CRINMAIL 151:

In this issue:

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

As Syria braces for an eighth consecutive weekly showdown between the security forces and demonstrators, graphic testimony is slowly emerging of the price paid for challenging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's 11 year-rule.

Activists and former captives have claimed that Syrian protesters, including women and children, are being tortured in school cellars. children as young as 12 have faced heavy beatings at the hands of Mr Assad's feared secret police, the Mukhabarat. Read full article

Deep divisions have opened up in the EU over whether to put President Assad on a sanctions list with Italy, Spain, Greece and Cyprus opposing measures to hit the Syrian dictator with asset freezes and travel bans.

Since the crackdown began in Bahrain on March 14 more than 800 people have been arrested, mostly from the majority Shiite community; many have been tortured and four have died in custody. More than 1,000 people have been fired from their jobs in a country of 700,000. Government employees are being pressured to sign oaths of loyalty to the Sunni regime. Read full Article

The king's announcement on Friday to lift emergency rule on June 1, came just hours after the start of a closed-door trial of activists accused of plotting to overthrow the Persian Gulf state’s rulers. Read more

Yemen has witnessed three-month-long anti-government protests to end the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Hundreds of children staged a march Sunday in the Yemeni capital to demand the ouster of embattled President Saleh.

"Children want to topple the regime, We want free of charge education" they shouted.

Since the beginning of the protests, Human Rights Watch has encountered dozens of armed soldiers who appeared to be younger than 18 years old in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. The children, who gave their ages as 14, 15, and 16, said they had been serving in the army for one to two years.
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=24708&flag=news

In Libya, 200 children as young as eight have reported being sexually abused and some even raped in the last four weeks of conflict between rebel forces and troops loyal to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Save the Children has revealed. Read more.

On Monday, the overnight NATO raid has left four children wounded, two of them hospitalised in intensive care.

Thousands of people have reportedly been killed in many cities in western Libya, which is mainly controlled by Gaddafi.

In Benghazi, the de facto capital of rebel-held eastern Libya, while schools remain closed, residents decided to set up a programme at one of the local public schools where children could come to draw, sing and play. Children in Benghazi have had little else to do other than soak in the painful realities and many parents have stopped letting them play outside. Read full article

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For tens of thousands of displaced people in the west of Cote d'Ivoire and most refugees in neighbouring Liberia, it is still too dangerous to return home said the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). Entire villages were devastated by the conflict, and the needs of residents and displaced people are particularly acute.

Five months after the disputed election that plunged the country into conflict, families who fled their homes to escape the fighting are still living and sleeping out in the open. Camps have already been hit by heavy rains, and residents have noticed an increase in sickness, as the meagre sources of water available in the camps often aren’t treated. Read more

On Monday, the UN uncovered bodies of nearly 70 people, apparently the victims of a militia backing the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, in a series of graves in a suburb of Côte d’Ivoire’s biggest city, Abidjan.

"An Uncertain Future? Children and Armed Conflict in the Central African Republic"

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) released a report last week of the findings of a four-week field mission with evidence that the abduction of children, recruitment or use of child soldiers, attacks against schools, and the denial of humanitarian access to children are still being committed against children in CAR.

Read more on the six grave violations monitored under UN Security Council Resolution 1612

Read also the new United Nations report on children and armed conflict in the Central African Republic

Children caught in escalating armed conflict in Somalia

In recent months, fighting has intensified between opposition rebel fighters al-Shabab and the fighters of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Aid workers and observers in Somalia say an increasing number of child soldiers are being used by factions involved in the escalating violence in the country. Read more

In Mogadishu, "between 4,000 and 4,500 children live on the streets". Most of the children work as shoe-shiners, they face the constant risk of being killed in cross fire, but are also abused by both military and civilian customers, including by refusing to pay the children for their work and threatening or beating them if they insist. Read full article 

Iraqi refugee children drop out of school in Lebanon

Iraqi refugee children were forced to flee their home in Iraq to seek refuge in Beirut and give up their education to find a job.

For those who can go to school, going to a Lebanese school poses a number of problems. "Schools in Lebanon use a different dialect and curricula. I am also often treated as an outsider," Mustafa, an Iraqi refugee, said.

Refugees often face hostile and discouraging attitudes in the school environment. Many NGOs are actively trying to improve refugees' inclusion in the Lebanese community. Read more  

Post-election violence in Nigeria

Over 120 people have been killed in post-election riots in Nigeria, while many others have been injured, including children, with gunshot and machete wounds. Read full article

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An advocacy group for birth registration

A small group of civil society organisations came together last year to begin an advocacy initiative for a UNHCR conclusion on birth registration. The group, which is essentially Geneva based includes Anglican UN Office, Defence for Children International, Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers), Plan International, Refugees International and World Vision. The group is open to collaborating with other civil society organisations in this advocacy initiative for:

a) States parties to the UN to make pledges at the Ministerial-level Meeting of States Parties on December 7-8, to improve birth registration laws, policies and practices;

b) UNHCR to prioritise a conclusion on birth registration in 2012.

If you would like to be involved in the advocacy and lobby group on birth registration described above, please contact Denise Allen at World Vision International: [email protected] and/or Anne-Sophie Lois at Plan: [email protected]

Red Cross Award honours outstanding humanitarian reports

On May 7, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Philippine Red Cross (PRC) revealed the winners of their first media contest in an award ceremony held in Pasig City, the Philippines. Marya Salamat, a journalist in Bulatlat.com, a weekly online news magazine, won the first prize for her story on civilian children killed during armed conflicts and labeled as soldiers, published on November 20, 2010

The competition aims to promote responsible reporting of conflict situations by highlighting the plight of those affected by it. http://www.redcross.org.ph/news/193

CRIN launches Arabic website!

Last week, CRIN launched its brand new Arabic website and CRINMAIL. The Arabic website will serve as a reference point for rich and comprehensive information on children's rights. It will provide ongoing coverage of children's rights news and related activities and events at the international level, including in the Middle East and North Africa.

Contact us at: [email protected] or [email protected]

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