Children's Rights at the United Nations: Issue 99

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25 April 2013, issue 99
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CRINMAIL 99:

April at the UN

In this issue:

To read this CRINMAIL online, click here.

Introduction

After the Human Rights Council (HRC) session and the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child in March, April is usually fairly quiet at the UN in terms of children’s rights. Not the case this time. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is in full swing and delivering recommendations on children’s rights. Child sex tourism and sexual violence have been high on the agenda. Treaty bodies are also in session, including the Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ first State examinations. And to top it all off, various Special Procedure visits with children’s rights aspects are currently under way or coming up soon.

You might notice that this CRINMAIL is slightly different from previous ones. We are trying a new structure, offering you our analysis of what is going at the UN in children’s rights, based around key themes that we spot as we monitor. We are still highlighting key advocacy opportunities which you will find at the end in a dedicated section for this along with additional resources.

We would really value your feedback on this new structure, so if you have any comments, suggestions or ideas please email us at [email protected].

 


Key issues on the agenda

Below is an overview of the key issues on the agenda across the various bodies and mechanisms of the UN system.

Sexual exploitation and violence

Child sex tourism

As people gear up to plan their summer holidays and international tourism is expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2030, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Najat Maalla M’jid, has released a statement urging States to commit to prevent and combat child sex tourism. Sex tourism is a violation of children’s rights where the perpetrators travel to engage in sexual activities with children, and can include trafficking, sale of children, child prostitution and pornography. In some cases it can also involve forced marriage of children and illegal adoption.

Ms M’jid is also currently on a visit to Kyrgyzstan (15 - 26 April) where she will hold a press conference on 26 April at the News Agency Press Club in Bishkek to share her preliminary observations with the Government. Her full report will be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2014. More here.

Sexual violence

In addition to the new G8 declaration to fight rape and sexual violence in armed conflict earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, with the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, has urged the Security Council to strengthen measures to end sexual violence in war zones. Ms Banguar said: “The continued engagement of the Security Council must serve as an unequivocal statement of intent: sexual violence in conflict will not be tolerated, and the full force of international order will be brought to bear to ensure accountability for such crimes.”

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Rashida Manjoo, is visiting India from 22 April - 1 May. Her visit follows two very high profile cases that received international attention - the rape and death of a 23 year old woman in New Delhi in December last year, and the rape of a five-year-old girl earlier this month.

Gender and disability - dual discrimination

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities held its 9th session between 15 - 19 April, and examined Australia, Austria, El Salvador and Paraguay, which we will update you on next time after all the Concluding Observations are in.

The session included a half day discussion on women and girls with disabilities. The panel discussion focused on the dual discrimination disabled women and girls face - gender and disability - and how they are more vulnerable to violations of their human rights. Increased risks of sexual exploitation in the family, workplace and community, and forced marriages, sterilisation and abortion were all raised. In particular, a representative from the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children said that disabled children were four times more likely to experience physical violence, including corporal punishment, than their peers without disabilities.

Enforced disappearances

Uruguay became the first country to be examined by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), during its 4th session between 4 - 19 April.

During the examination, the Committee raised concerns that children were not “wholly catered for” by domestic laws on enforced disappearance. The country rapporteur said: “It still seemed that the abduction of children or the elimination of evidence to prove the abduction of minors was not included as enforced disappearance.” More on Uruguay’s review here. Find out how you can engage with the Committee here.

Meanwhile, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), part of the Special Procedures portfolio, will undertake two official visits to Libya (8 - 17 May 2013) and Spain (23 - 30 September 2013). Find out more about the Working Group and how to engage with them here.

Arbitrary detention

Following its visit to Brazil in March, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has expressed serious concerns regarding the arrests and compulsory confinement of drug users, noting that many of them are young people.  The Working Group has also raised concerns about the excessive use of deprivation of liberty and the lack of effective legal assistance to persons arrested and detained in the country. More here.

 
Migrant children

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families’ held its Day of General Discussion on 22 April, which focused on the role of migration statistics for treaty reporting and migration policies. Abdelhamid El Jamri, Committee Chairperson, noted the lack of migration data and encouraged States to better use data to improve their understanding of migrants in their country. He then reminded the meeting of the risk of forgetting the people behind the statistics. More here.

This follows from the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s annual day last year on migrant children. During last year’s discussions, Yanghee Lee, the former Committee Chair, made explicit reference to lack of data on migrant children. Read CRIN’s report of the day here.

