CRINMAIL 103:
August at the UN
In this issue:
To view this CRINmail online, click here.
Introduction
With the summer drawing to a close, attentions turn to a busy September at the UN with both the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (where China and Kuwait are under the spotlight) in session. Both these sessions, along with what is happening in other treaty bodies and special procedures, are previewed in this CRINmail.
Despite decades of international condemnation against the death penalty, 15 countries can still legally execute children. This is just one of the important human rights issues that will be discussed at the upcoming HRC session, and below we provide extracts and analysis of the biennial report on the death penalty by the UN Secretary-General and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We take a look at the UN's recently launched “Free & Equal” campaign to promote LGBT rights, as we have noticed a disturbing trend of States using “traditional values” as an excuse to discriminate against LGBT communities.
And so much more…! Including the impending 10 September deadline for submissions for the Human Rights Council’s Annual Day on the Rights of the Child 2014, which will focus on access to justice.
We hope you enjoy reading, and please email us at [email protected] with any feedback.
PS - We would be grateful if you could complete our short survey to help us improve how we support you in your work in advancing children’s rights. It should only take about 10 minutes, and you can access it here.
Issues on the agenda
1. Civil & Political Rights
Use of the death penalty has been largely condemned by the international community for decades, but its use still persists. According to CRIN’s research, 15 countries continue to maintain the death penalty for children in their legislation.
Ahead of the 24th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the biennial report on the death penalty by the UN Secretary-General has been released. In CRIN’s article, we extract the key issues relating to children’s rights, and assess what is - and isn’t - being addressed in the report. Read our article, and see our campaign to end inhuman sentencing of children.
2. When traditions are harmful
Persons with albinism - a first at the UN!
During its last session, the HRC adopted the first ever resolution on attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism. The HRC urged States to “take all measures necessary to ensure the effective protection of persons with albinism" and requested OHCHR to prepare a report for the upcoming session. This is a major step forward. The report will be up on our session page soon.
CEDAW recommendations
Violations relating to 'harmful practices' featured in a number of recommendations issued by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as they closed their latest session. On Afghanistan, they referred to the persistence of adverse cultural norms, practices and traditions which are harmful to women such as child marriage, 'baad' (settlement of disputes by giving away girls), 'badal' (exchange marriages), and other types of forced marriages, including of widows. Cape Verde was also a concern for the Committee with the persistence of entrenched harmful traditions, such as de-facto polygamy and the practice of female genital mutilation in new migrant communities. Read about the session here.
3. LGBT rights: UN launches global education campaign. Will it work?
Very recently, we have seen how ideas around "traditional values" and what constitutes a "family" have been perverted as an excuse to discriminate against minority groups, including LGBT groups, and squash debate on important social issues.
The “anti-gay” propaganda laws either enacted or proposed now in seven countries (Russia being the most famous) have hit mainstream news headlines across the world, and Facebook and Twitter accounts everywhere have seen a flurry of criticism and alarming images from protests.
These laws prohibit “homosexual propaganda”, which is defined as “the purposeful and uncontrolled distribution of information that can harm the spiritual or physical health of a minor, including forming the erroneous impression of the social equality of traditional and non-traditional marital relations”.
With this backdrop, the UN this month has launched “Free & Equal”, its first global public education campaign to raise awareness and respect for LGBT equality. The campaign focuses on the need for both legal reform and public education to counter homophobia and transphobia.
At the campaign’s opening, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed that changing attitudes is never easy but it is possible. “It begins with often difficult conversations. With this campaign, we want to help start millions of conversations among people around the world.”
Over the next year the campaign will include the release of a series of filmed interviews with family members of LGBT people around the world, starting with this moving mother’s story, and “The Riddle” (What exists in every corner of the world but remains illegal in more than 70 countries?).
At CRIN, we really hope this campaign will start positive conversations about LGBT rights for children as well. However, some Russian LGBT activists are concerned that the UN’s campaign will have little impact or could even make matters worse. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Masha Gessen, a prominent and outspoken Russian LGBT campaigner who is open about her own same-sex family, said: “It’s both too late and too early for education campaigns here”. She favours more adversarial methods, including the boycotting of Russian vodka in bars around the world and similar calls for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. You can read her own personal struggle with the laws here.
How can persuasion tactics combat traditional practices that violate human rights? Join the debate!
This week CRIN has been taking part in an online discussion about "Powerful Persuasion: Combating Traditional Practices that Violate Human Rights", which runs until 23 August. Anyone is welcome to join the debate, which is an opportunity for practitioners to share their experiences, questions, challenges and ideas on the best persuasion tactics to put an end to harmful practices.
Issues covered so far include female genital mutilation/cutting, violence against women, ritual slavery, male circumcision, corporal punishment, and restrictions on children's access to information. Examples of successful persuasion tactics include establishing an open dialogue, confronting taboo subjects, engaging with traditional power structures, providing incentives/alternatives, and using a combination of persuasion and adversarial tactics.
The online discussion continues until Friday, 23 August. To take part, click here.
Call for contributions
Access to justice
The Human Rights Council's Annual Day on the Rights of the Child, in March every year, is sadly the only discussion at the HRC that focuses entirely on children's rights. The 2014 theme is "access to justice for children".
The OHCHR is calling for NGOs to submit evidence to help in the preparation of a report they are preparing ahead of the day. The deadline is 10th September. Find out how you can contribute here.
Children with disabilities
More than 150 million children globally have a disability. It is not their impairments that are disabling as such; but rather the attitudes and environments around them that are disabling and stop them from accessing society - including those surrounding their ability to access education.
