CRINMAIL 1308

In this issue:

Problems viewing this CRINMAIL? Click here. 

Children's rights in 2012

From children being sentenced to death and life imprisonment, to suffering repression for participating in protests – if the past year shows us anything, it is that a wide variety of violations of children's rights persists in most States in all regions. In this context, CRIN continued in 2012 to identify persistent as well as new and neglected children's rights issues, while developing advocacy materials, which we hope will set the stage for collective action within the children's rights movement. 

Juvenile justice was at the top of CRIN's agenda in 2012. A trend has emerged among some States which have lowered or proposed lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility well under the age of 18. In response – and to coincide with the UN Human Rights Council's 2011 annual day on the rights of the child on “children and the administration of justice” – CRIN produced a report to stimulate a new debate on juvenile justice, which moves beyond proposals to raise or lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility by a year or two. Instead, we seek to address the need to separate the concept of responsibility from criminalisation, and stop making children criminals. 

This need for legal reform in criminal justice systems around the world also extends to the inhuman sentencing of children, understood to include corporal punishment, life imprisonment and the death penalty. Despite its urgency, however, progress in this area in 2012 was lacking. For example, a 15-year-old boy died in Botswana from injuries sustained after he was sentenced to flogging, the United States is trying a 12-year-old boy as an adult and faces life imprisonment for murder, at least one child offender was executed in Iran while over 140 other persons who committed an offence while under the age of 18 remain on death row, and 45 Commonwealth states still allow for children to be sentenced to life imprisonment. 

But not letting these cases cloud our hopes for juvenile justice, 2012 also brought significant positive legal reform in this area. The United States Supreme Court, for instance, ruled that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole imposed on children is unconstitutional, while Argentina declared that life imprisonment of children violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The past year also saw human and children's rights defenders continue to be targeted for their activism. Dozens faced military trials  in Bahrain and Egypt. In Mexico, all sectors of civil society continued to be threatened, attacked and even killed by criminal groups and members of security forces. Meanwhile, Israel and Russia introduced restrictive NGO bills to curb criticism of the authorities. 

While children and young people also continued to prove their capacity to act as human rights defenders themselves – most remarkably first shown during the Arab Spring – governments also continued to respond to their demands by repressing their rights to freedom of expression and association. University and secondary school students in Chile and Honduras gathered in their hundreds of thousands to demand improvements to the severely underfunded education system and plans to further privatise it. But in response two teenagers were killed and hundreds arrested by anti-riot police. Similarly in Russia, claims of electoral fraud provoked the largest demonstrations since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but authorities sought to prevent children from participating in the protests, resorting to declaring compulsory school days to coincide with the biggest days of protest. Meanwhile the social unrest in Syria eventually took a dark turn, as security forces and pro-government militias began indiscriminately torturing and killing civilians in their thousands, including children. 

The past year also brought more obstacles to children’s freedom to exercise their civil and political rights, notably their right to receive and access information. Under spurious claims of “child protection”, a raft of anti-gay laws were passed in eastern Europe, with Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Latvia all either proposing or enacting legislation banning the distribution of or access to information on homosexuality.

But a fresh air of hope came from Jamaica and Malawi, dubbed by some as two of the world's most homophobic countries, as new Presidents declared their support for LGBT people's human rights, vowing to review national anti-gay laws. Meanwhile children's political rights were championed in Argentina where 16- and 17-year-olds have been given the right to vote, in Scotland where children from the age of 16 will head to the polls in 2014 to cast their vote on whether they think the country should become independent, and in Wales where the government is considering lowering the voting age to 16 for all elections and referendums in the country.

Good news also came from Thailand and Gabon, both of which ratified the CRC's Optional Protocol for a complaints mechanism. Eight more states need to ratify the instrument for it to come into effect. Meanwhile, Uruguay and the Philippines became the first states to ratify the Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers, meaning it will now enter into force in less than a year's time.

