.

These types of lawsuits can be powerful way for children to access justice on an individual level because they are less frightening than going alone, and often allow for victims to remain anonymous. The ability to challenge laws, policies and structures that violate rights is empowering, and feeds into the important notion that children are human beings with human rights.  Read an editorial for more.
 

Inhuman sentencing of children

Juvenile justice is related to children’s access to justice. It is a passive form of justice when it comes to children - where the law seeks out the child who is in conflict with it: The more active being when the child is empowered to access justice for a rights violation they have suffered.

There are specific human rights principles that help protect children’s rights in juvenile justice, one being that the inhuman sentencing of children - including sentences of death, life imprisonment and corporal punishment - should be outlawed.

The death penalty for children and life without the parole receive substantial attention from the international human rights community, often at the expense of considering other inhuman sentences. However, a body of international standards condemning any form of life imprisonment of children is being created, following a General Assembly resolution in 2012.  The Human Rights Council’s draft resolution on access to justice for children, following the annual day on the rights of the child, capitalises on this and urges States “to ensure that, under their legislation and in practice, neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment are imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age.”

Read about CRIN’s campaign to end inhuman sentencing of children.
 

Violence against children

A draft resolution of the Human Rights Council, entitled “Ending violence against children: a global call to make the invisible visible”, says that the Council will “convene, at its 27th session, a panel discussion on ways and means of accelerating global efforts to end violence against children.”

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, delivered her annual report to the Human Rights Council earlier this month. Read our previous coverage.
 

Children and armed conflict

The plight of children in armed conflicts received much attention at the UN during March, with the ongoing conflicts in Syria dominating.

“The lives of over one hundred thousand people have been extinguished. The fate and whereabouts of thousands more remain unknown,” said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic during his address to the Human Rights Council earlier this month.

The Commission’s 2014 report contains details of children’s rights violations in Syria as the conflict descends into its fourth destructive year. Torture, killing, wounding, arrest and detention (including with adults), lack of healthcare, denial of education, recruitment and sexual violence are all listed in a small but sombre chapter in the report.

Prior to presenting his report, Mr Pinheiro said the UN Security Council “bears responsibility” for allowing war crimes to continue in the battle-worn country.

In addition to the Commission’s report, the Special Representative of the Security General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, presented her report to the Human Rights Council during the Council’s 25th session.

Over in New York, the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution setting out practical steps to combat violations of children’s rights in armed conflict, including child protection in military training and integrating children who have been involved in conflicts back into the community. (Read our latest Children and Armed Conflict CRINmail for more on the resolution.)
 

Contraception is a human right, says UN agency

A set of recommendations for States to ensure that women, girls and couples have access to tools to avoid unwanted pregnancies was released by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month to mark International Women’s Day.

According the WHO, the guidance puts “an emphasis on contraception as a human right” and “stresses the importance of privacy and confidentiality” and “that women and adolescents should be able to request contraceptive help without having to obtain authorisation from their husbands, parents or guardians.”

The WHO stresses that access to contraception, information and services allows better planning for families, and improved health as well as enjoyment of other rights. Dr. Marleen Temmerman, Director of WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research, says: “It is vital for women - and men - to understand how contraception works, be offered a choice of methods, and be happy with the method they receive”.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

As reported last month, CEDAW’s 57th session took place in February. The concluding observations have now been released, and children’s rights extracts have been posted on our website. Click on the links below for more.

• Bahrain: Among its list of concerns for Bahrain, the Committee is troubled by the high rate of trafficking in women and girls for forced labour and/or sexual exploitation, and the unequal nationality rights of women when it comes to passing down nationality to their children, as well laws allowing marital rape and a blanket ban on abortion.
• Cameroon: The Committee is concerned that many girls do not receive birth registration, and that laws allowing polygamy for men violate women’s rights, among other concerns.
• Finland: Hate speech on the internet and in social media against women and girls of ethnic minorities, lack of laws banning female genitial mutliation (FGM), and traditional values and gender stereotypes in education curricula are among the Committee’s concerns for Finland.
• Iraq: The Committee is concerned about a number of harmful practices and stereotypes towards women and girls, including child marriage, persistent patriarchal attitudes, crimes in the name of “honour”, FGM and human trafficking, among other concerns.
• Kazakhstan: The Committee is concerned about deep-seated patriarchal views about women and girls, mainly in the family, which are reinforced through stereotypes in education. Among other concerns, the Committee is also troubled by the high rate of trafficking in women and girls for forced labour and sexual exploitation.
• Qatar: Violence is a persistent concern for the Committee when it comes to Qatar, noting the State’s discriminatory marriage laws which allow child marriage for girls, high prevalence of trafficking in women and girls and domestic violence.
• Sierra Leone: The Committee is concerned about the continued prevalence of FGM, laws that allow child marriage subject to parental consent, girls denied an education because of harmful practices such as child marriage, trafficking of women and girls and a lack of information on and access to sexual and reproductive health services.
   

Upcoming

The Human Rights Committee’s 110th session is currently underway, with Chad, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Nepal, Sierra Leone and the United States of America under review for their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Concluding observations have just been released, and we will update you on the content of them in the next edition.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ sixth session closes tomorrow. Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Paraguay have been under the spotlight, and we will update you on children’s rights outcomes once the concluding observations are released.

The Committee on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities is set to hold its 11th session between 31 March and 11 April. The following States are up for review: Azerbaijan, Costa Rica and Sweden.

The Committee on Migrant Workers will hold its 20th session between 31 March and 11 April, and El Salvador, Mali, the Philippines and Uruguay are all up for review.

The below special procedure country visits are ongoing or coming up:

• Working Group (WG) on arbitrary detention - New Zealand (24 March - 7 April)
• Special Rapporteur (SR) on slavery - Kazakhstan (25 - 28 March)
• SR on violence against women - United Kingdom (31 March - 15 April)
• Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture - Nigeria (1 - 3 April)
• SR on internally displaced persons - Azerbaijan (18 - 24 May)
• WG on people of African descent - the Netherlands (30 June - 4 July)

Call for information

The UN Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is calling for contributions in connection with the General Assembly Resolution 67/167 "The right to privacy in a digital age."

Access to justice 

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