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This week CRIN is at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, reporting live from its 31st session with daily round-ups of each day’s discussions on children’s rights. We will be monitoring where children’s rights are discussed - or left out of the discussion - throughout the week, starting with the annual day on the rights of the child today.
The annual day this year focuses on information and communications technology (ICTs) and child sexual exploitation, with States attempting to understand and deepen cooperation on the issue. Monday's side events covered tackling the demand for sexual exploitation of children, freedom of religion or belief and the detention of children.
'The rights of the child are as applicable online as offline'
In the morning session Sweden, speaking on behalf of other Nordic countries, stressed that sexual abuse and exploitation of children was fundamentally rooted in a culture of gender discrimination. The countries claimed that education on different forms of sexuality, and the potential outcomes of children's online activities are key to protecting children from exploitation. Qatar took virtually the opposite view, arguing that irresponsible use of ICTs by children were the reason that there was an increasing amount of child sexual exploitation. The Qatari representative insisted that the family held ultimate responsibility for defending children, but made no references to children having rights of their own.
New forms of child sexual exploitation through ICTs
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, explained that new technology has given rise to new and complex challenges. Streaming occurs across different jurisdictions, making the identification of perpetrators increasingly difficult, while virtual currencies further complicate things by creating anonymity for perpetrators. The dark web and peer-to-peer connections have also facilitated the sharing of material involving child sexual abuse. A unique impact on children of these new methods of sharing images of abuse is the re-victimisation when material is repeatedly seen by others.
Investigating and policing abuse facilitated by ICTs
In the afternoon session Norwegian journalist Håkon Fostervold Høydal explained how, while investigating revenge porn sites, he found that download logs of child abuse material were accessible on file sharing websites, allowing reporters to identify 95,000 IP address which had downloaded images of child sexual abuse. His paper tracked down some of the people who downloaded this material and contacted them. Many admitted what they had done and said they saw it as an addiction. Høydal questioned why initiatives used to clamp down on copyright infringement, were not being replicated for use on those who download child abuse images.
Michael Moran, Assistant Director, Vulnerable Communities at INTERPOL highlighted the differences between child sexual abuse and pornography and the importance of correct terminology. Moran described the difficulties law enforcement face with identifying victims, as many images and videos of abuse are posted anonymously. He emphasised that for every abuse image, of which INTERPOL currently has 50,000 involving unidentified victims, a child has been abused in the real world.
Sexual exploitation of children should encompass the individual offender, every part of the supply chain, and then every part of a society that ignores, tolerates or even accepts it, according to this side event's panelists. Representatives from the UN, Council of Europe, INTERPOL and others spoke at the event related to the a thematic report on the demand for sexual abuse of children by the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children. Lithuanian ambassador to the UN Rytis Paulauskas welcomed the idea of an independent body to monitor sexual abuse by peacekeepers, saying that it would help end impunity, stressing that there is "No need to reinvent the wheel on this matter", referring to punishing peacekeepers for crimes committed abroad. The discussion of how and why people sexually abuse children came to a close shortly after Microsoft representative Becky Foreman claimed children need to be protected "from themselves" when it came to the creation of explicit material, describing self-generated sexual content as a gateway to exploitation.
Defence for Children International launched their report on monitoring places where children are deprived of liberty, described as a gold standard in this area by Juan E. Méndez, the Special Rapporteur on torture. Jean Zermatten, former Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said that “all of us, whether acting on behalf of States, as individuals or NGOs, have failed children. We must own up to that.” Further, he said that the Committee reminds States that it is their obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to prioritise alternatives to detention of children. Regina Jensdottir, head of the children’s rights unit at the Council of Europe said she would encourage all institutions and States to use the guide and suggested it could be reviewed on a regular basis to establish how it is being used and can be updated. She also stressed that users of the guide should pay particular attention to certain groups of children who are deprived of their liberty, including those with disabilities and those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
While the Millennium Development Goals were a State-focused initiative, the new Sustainable Development Goals require a much broader base of support. At the joint launch of a new child rights toolkit, UNICEF's director of programmes Ted Chaiban insisted that more participation from children is vital to ensure that the goals of growth, prosperity and peace are achievable. Chairman of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur praised the toolkit, explaining that across the world there are still many challenges to implementation of children's rights, including combinations of formal and informal systems, entrenched attitudes towards children and the tendency to put all children into one category regardless of their personal circumstances or status.
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Sleepy diplomats
Defending human rights through diplomacy is tiring work, to the point that several diplomats - and even one special rapporteur - got some shut-eye during discussions on the annual day on the rights of the child. But perhaps we can forgive them for this laxity, for much of the day involved the same old arguments and self-congratulation from States, that it's no doubt they thought best to conserve some energy ahead of a long week. Don't worry diplomats, we're tired too.
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