CRINmail 129:
September at the UN
In this issue:
View this CRINmail in your browser.
As always, September has been a busy month at the UN, as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Council both held sessions and the General Assembly’s session got underway. Here we give you a snapshot of the main children’s rights issues that came out of the discussions and preview what’s coming up next.
Best wishes,
The CRIN team
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has concluded its 67th session. Below are some of the children’s rights issues raised with reporting States, based on the list of issues published by the Committee ahead of the session:
- Croatia’s combined third to fourth periodic report: Issues raised include the practice of corporal punishment in all settings, the lack of adequate support systems for victims of sexual exploitation, the increasing number of children with disabilities in institutional care and the prolonged pre-trial detention of children (read the full text of the Concluding observations and a summary of the main issues).
- Fiji’s combined second to fourth report: Issues raised include the high rate of domestic violence against girls, corporal punishment, discrimination against children with disabilities, infant mortality, the impact of climate change and the minimum age of criminal responsibility being as low as 10 years of age (full text of the Concluding observations / summary of the main issues).
- Hungary’s combined third to fifth report: Issues raised include age restrictions for management of associations (14 years), corporal punishment in all settings, the detention of unaccompanied and refugee children and the minimum age of criminal responsibility (full text / summary of the main issues).
Hungary was also reviewed under the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC) (full text / summary of the main issues) and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC) (full text / summary of the main issues).
- Morocco’s third and fourth report: Issues raised include violations arising from the business sector, discrimination against children born out of wedlock, ill treatment in police stations, corporal punishment in all settings, prejudice against children with disabilities, the treatment of refugee and asylum seekers and the detention of children (full text / summary on the main issues).
Morocco was also reviewed under OPAC (full text / summary of the main issues).
- Singapore was reviewed under OPAC. Issues raised include: voluntary recruitment under the age of 18, the imposition of caning on members of the armed forces, including underage volunteers and the lack of protection of asylum-seeking and refugee children (full text / summary of the main issues).
- Venezuela’s combined third to fifth periodic reports: Issues raised include persistent patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes that discriminate against girls, bullying and discrimination against children because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, children arrested while demonstrating, violence against children in all settings, the need to address the incidence of drug use by children - including developing harm reduction services, access to quality education and the need for law reform on juvenile justice (full text / summary on the main issues).
Venezuela was also reviewed under OPAC (full text / summary of the main issues) and OPSC (full text / summary of the main issues).
You can find other documents related to the Committee's 67th session (including alternative reports submitted by NGOs) on the Committee’s session page.
On 12 September, the Committee held its 2014 day of general discussion (DGD), looking at how children’s rights can be applied in the digital context. During the first part of the day, panellists spoke about how digital media are reconfiguring children’s lives, how to balance protection with empowerment, and concrete projects already under way. During the second part of the day participants were divided into two working groups. One discussed children’s equal and safe access to digital media and information and communications technologies (ICTs); the other addressed children’s empowerment and engagement through digital media and ICTs.
Read CRIN’s overview of the day’s discussions.
Visit CRIN campaign page: Protect children, end censorship.
The Human Rights Council held its 27th session in Geneva from 8 to 26 September. A number of thematic panel discussions were organised around issues affecting children’s rights.
Despite efforts by civil society organisations to urge States to vote against it, in June the Human Rights Council (the Council) adopted a resolution on the ‘protection of the family’. While this may appear uncontroversial, in reality it threatens children’s rights and signals an attempt by some States to restrict the definition of the family. The resolution ignores the reality that various forms of families exist and seeks to subordinate the human rights of individual family members, including children, to the ‘rights’ of the family as a unit. Read CRIN’s coverage of the discussion in June.
The Council held another panel discussion on the Protection of the family and its members on Monday 15 September.
Several panellists and States recalled that families exist in diverse forms around the world and that States had the obligation to protect the rights of individual family members, including children, and to support parents to fulfil their responsibilities. However, other speakers insisted on States' obligation to protect the family as a natural and fundamental unit of society (watch the full discussion here).
A group of NGOs under the name of the ‘UN Family Rights Caucus’ organised three events parallel to the session where they challenged key children's rights defined under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the authority of the CRC and its interpretation by the Committee, and advocated for the recognition of parents' rights over children's rights and the inclusion of the protection of the family as a Sustainable Development Goal in the post 2015 agenda.
In a joint written statement supported by CRIN, a group of NGOs recalled States' international legal obligations towards children and called on members of the Human Rights Council to:
-
Reaffirm that all children, whether they live in a family environment or not, remain rights-holders whose rights cannot be overlooked, limited or negated, because of the environment in which they live or the family they are a member of;
-
Explicitly recall States’ legal obligation to protect and respect the human rights of all individuals in families, notably by taking action to prevent and respond to violations of children’s rights occurring in family environments, including by family members, by prohibiting and working to eliminate all forms of violence, exploitation and neglect in families, by providing alternative care for children, where needed, in respect of their rights and best interest, and by implementing family laws and policies that do not exclude or discriminate against any child.
-
Explicitly acknowledge the existence of all forms of families by using the phrase “all forms of families in different contexts” in any discussion or international document on ‘family’ and ensure that all legislation, policy and practice related to families is in compliance with the CRC, in particular with children’s right to non-discrimination and identity rights.
