Children's Rights at the United Nations 134

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March is a busy time at the UN. There is a lot coming up for children’s rights with the Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child (this year on better investment in the rights of the child). This edition previews the Council’s session as well as the many other events coming up next month. It also provides a briefing on the main issues raised during the 68th session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and a children’s rights analysis of some of the top news from the UN.

Best wishes

The CRIN team

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Children’s rights at the Human Rights Council’s 28th session

The 28th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) starts in Geneva on Monday (2 March) and ends on 27 March. Out of the Council’s three annual sessions, the March session is the most interesting for children’s rights because this is when the Council’s annual day on the rights of the child takes place.

This year’s theme will be on “better investment in the rights of the child”, and will take place on Thursday 12 March. You can find the session’s full programme, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) report on better investment in the rights of the child that will inform the day’s discussions on the Council’s 28th session page. The report sets out the obligations of States to invest adequately in the rights of children, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It considers the different stages of the budget process – preparation, allocation, spending and monitoring – and provides a framework for a human rights-based approach to budgeting.

Read all submissions to the OHCHR’s report, including CRIN's submission.

The day will start with an overview of key aspects and challenges in planning, mobilising, allocating and spending public resources to realise children’s rights, followed by an afternoon panel focused on illustrating how the process of investing in children can be conducted in a manner respectful of human rights principles at local, national, regional and international levels. The concept note contains further details, including the list of speakers.

CRIN will be reporting live from Geneva during the week of the annual day (9 - 13 March). We will be sending out daily CRINmails with a full round-up of discussions, as well as analysis of the implications for children’s rights.

A number of Special Procedures will be presenting their annual reports to the HRC during this same week, they include:

• On 11 March both the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Violence against Children and the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict will present their reports to the Council as well as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

• On 10 March the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment will present his thematic report on Juveniles Deprived of Liberty.

Other issues

The rest of the Council’s 28th session will cover other issues, some of which have important implications for children’s rights. They include:

• Presentations by the independent Commissions of Inquiry on Syria (17 March), Eritrea (16 March) and the 2014 Gaza Conflict (23 March).

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will present a report on the human rights situation in Iraq in light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated terrorist groups (25 March).

• The human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territories, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti and Mali will also be discussed.

• The Biennial High-Level Panel Discussion on the Question of the Death Penalty is scheduled for 3 pm on Wednesday, 4 March.

• The annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities is set for 3pm on 10 March.

Side events

As always, a range of side events put on by NGOs will also take place during the Council’s session. Please note that details, particularly room numbers, can change at the last minute so check the side events schedule which you can find on the Human Rights Council extranet (login details can easily be requested from this page.)

Go to CRIN’s session’s page for a selection of side events featuring children’s rights.

Oral statements

The deadline for requesting to make oral statements at the Council’s 28th session opened Thursday 26 February. You can already get login details for the online system, but note that you should use the same logins if you have already made a written statement for the session. Guidelines to use the online system are available in English, French and Spanish.

Written statements

The deadline for written statements for this session has now closed. You can view all statements made by NGOs on the Council’s extranet (login details can be easily requested).

For more information:

• Detailed agenda

• Reports for the 28th session here,

• Homepage of the Human Rights Council website

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNHRC

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UN_HRC (Use hashtag #HRC28 for this session)

• Child Right's Connect HRC page

• CRIN’s session page

Note that details for some are yet to be published, and that dates and times can change at the last minute.  

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

During the 28th session of the Human Rights Council, the following States will have their UPR reports adopted (from the 20th session of the UPR held from 27 October to 7 November 2014):

Italy, El Salvador, Gambia, Bolivia, Fiji, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Angola, Iran, Iraq, Madagascar, Slovenia, Egypt and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You can find all the reports on the OHCHR’s website.

NGO participation

How can I participate?

As always, to be able to participate in the work of the HRC, including getting into sessions, organising side events and making written or oral statements, your organisation needs to have accreditation (ECOSOC Status). If you don’t know what this is, like CRIN, you probably don’t have it. If you would like to join our campaign to make the UN more accessible for civil society, email us at [email protected].

