CRINMAIL 1297

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Shunning the rights of persons with mental disabilities 

People with mental disabilities in Ghana, including children, suffer severe abuse in psychiatric institutions and “spiritual healing” centres or prayer camps, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented in a new report. Thousands are forced to live in psychiatric institutions, which are often overcrowded and unsanitary, while in prayer camps associated with Pentecostal churches and managed by self-proclaimed prophets, people are chained to trees and denied food and water as part of a “healing process”. Medical treatment is shunned in favour of spiritual healing through miracles and consultation with angels. Download the report here.

Girl advocate shot for opposing Taliban

A 14-year-old Pakistani girl known for her activism for girl's education was deliberately shot by Taliban gunmen on her way home from school in the Swat Valley in the north-west of the country. Malala Yousafzai, who is currently receiving treatment for her injuries in hospital, came to public attention in 2009 by writing a blog for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, which strongly opposes girl's education. Malala has since earned the admiration of many throughout Pakistan, receiving one of the country's top civic prizes for her brave activism. She has said that when she grows up she wants to study law and enter politics, as she "dream[s] of a country where education would prevail". Full story.

From "protection" to prohibition

Officials in Russia are discussing ways of implementing the country's controversial law to protect children from “harmful information”, with one proposal suggesting that under-18s be banned altogether from accessing public wi-fi networks. Providers of public wi-fi points fear they could be made responsible for monitoring who logs on to their signal and could face fines for failing to keep youngsters offline. Free-speech advocates say the law, which is scheduled to enter into force on 1 November, is a veiled attempt to block dissent on the Web. For fear of violating the new law, many cinemas have also begun barring teenagers from certain films, despite being old enough to watch them. Full story. 

Discrimination in the school head's office

A private school in Indonesia has expelled a female pupil, who had been raped by a trafficking ring, for "tarnishing" the institution's image. "The girl was the victim of child trafficking. The school should have helped her to cope with her trauma," said the chairman of the country's National Commission for Child Protection, which intends to write to the education ministry about the case, asking it to review the school's licence. Full story.

Another private school, this time in Kazakhstan, expelled two students after discovering they were HIV-positive. More on the story.

And recently in the United States, a boy who was denied admission to the private Milton Hershey School for having HIV, was awarded $700,000 in damages. More on the story.

Poor children at risk of armed recruitment

Islamist fighters in northern Mali are recruiting children from poor families with the promise of a generous salary, with as many as 1,000 children believed to have already been recruited in this way. The cases shed new light on the recruitment practices of the Islamist groups. "It is poverty and misery that are pushing these children toward them", as "[t]he Islamists are distributing money and food to their parents, so the children have no choice," said El Boukhari Ben Essayouti, Secretary-General of the Malian Human Rights Association.

One boy was told he could earn 15,000 francs ($30) a day for himself and 200,000 francs ($400) a month for his family. Meanwhile, some families have reportedly been promised as much as $4,800 a year - more than four times the average annual income per person in Mali. Full story. 

Starting equality from a young age 

In Latvia, where a new “gender-bending” children's book that seeks to promote gender equality among children from a young age, is expected to be introduced into kindergartens in the near future. The book aims to break gender stereotypes by having the main girl and boy characters switch bodies, with the aim of getting children to look at issues such as whether it is “appropriate for girls to play football; whether boys playing with dolls should feel ashamed; whether all girls prefer pink clothes and boys go for dark outfits.”

Christian fundamentalists have criticised the book for “destroying” gender identity, but the country's Minister for Welfare, Ilze Vinkele, described the criticism as “unenlightened”, pointing out that “[t]he conventional understanding of gender roles has...roots in [the]...Soviet times when a man [was] said to be the one who works, comes home, beats his wife and occasionally drinks, given it’s his right. In my opinion, it’s wrong, silly and ignorant.”

Latvia's ombudsman, Juris Jansons, also expressed his support of the book saying it “defends a child's right to individuality and promotes a child's opportunity to develop his/her abilities regardless of gender.”  

Violence against children in detention

Penal Reform International has produced a review of laws and policies to prevent and remedy violence against children in police and pre-trial detention in eight countries (Bangladesh, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tanzania and Uganda). 

The review establishes that in the criminal justice process, children can become victims of violence and abuse from police during arrest and while in police custody, and in detention institutions from staff and fellow detainees. In addition, the review notes that corporal punishment as a court sentence against children is legal in a number of countries, while corporal and other violent forms of punishment are also legal in penal institutions. To read the report, which is available in English and Russian, click here.

Campaigning against the death penalty

Today, 10 October, is the World Day Against the Death Penalty. While a number of States continue to sentence offenders to death – and in a handful of others children are subject to the same form of punishment – there has been significant progress in 2012 alone. Benin, Mongolia and Latvia acceded to or ratified the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (see the current ratifications list here), while other countries ratified regional mechanisms to the same effect.

Specifically in relation to children, CRIN, together with other partners, has been campaigning for an end to the sentencing of children to inhuman forms of punishment, including the death penalty. According to our research, child offenders can be lawfully sentenced to death in at least seven States by lethal injection, hanging, shooting or stoning; more still have the death penalty on their statutes. But as long as the sentence remains a possibility in the statutes of a country, children run the risk of being executed should a situation in a given country change.

To read developments from the past two years, read our joint submission to the UN Secretary-General on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty here.

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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS WIKI: Spotlight on Jamaica

In this week's Children's Rights Wiki, we look at the persistent violations of children's rights in Jamaica: http://wiki.crin.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Jamaica 

• Child labour; 
• Violence against children; 
• Corporal punishment; 
• Sexual abuse and exploitation of children; 
• Use of, and conditions in, detention for children; 
• Low minimum age of criminal responsibility; 
• Inadequate education provision; 
• Inadequate reproductive health care and education; 
• Inadequate provision for health services for children; 
• Inadequate response to the prevalence of HIV and AIDS; 
• Inadequate provision for children with disabilities; 
• Discrimination against vulnerable children, including those with disabilities, HIV or AIDS. 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Poverty: Rethinking poverty – experiences from Colombia
Organisation: Children of the Andes et al.
Date: 6 November 2012
Location: London, United Kingdom
More details here. 

Maltreatment: Eradicating child maltreatment interventions with children and families – policy and practice
Organisation: Child and Family Training et al.
Date: 9 November 2012
Location: London, United Kingdom
More details here.

Juvenile justice: Criminality or social exclusion? Justice for children in a divided world
Organisation: International Juvenile Justice Observatory
Date: 5–7 November 2012
Location: London, United Kingdom
More details here.

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EMPLOYMENT

ECPAT International: Executive Director
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Application deadline: 15 October 2012
More details here.  

World Vision: Child Rights Manager
Location: Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Application deadline: 21 October 2012
More details here.  

The Last Word

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