-
Reaffirm that the “protection of the family” means supporting and strengthening families to ensure the fulfilment of the rights of all their members, including by providing them appropriate assistance in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities.
Read the UN’s summary of the discussion.
The Council held a session on ‘accelerating global efforts to end violence against children’.
The panel discussion focused on the recommendations of the UN Study on Violence against Children, elaborated by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro and presented to the General Assembly in 2006, and reaffirmed the role of the Human Rights Council in tackling the issue.
Despite progress made since the presentation of the UN Study on Violence against Children in 2006, children continue to be victims of violence in different settings - the home and family, school, care and justice institutions, in communities, in places where children work and more recently also in cyberspace - in contradiction to human rights norms and standards, particularly the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols.
Read the UN’s full report of the discussion.
The Human Rights Council also held a panel discussion on the promotion and protection of the right to privacy in the digital age in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance and/or the interception of digital communications and the collection of personal data, including on a mass scale. Baudelaire Ndong Ella, President of the Human Rights Council, in his introductory remarks recalled the General Assembly’s resolution 25/117 in which it affirmed that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online and highlighted the right to privacy for the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression.
Even though article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects all human beings' right to privacy and article 16 of the CRC reiterates this right for children, CRIN found no mention of children’s rights during the discussion. This represents a missed opportunity to discuss children’s vulnerability to breaches of privacy because of the range of situations in which adults have power over them and the challenges for balancing children’s privacy and protection rights.
Read the UN’s summary of the panel and OHCHR’s report on privacy in the digital age.
The Human Rights Council held a panel discussion on ensuring the use of remotely piloted aircraft or armed drones in counterterrorism and military operations in accordance with international law, including international human rights and humanitarian law.
Alex Conte, Director of International Law and Protection Programmes of the International Commission of Jurists, said that States had inappropriately used the war paradigm to contextualise counter-terrorism operations and this also applied to the use of armed drones. Many instances of targeted killing appear to have occurred outside the context of hostilities between two or more parties to an identifiable armed conflict within the meaning of international humanitarian law. Read the UN’s report of the panel.
Also read Drones: No safe place for children.
The Summary report on the full-day meeting on access to justice for children is now available on the Council’s page. The report contains a summary of the discussions held on 13 March 2014 during the annual full-day meeting, the theme of which was access to justice for children. Read CRIN’s coverage of the day along with a series of editorials explaining the maze children have to navigate in order to access justice.
The Council adopted a resolution (A/HRC/27/L.27/REV.1) on sexual orientation and gender identity, by a vote of 25 in favour, 14 against and seven abstentions in which it expressed grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, and requested the High Commissioner to update the report entitled “Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity” with a view to sharing good practices and ways to overcome violence and discrimination.
OHCHR also published a report on Technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age.
A Summary report on the panel discussion on preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage has been submitted to the Council.
In a resolution (A/HRC/27/L.8) on a panel discussion on realising the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl, the Council decided to convene, a panel discussion on the subject at its 29th session, with a view to sharing lessons learned and best practices in that regard.
In a resolution (A/HRC/27/L.24) on civil society space, the Council urged States to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment in which civil society could operate free from hindrance and insecurity, and requested the High Commissioner to prepare a compilation of practical recommendations for the creation and maintenance of a safe and enabling environment for civil society.
Download all reports from the 27th session.
This Human Rights Council session also saw the creation of a new Special Procedures manda: a Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.
In addition, the following mandates were extended:
-
the Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes,
-
the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent,
-
the Independent Experts on the human right situations in the Central African Republic and in Sudan were extended,
-
the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances,
-
the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, and
-
the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.
The Council had planned to appoint experts to seven Special Procedures mandates but given the lack of consensus, these appointments were postponed until the next session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in October 2014.
CRIN is compiling extracts featuring child-rights issues from the reports submitted for the 19th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) - including the National report, the Compilation of UN information and the Summary of stakeholder information. We have published the extracts from the reports of Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Norway.
The 69th session of the General Assembly (GA) is underway in New York.
The annual general debate started on 24 September and will continue until 1 October.
The theme is 'Delivering on and implementing a transformative post 2015 development agenda'.
“It has been a terrible year for the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. From barrel bombs to beheadings, from the deliberate starvation of civilians to the assault on hospitals, UN shelters and aid convoys, human rights and the rule of law are under attack” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon at the opening of the GA’s annual debate.
During the debate, Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs called the increasing disregard for international law as demonstrated by the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) “extremely troubling”.
Representing a country at the epicentre of another transnational crisis, Ebola, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Sierra Leone said his country was on the front line of one of the “biggest life-and-death challenges” facing a global community “grossly ill-prepared” to tackle its spread. Read a full summary of the discussion so far.
Human rights, including children’s rights, are reviewed under the Third Committee. CRIN will be covering the key issues relating to children’s rights in next month’s issue of this CRINmail. In the meantime you can find the agenda for the session here.
Back to top
Closing
“War. Poverty. Ignorance. Crises caused by people can be stopped by people.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon at the opening of the General Assembly’s annual debate.
Back to top
| 