The OHCHR is seeking input to its study on the right to education of persons with disabilities. Among other questions, the call asks whether children with disabilities are able to attend mainstream schools, are there any restrictions in place and do children and their families have access to remedies if their rights are violated?
A final report will be presented at the Human Rights Council in March 2014. The deadline for contributions is 20 September 2013.
Countries in the spotlight
Worrying times
“Egypt is facing an escalating and deeply worrying human rights crisis,” a group of UN experts said, as they called for restraint and an immediate end to violent confrontations that have seen hundreds killed and thousands injured in Cairo in recent days. The experts appealed for tolerance - including religious tolerance following assaults on places of worship. They also expressed the need to put a stop to the high levels of sexual violence that have been reported. More here. You can also read what actor and activist, Khalid Abdalla, had to say in a recent BBC interview at the bottom of this CRINmail.
Attention please!
Several senior UN figures, including the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, have called for attention to be placed on the Central African Republic. The Secretary-General said the country has suffered a “total breakdown in law and order” since the rebels seized power in March. More here. Read also UNICEF’s recent assessment of the situation in the country here.
Your chance to contribute
The new UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea will begin a series of public hearings in Seoul next week aimed at gathering information from a variety of witnesses, including those who recently fled the country. You can follow the hearings here, and contribute to the inquiry by emailing [email protected]. More here.
Reporting to UN mechanisms
More and more children’s rights organisations are engaging with UN mechanisms, with the number of coalitions being established and presenting a collective approach also on the rise. Our two databases below list all the children’s rights organisations reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and also the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Why are these databases useful?
In the past, many NGOs have told us they don’t know how to engage with the UN, don’t have the capacity to report or are unable to engage due to security issues in their country.
Joining a coalition or teaming up with other NGOs submitting individual reports not only allows NGOs to overcome these obstacles but also broadens their connections. The below databases are an important source of information even if you have no intention of lobbying at the international level.
UPR database
View our updated database featuring every country in the world.
CRC database
View our alternative reports database and select by session or by country.
Follow-up
Using the Concluding Observations issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to exert pressure on governments to implement the recommendations is a critical part of the process which NGOs can engage in. To assist advocates, Child Rights Connect has compiled a series of case studies on follow-up activities carried out by NGOs and National Human Rights Institutions.
Here are some examples:
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For the full set of case studies, click here.
Further Information
Upcoming events
- Human Rights Council Session 24
In addition to the death penalty resolution highlighted above, children’s rights will feature in a number of other discussions, including on armed conflict, children of parents sentenced to the death penalty, and in the update from the Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
Following the recent report by the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples highlighting the overrepresentation of indigenous children and youth in justice systems, the access to justice for indigenous peoples dialogue and the half day discussion on indigenous peoples are both likely to feature children’s rights as well.
The deadline for submitting reports has now passed, but you can follow our coverage of the session (which runs from 9 - 27 September) on our session page. Finally, the organisational meeting ahead of the session will take place on 29 August.
Further information:
The full list of NGO reports and side events have yet to be posted on the OHCHR’s page, but watch our 24th session page for relevant children’s rights ones when they do.
- Committee on the Rights of the Child Session 64
Nine States are under review during September’s session (16 September to 4 October). Eleven NGOs have submitted alternative reports on China, raising issues such as corporal punishment, human rights defenders, HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Four NGOs have made submissions on Kuwait, with the issue of stateless (Bedoon) children high on the agenda.
- UN Treaty Bodies
Morocco and Burkina Faso will be examined during the Committee on Migrant Workers’ 9th session, taking place in Geneva from 9 - 13 September. The deadline for NGO submissions is 26 August. More here.
Meanwhile, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will hold their 10th session from 2 - 13 September, with Australia and Costa Rica among those under review. More here.
- Special Procedures (what are these?)
September visits
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Special Rapporteur (SP) on freedom of religion to Jordan (2 - 12 September)
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SP on housing to United Kingdom (2 - 16 September)
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SP on extreme poverty to Moldova (9 - 13 September)
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SP on trafficking in persons to Italy (12 - 20 September)
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Working Group (WG) on disappearances to Spain (23 - 30 September)
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SP on truth to Uruguay (30 September - 4 October)
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WG on Business and Human Rights to Russia (30 September - 9 October)
Appointments
In next month’s edition we will have full details of how you can participate in the election process for the 23 new Special Procedure mandate-holders. As outlined in last month’s CRINmail, this is a crucial opportunity for the children’s rights community to nominate - and lobby their governments to vote for - candidates with a background and interest in children’s rights. More here.
- Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
In October, the 17th session of the UPR will take place in Geneva with Israel’s re-scheduled review taking much of the focus. Among the other States to be examined are Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Find out what was said about children’s rights in the 14 States’ first cycle reviews here. Or visit our session page here.
Change of deadline
NGO submissions to the UPR will now be required nine months in advance of the relevant UPR session. For the 19th session of the UPR, the deadline to submit information is 16 September. For details of all deadlines and further information on the UPR, visit our information and advocacy page.
Useful Contacts and Resources
Useful Resources
Contacts and Organisations
As always, you can keep up to date with all our coverage of children’s rights at the UN by clicking on the following links:
{THE LAST WORD}
“The real binary in my opinion is between organised fascism, for which you have the Army and the Brotherhood; and disorganised social movements. Now those social movements have proved time and time again that they will not accept authoritarian fascism as a status quo. … People will not accept being brutalised in this way, whatever their background, whatever their political opinion. And all of those political opinions need to be included in the future.”
Actor and activist Khalid Abdalla takes an objective view on the situation in Egypt. In a BBC interview, he emphasised that the binaries being presented - the choice between two organisations (the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Army) - were wrong. Watch the full interview here.
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