CRINmail 137
Children's Rights at the United Nations
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Human Rights Council session 28:
Day three round-up
Wednesday at the Human Rights Council picked up from yesterday's discussion on the annual report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, this time with a greater reflection on the structural elements - often state-sponsored - that drive discrimination and violence against religious minorities. With the exception of subsequent discussions on cultural rights, the day then moved to focus exclusively on children’s rights, namely on violence, armed conflict and exploitation.
Cultural rights
How copyright policies affect the right to science and culture was the focus of the annual report of the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Ms Farida Shaheed. Issues addressed include the quality and affordability of school textbooks and their availability in different languages and on different media such as online, including through licensing materials for public use through Creative Commons. Ms Saheed emphasised that her mandate upholds the rights of people, not the interests of cultural industries. Having said that, she urges the need to protect the authorship of works, but simultaneously making sure that copyright policies - with adequate copyright exceptions and limitations - are in line with human rights interests in cultural participation.
Sale and exploitation of children
“Endemic crimes” are perpetrated against children in the context of their exploitation. These words accompanied the presentation of the annual report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Ms Maud de Boer-Buquicchio. The report, which focuses on new technologies and the sale and sexual exploitation of children, welcomed the opening-up of online media as a socialising and learning tool, but warned that it has also facilitated the exploitation of children online, aiming to raise awareness on the issue.
Violence against children
“We see progress in the elimination of violence against children,” said Marta Santos Pais in the presentation of her annual report as Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on violence against children, “but this is not good enough”. With these words Ms Santos Pais summed up the thrust of her report: speeding up global efforts to end violence against children. To this end, she advocated the “need to build a culture of non-violence” to challenge the view of violence against children as a normal and acceptable, and said that legal instruments are crucial in this respect. In addition, while most advocacy takes on a rights-based approach to challenging violence against children, Ms Santos Pais added a development-related angle, pointing out that “countries suffering from violence lagged behind in terms of child mortality, school attendance, health and other indicators.”
Children and armed conflict
The day also saw the presentation of the annual report of the SRSG on children and armed conflict, Ms Leila Zerrougui. While covering all aspects of the issue, of particular interest was Ms Zerrougui’s comment on the deprivation of liberty of children captured in the course of military operations and tried over their alleged involvement with an armed group. Recapping her comments at a side event yesterday, these children, she says, are often brought before military courts which are “particularly inappropriate forums for hearing cases involving children, given that they do not fully recognise the special status of juveniles in conflict with the law.” Not only this, but the courts do not even apply basic standards of a fair trial, with children being held in poor conditions without being brought before a judge and are not given access to a lawyer.
Participants at the discussion also commended the campaign ‘Children, Not Soldiers’, which aims to end the recruitment and use of children by national security forces around the world by 2016.
Children of incarcerated parents
Courts that sentence and incarcerate a primary caregiver should consider the interests of the children affected, said Julie Sloth-Nielsen of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child at a side event co-organised by Child Rights Connect, the African Union and the Permanent Mission of Uruguay. Ms Sloth-Nielsen’s comments were backed up by Jorge Freyre from Uruguay, who pointed out that in Latin America, where 75 percent of inmates have children, lawmakers are finally paying attention to the issue. Finally, Jorge Cardona, from the Committee on the Rights of the Child, emphasised that the best interests of the child should be at the heart of everything in the legal world, from the moment a suspect is charged right through to sentencing. Mr Cardona added that media intrusion into family life during a high-profile crime story, the trauma of prison visitation, as well as violence of police when making arrests, can all have a detrimental affect on a child.
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Thursday at the Human Rights Council:
Annual day on the rights of the child
Plenary session
The only day the Human Rights Council dedicates specifically to children will take place on Thursday, this year focusing on a better investment in the rights of the child. The day will be split between a morning and afternoon panel. The first will set out the grounds for a rights-based approach to realising children’s rights, while the second will focus on concrete examples of strategies and good practices. Between both panels, the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on violence against children and children and armed conflict will resume their dialogue with the HRC from the previous day.
This concept note contains further details including the list of speakers of the annual day on the rights of the child.
CRIN will be reporting live from the Council as the 2015 annual day on the rights of the child unfolds. Follow CRIN’s Twitter coverage of the 28th session of the HRC at @CRINwire, as we use to hashtag #HRC25.
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9:00 - 12:00: Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child;
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12:00 - 15:00: Interactive dialogues with the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on violence against children and children and armed conflict;
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15:00 - 18:00: Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child.
Side events
Violence against children
Organiser: Iranian Elite Research Center
Time: 10:00 - 11:30
Venue: room XXIII
Children in conflict zones
Organiser: Agency Internationale pour Le Developpement
Time: 15:00 - 16:30
Venue: room XIX
Children's rights
Organiser: Plan International Inc.
Time: 17:00 - 18:30
Venue: room XXI
IRONY OF THE DAY
There wasn’t much irony in today’s discussions at the Human Rights Council. Rather, there was a lot of agreement in the talks on children’s rights, especially on violence against children. So maybe there’s the irony: that human rights debates may sometimes give rise to differing views, but when it comes to children and their protection from violence, all States are - it would apparently seem - on the same wavelength.
But if today is anything to go by, what that wavelength tells us is that it’s OK to be selective about which forms of violence to protect children from. At the presentation of the annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on violence against children, the likes of Iran strongly denounced sexual abuse of children, yet their respective delegates expressed no such concern for its State’s use of the death penalty against children. Indonesia, meanwhile, condemned sexual exploitation of children, but failed to mention that its laws allow adults to physically punish children in schools, the home and penal institutions. Chile, France and Egypt are on a similar boat, too, with regard to the legality of corporal punishment. Yet they were nonetheless eager to verbally express their willingness to support the promotion and protection of children’s rights - even if that's all it was: a verbal expression.
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