 


Children’s rights in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

The 16th session of the UPR is only in its first week, but already we have seen a number of mentions of children’s rights in the recommendations. Here are some highlights:

In its recommendations to Burkina Faso, the HRC urged the Government to eliminate forced marriages and set the minimum age of marriage at 18, redouble public awareness on female genital mutilation and set up a national action plan to combat violence against women and girls. Find out what other recommendations focused on children’s rights here.

For Cape Verde, the HRC has recommended the Government continue efforts to expressly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment, ensure allegations of violence against children by police are thoroughly investigated and properly addressed, and ensure children and adults in detention are separated. More here.

The Government of Colombia received recommendations to rehabilitate child victims of the armed conflict and to investigate all cases of recruitment of children in armed groups. More here. Read also our recent feature on Colombia in our Armed Conflict CRINMAIL.

Finally, recommendations to Uzbekistan focused on child labour and ensuring compliance with international standards, decriminalising consensual homosexual activity, and ensuring civil society organisations can work freely and unhindered. More here.

Click here for more on this UPR session, and you can find our children’s rights extract reports on the UPR’s first cycle of review by clicking on the following:

Azerbaijan   Bangladesh   Burkina Faso   Cameroon

Canada    Cape Verde    Colombia    Cuba    Djbouti

Germany   Russia   Turkmenistan   Tuvalu    Uzbekistan 

The reporting deadline has passed, but you can still get involved by using the UPR outcomes to advocate for children’s rights at a national level. We will be posting children’s rights extract reports from the 16th session above in due course, and you can visit our 16th session page and read about information and advocacy opportunities here.


Complaints mechanism update

Earlier this month Bolivia became the fourth State party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a complaints mechanism. The country now joins the ranks of Thailand, Gabon and Germany who have also ratified. Thirty-two more countries have signed the Optional Protocol, but we are still six ratifications away from the mechanism’s entry into force. In the meantime, Slovakia and Montenegro have both committed to ratifying in 2013. Click here for more the ratification campaign.

CRIN has launched a new toolkit designed to give advocates a better sense of the new complaints mechanism in the hope that they will be prepared and inspired to help children bring violations of their rights to international attention. The toolkit sets out the Who, What, When, Where and How of the CRC complaints mechanism. It is divided into three sections that correspond with the three ways that violations of children’s rights can be raised with the Committee: individual complaints, inquiries and inter-state communications. Find the toolkit here.


Upcoming events and advocacy opportunities

All upcoming events can be found in our events calendar.

-Human Rights Council - 23rd Session

The deadlines have been released for the Council’s 23rd session, which opens on 27 May.

  • 10 May for the submission of NGO written statements

  • 6 May for requests for NGO parallel-event rooms

Please consult the Council’s NGO Participation page for further information and relevant documents.

For full details of the the session, including reports, visit our 23rd session page.

The UN has published its revised Practical Guide for NGO Participants. The guide, available in English and French, facilitates civil society participation at the Human Rights Council. This new edition also includes updated links and information on remote participation by video statements.

-Special Procedures - upcoming visits

Four Special Procedure visits are taking place in May, including:

  • South Korea - Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders (31 May - 7 June 2013)

  • Bahrain - Special Rapporteur on torture (8 - 16 May 2013) - postponed.

A number of new visits have been announced. For the full list, visit our 2013 schedule.

Further Information

  • Find out how you can engage with Special Rapporteurs here.

-Committee on the Rights of the Child  - 63rd session

The Committee will hold its 63rd Session from 27 May to 14 June, with the following States being examined under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)  and the two Optional Protocols (OPSC / OPAC):

  • CRC: Armenia, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Rwanda, Slovenia, Uzbekistan

  • OPSC: Armenia, Rwanda, Uzbekistan

  • OPAC: Armenia, Rwanda, Uzbekistan

Visit our 63rd session page to view all the alternative reports submitted ahead of the session.

-Other treaty body sessions

The 50th session of the Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights starts on 29th April. Find out which States are under review on our session page.

The Committee Against Torture’s 50th session opens on  6th May. The United Kingdom and Kenya are among the States under review. For the full list, visit our 50th session page.

 


Useful Resources and Contacts


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:

If you have any feedback on our new CRINMAIL, please write to us at [email protected]

 

THE LAST WORD

“This is the second time that my visit has been postponed, at very short notice. It is effectively a cancellation as no alternative dates were proposed nor is there a future road map to discuss.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, expresses his  disappointment with the decision taken by the Government of Bahrain to postpone his visit to the country, scheduled to take place from 8 to 15 May 2013.

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