Follow the session live

Even if you can’t make it to Geneva, you can still find out what’s going on by watching the live webcast and following #HRC28 on twitter. As mentioned above, CRIN will also be reporting live from Geneva during the discussions with daily CRINmail round-ups, analysis and commentaries on some of the neglected issues.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child

The Committee held its 68th session from 12 to 30 January 2015.

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:

• Colombia combined fourth and fifth periodic report. Issues raised include discrimination against certain groups including LGBTI children, high prevalence of violence against girls, reports that children continue to be victims of acts of torture and other cruel or degrading treatment or punishment by government agents or non-State armed groups, domestic violence, child marriage, inadequate access to sexual and reproductive services and regressive legal proposals to reduce the age of criminal responsibility, increase the sanctions and expand the list of crimes for which children may be deprived of their liberty.  (full text /summary of the main issues).
   

• Dominican Republic combined third to fifth periodic report. Issues raised include the lack of regulations to protect the privacy and safety of children accessing Information and communications technologies, the very high incidence of domestic violence and gender-based violence, child labour, the high number of children living in public and private institutions and the inefficient functioning of the juvenile justice system. (full text /summary of the main issues).
   

• Gambia combined second and third periodic report. Issues raised include the absence of legislation explicitly prohibiting corporal punishment in the home, school and alternative care settings, discrimination against and stigmatisation of children with disabilities, legal provisions considering abortion as an offense, child labour and the lack of effective implementation of alternative measures to detention. (full text/summary of the main issues).
   

• Iraq combined second to fourth periodic report. Issues raised include discrimination against girls, the systematic killing of children belonging to religious and ethnic minorities by the so-called Islamic State (IS), including several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions and burying children alive, reported acts of torture and other cruel and degrading treatment and punishment committed against children by police, corporal punishment in all settings, the high prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse of children, particularly girls, the deplorable situation of children and families belonging to minority groups who are systematically killed, tortured, raped, forced to convert to Islam, cut off from humanitarian assistance by IS and children sentenced to death. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  Iraq was also reviewed under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC). Issues raised include the Penal Code’s article 398 that provides for the impunity of perpetrators of a sexual offence if they enter into a valid marriage with the child victim, the inability of a child under 15 to file a complaint without his or her parents and cases of girls sold into prostitution kept in prison to “protect” them from reprisals for bringing shame on their family/community. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  During the review of Iraq under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC), the Committee was concerned that no sanctions are provided for in cases of violations under the Protocol and that the State party’s legislation does not provide for an explicit criminalisation of the recruitment or use of children under 18 years in the State party’s armed forces in war or peacetime. (full text/summary of the main issues)

• Jamaica combined its third and fourth periodic report. Issues raised include the high rate of crime and violence against children, corporal punishment (lawful in the home and schools), is widely accepted in society, and continues to be practised in the State party, high rate of sexual abuse, the limited access to mental health care and psychosocial rehabilitation for children, child labour and the legality of life imprisonment for children.

• Mauritius combined third to fifth periodic report. Issues raised include obstacles in accessing and enjoying the various services and facilities for certain groups of children including children who are affected and/or infected by HIV/AIDS, children using drugs and children with disabilities, corporal punishment in all settings, the increase in sexual exploitation of children and the limited impact of the sexual and reproductive health education and the absence of the drug awareness sessions in the curriculum. (full text/summary of the main issues).

• Sweden combined fifth periodic report. Issues raised include the practice of solitary confinement of children in conflict with the law, the lack of opportunities for children with disabilities to express themselves, disparities regarding physical and mental ill-health of children between children from different economic backgrounds, reported cases of asylum-seeking children sent back to their country of origin in violation of the principle of non-refoulement and pre-trial detention of children. (full text/summary of the main issues).

• Switzerland combined second to fourth periodic report. Issues raised include corporal punishment in all settings, the lack of comprehensive data and studies on children suffering from ill-treatment, abuse and neglect, sexual violence, and domestic violence, discrimination against children with disabilities and the excessive diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and the ensuing increase in the prescription of psycho-stimulants to children. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  Switzerland was also reviewed under OPSC: issues raised include lack of effective regulatory framework and insufficient measures taken to effectively prevent and combat child sex tourism abroad. (full text/summary of the main issues).
   