When it comes to challenging regressive laws, a number of African States are also setting a pioneering example to those that still authorise corporal punishment of children. In the past year alone, South Sudan and Togo joined Tunisia and Kenya in banning corporal punishment in all settings, including the home. Meanwhile, Curaçao, a Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, became the first overseas territory in the region to ban corporal punishment of children in all settings. And Belize became the first English-speaking Caribbean country to ban corporal punishment in schools. CRIN also supported a citizen campaign to get the world's biggest bookseller, Amazon, to stop selling “parenting manuals” that promote beating children into obedience using rods, paddles, or other implements, even on toddlers.

The tide is also turning against those that cover up cases of child sexual abuse, from religious institutions to trusted celebrities. Public outcry against it and the demand for accountability have led to new precedents around the world, with key court rulings and convictions handed down in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as large scale inquiries into alleged abuse in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Australia.

On a more negative note, however, the UN Secretary-General’s “list of shame”, a list of the countries that violate international standards on children and armed conflict, has grown considerably over the past years. Armed groups in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Iraq, all feature on the list, as well as the Syrian Government forces who regularly shell, burn, loot and raid schools, as well as assault or threaten teachers, students, and medical personnel.

Last year also saw advancements in international justice, as the International Criminal Court issued its first-ever and only verdict to-date, in which it charged Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, with recruiting children as soldiers. Meanwhile, two long-time war crimes fugitives wanted for their involvement in the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, including for orchestrating the murder of around 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, were captured and are now facing trial. There were also positive signs for the rule of law in the Americas, as Guatemala celebrated the first two trials and convictions against former members of the military since the end of the country's 36-year civil war, while Argentina convicted two former dictators of stealing dozens of babies from disappeared political prisoners during the country's Dirty War. 

And on a similarly positive note, the private sector affirmed that it can indeed act in defence of children's rights, after two corporate sponsors of the Boy Scouts of America announced they would no longer donate funds to the organisation as long as it bans gays from joining. While discussions on children's rights and the private sector usually reflect on the latter in a negative light, the Boy Scouts case suggests that corporations can take a firm stance against discrimination and other violations of children's rights. 

Children's rights in 2013 

With 2013 already underway, the New Year brings with it new changes, challenges and opportunities. 

The Committee on the Rights of the Child faces significant adjustments, not only with the election of nine new members, but also with the evolution expected with the new Optional Protocol (OP) for a complaints mechanism. With over 11 states having led the OP's drafting campaign, and 50 more expressing support for the text, CRIN is hopeful that states will follow through with their expressed commitment to children's right to access justice, with ten ratifications needed for the mechanism to enter into force. 

With two of the world's superpowers, China and the United States, having undergone a changeover in executive rule, the new leaders bring with them a great sense of expectation. Following China's Communist Party Congress, many believe the country is at a crossroads between continued censorship and greater freedom of expression under its new leader. Meanwhile with the reelection of Barack Obama as US President, who in the past four years has spearheaded a human rights upheaval in his country by affirming the rights of previously disenfranchised groups, CRIN hopes that children, too, will reap recognition through the country's ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Latin America continues to bring the hope of justice for past abuses, with promising developments with the erosion of impunity in Guatemala, Argentina and to a lesser extent in Brazil, as well as growing criticism of amnesty laws elsewhere in the region, including by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 

In Southeast Asia, on the other hand, it remains to be seen if the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to shroud its actions in secrecy, or strive to consolidate itself as a transparent and uncompromising institution intent on applying existing international human rights standards throughout the region.

Both uncertainty and expectation also trail behind the Arab Spring in how it will determine the guarantee of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, especially for women and girls, as the Arab women's movement gains momentum in both its size and its demands. 

As for CRIN, we will continue to fulfil our role in the promotion and defence of children's rights in the face of new and persistent violations. Fruit of this objective is our resolve to pursue advocacy which enacts positive change, as well as to inspire collective action in this direction. Our advocacy in the coming year will continue to challenge restrictions on children's civil and political rights and violations of their right to be protected from inhuman forms of punishment, in particular life imprisonment. We will also seek to bring attention to harmful traditional practices that still enjoy majority support within communities or whole States, but which represent a gross assault on children's human dignity and violate universally agreed international human rights standards. To this end, CRIN will continue to form alliances with partners to consolidate the global children's rights movement, as well as to explore stronger forms of advocacy to challenge these and other violations of children's rights.  

New Year CRIN Quiz! 

Back to top