• Turkmenistan combined second to fourth periodic report. Issues raised include the discriminatory practices towards children belonging to national minorities, the use of torture and ill-treatment for purposes of punishment or extraction of confessions, including possibly against children, corporal punishment in the home and the limited scope of the current reform to the juvenile justice system which does not include all the elements of juvenile justice and, in particular, provisions for diversion mechanisms and efficient alternatives to the formal justice system. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  Turkmenistan was also reviewed under OPSC. Issues raised include the limited preventive measures against the exploitation of children, including their engagement in forced labour, prostitution and pornography, and measures to identify and address the root causes of the offences. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  During the review of Turkmenistan under OPAC, the Committee was concerned that students below 18 years of age enrolled in specialised military schools or higher military academies may be subjected to military discipline and punishment and that discipline is not administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and that the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 years in hostilities both by the State armed forces and non-State armed groups is not explicitly criminalised by the State party’s legislation. (full text/summary of the main issues).
   

• Tanzania combined third to fifth periodic report. Issues raised include early marriage, discrimination against certain groups of children in law and in practice, the killings of children with albinism including for ritual purposes and their social exclusion, the high prevalence of child abuse and neglect, the high number of teenage pregnancies, including those resulting from sexual abuse and rape, trafficking of girls in domestic work and the use of corporal punishment as a judicial sanction. (full text/summary of the main issues).
   

• Uruguay combined third to fifth periodic report. Issues raised include allegations of ill-treatment and torture in police stations of adolescents suspected of having committed crimes, the prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse including in the home, the insufficient accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services and education and the extension of the time of pre-trial detention from 60 to 90 days. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  Uruguay was also reviewed under OPSC: issues raised include the lack of a comprehensive strategy for the prevention of sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography that addresses the underlying root causes of the offences under the Optional Protocol and the prevalence of child prostitution. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  During the review of Uruguay under OPAC, the Committee was concerned that children may be registered in military schools against their own will and that the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 years by the State armed forces and non-State armed groups has still not been criminalised. (full text/summary of the main issues).
   

• Cambodia’s report to the OPSC. Issues raised include the inadequate mechanisms in place to detect, identify and monitor children at particular risk of becoming victims of the offences under the Optional Protocol, the extent and prevalence of sexual exploitation of children, in particular in entertainment venues, limited measures taken by the State party to prevent the exploitation of children in forced labour and impunity for offences under the Optional Protocol due to a limited enforcement of the State party’s legislative framework. (full text/summary of the main issues).
  
  Cambodia was also reviewed under OPAC: issues raised include the lack of explicit criminalisation of the recruitment or use of children under 18 years in the State party’s armed forces in war or peacetime and the high risk faced by children of being killed and/or maimed by mines and explosive remnants of war. (full text/summary of the main issues).

You can find other documents related to the Committee's 68th session (including alternative reports submitted by NGOs) on the Committee’s session page.

UN commission of inquiry on Syria

The UN commission of inquiry on Syria published its latest report calling for urgent attention to be paid to the shocking crimes that continue to be perpetrated against the Syrian people.

The report, the Commission’s 9th to the Human Rights Council, charts the major trends and patterns of international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed from March 2011 to January 2015.  

The Commission’s reports have shown that it is civilians who have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed. Half of the country’s population have fled their homes, become refugees or internally displaced.

The Commission once again emphasised the shared responsibility of States, particularly those with influence over the warring parties, to find an effective, political solution to the conflict. Accountability, it stated, must form part of any future negotiations if the resulting peace is to ensure.

Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Commission, noted that Resolution 2139 stressed the need to end impunity and reaffirmed the necessity of bringing perpetrators to justice.

A few extracts from the report on children’s situation:

“Intelligence and security agencies have detained young children since 2011. Held in the same cells as adults, children are exposed to sexual violence and subjected to the same ill-treatment and torture as adult detainees. In detention, children have also witnessed violent torture and death.” (para. 66)

“As the unrest developed into an armed conflict, government forces began to use children as part of coordinated military operations to locate armed group fighters prior to attack or act as informants, exposing them to retaliation and punishment.” (para. 67)

“With approximately 5,000 schools destroyed in the Syrian Arab Republic, the resulting sharp decline in children’s education continues to be articulated as one of the greatest concerns among those interviewed. Government forces attack schools in the context of their military operations. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, 160 children were killed in attacks on schools in 2014. Regular armed forces have also used schools for military purposes, depriving children of education and exposing educational facilities to attack.” (para. 68)

“Some children who have been displaced or sought refuge in neighbouring States have been out of school for two to three years, increasing the risk of radicalization among adolescent youth. Armed groups have taken advantage of children who are displaced and detached from their communities. Children have been recruited, trained and used in active combat roles. Doctors working in field hospitals regularly treat minors injured in combat. The use of schools by armed groups for military purposes has endangered children and led to their injury and death. Anti-government armed groups have systematically targeted schools and schoolyards, killing, injuring and maiming children.” (para. 69)

“ISIS has instrumentalized and abused children on a scale not seen before in the Syrian conflict. It has established “cubs camps” across areas under its control, where children are taught how to use weapons and trained to be deployed as suicide bombers. In September and October 2014, minors were part of ISIS forces during its assault on Ayn al-Arab (Kobane). Children have been deliberately targeted for indoctrination and instrumentalized by ISIS. ISIS has also used schools for military purposes, endangering children and preventing their access to education.” (para. 70)

Afghanistan: UN report on torture

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a new report on the torture and ill-treatment of conflict-related detainees in Government detention facilities. Despite some progress shown, the report highlights ill-treatment and torture during the arrest and interrogation phases in numerous facilities of the National Directorate of Security, the national police, the local police and the national army.

Detainees – mainly alleged members of the Taliban and other anti-Government groups or individuals suspected of conflict-related crimes – were subjected to severe pain and suffering, aimed mainly at obtaining a confession or information. Sixteen methods of torture and ill-treatment were described including severe beatings with pipes, cables and sticks, suspension, electric shocks and near-asphyxiation.

The UNAMA study found that 278 out of the 790 conflict-related detainees interviewed (35 per cent) experienced torture or ill-treatment. Of the 105 child detainees under age 18 interviewed, 44 were found to have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment (42 per cent).

Practical Guide on "Civil Society Space and the United Nations Human Rights System"

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a guide on civil society space at the UN Human Rights system.

This guide highlights issues related to the work of civil society actors, providing an overview of the conditions and environment needed for a free and independent civil society, including relevant international human rights standards for freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in public affairs.

The guide includes some examples of how Governments and civil society actors have worked together to develop space for civil society to carry out its work to advance enjoyment of all human rights (civil, cultural, economic, political and social) for all.

The guide aims primarily to assist civil society actors who are not yet familiar with the UN human rights system.

Submission deadlines

• Committee on the Rights of the Child: 1 March 2015 for the review of Benin, Brunei Darussalam, France, Gabon, Haiti, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Kenya, Maldives, Oman, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: 11 May 2015 for the review of Chile, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Thailand, Uganda and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

• Committee Against Torture: 6 April 2015 for the review of Colombia, Congo, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

• Committee on Migrant Workers: 20 March 2015 for the review of Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

• The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: 10 April 2015 for the review of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Guatemala and Sudan.

• The Committee on the Rights of Children with Disabilities: 4 March 2015 for the review of Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkmenistan, Dominican Republic and Cook Islands.

• The Committee on Migrant Workers: 20 March 2015 for the review of Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

• Universal Periodic Review (UPR): 23 March 2015 (tentative dates) for the review of Micronesia, Lebanon, Mauritania, Nauru, Rwanda, Nepal, Saint Lucia, Oman, Austria, Myanmar, Australia, Georgia, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Sao Tome and Principe.

Special Procedures visits

• Special Rapporteur on violence against women: South Africa from 25 February to 7 March

• Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes: Kazakhstan from 26 March to 8 April.

• Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti from 23 February to 3 March 2015.

• Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: Brazil from 20 to 30 April 2015.

• Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief: Lebanon from 23 March to 2 April.

Correction: in our last CRINmail we said that Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery was visiting Chile from 19 to 26 February. The Special Rapporteur was in fact visiting Belgium.

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