CRINmail 1348

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9 October 2013 view online | subscribe | submit information

CRINMAIL 1348

In this issue:

Latest news and reports
- Hamas hangs alleged child offender in Gaza
- Deficiencies in youth justice system abound, says Justice Minister
- Law criminalising sexual acts declared unconstitutional
- Teen couple arrested for kissing photo on Facebook
- Lawmakers pass bill allowing fathers to marry adopted daughters
- Court denies nationality to surrogate children
- ILO chief underscores need to boost erradication efforts
- Restrictions on right to education

Children's Rights Wiki: Spotlight on Turkey

Upcoming events

Employment

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Hamas hangs alleged child offender in Gaza

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Stip have executed a young man who had been convicted of two killings, including one allegedly committed when he was 14 years old. Hani Abu Aliyan, 28, was hanged last Wednesday in a security compound. Abu Aliyan’s lawyer said his client had confessed to the killing he was accused of commiting as a teenager following abuse and torture during interrogation. Full story.

The case has drawn heavy criticism of Gaza’s justice system. Critics report how prisoners have been executed in Gaza despite unfair trials and a clear lack of due process, including the use of torture to extract confessions. Only four other States around the world are known to have executed child offenders in the past five years: Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Read more about CRIN’s campaign against the inhuman sentencing of children here.

 

Deficiencies in youth justice system abound

Trinidad and Tobago’s youth justice system presents major deficiencies, lamented the country’s Minister of Justice, Emmanuel George, at a symposium last week addressing the need for reform. Among his concerns are “a system of institutionalised gender bias”, which sees young female detainees not being offered the same education and personal development opportunities as boys. There is also no detention facility exclusively for female offenders under 18, yet they do exist for boys.

Mr George also commented on the tendency to lock children up under status offences laws, which he says criminalise children purely because of their age, as the “offences” would not be considered a crime if committed by an adult. These include truancy, breaking school rules, and being deemed “beyond control”. Gender disparities continue in this respect, as in some detention facilities over 90 per cent of girls are held for status offences. 

On a third note, the Minister of Justice also criticised the country’s archaic legislation for emphasising punishment of young offenders instead of their rehabilitation. Lengthy pretrial detention is also a major concern, with Mr George citing the case of a young man who was detained at 15 and is still awaiting trial nine years later. Full story.

Still on the issue, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted a resolution last month on “The administration of justice, including juvenile justice”, which calls on States to not discriminate against children when deciding whether something is a ‘crime’ (i.e. States should not make something a ‘crime’ just because it is ‘committed’ by someone under 18).

The resolution also reiterates the juvenile justice rights in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely that the  “deprivation of liberty of children should only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, as well as to avoid, wherever possible, the use of pretrial detention for children”. However, it also says that States should ensure the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) is at least 12 years. While there are many States with very low MACR (some well below 12), referring specifically to this arbitrary age within childhood has negatively influenced many countries to lower their MACR - as opposed to influencing those with lower ages to increase. 

 

Law criminalising sexual acts declared unconstitutional

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has declared unconstitutional sections 15 and 16 of the Criminal Law Act, which criminalised consensual sexual activity between children (even kissing). The decision upholds a January ruling by the Pretoria High Court that certain sections of the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Amendment Act (2007) were invalid because the range of sexual activities were defined too broadly, even making consensual kissing, light petting and hugging between children a criminal offence. The presiding judge Pierre Rabie said that the Act criminalised conduct “virtually every normal adolescent participates in at some stage or another”.

Under the law, which supposedly sought to protect children against abuse, children could have been charged with statutory rape – despite having consented – and risk having their names being listed in the national sex offenders’ registry. Any person who was aware of these activities between children was obliged to report them to the police or face a prison term themselves. This meant that if a girl under 16 became pregnant and went to the doctor, the doctor would have had to report her to the police. In addition, if a young person was raped and complained to the police but there was no conviction, the young person could have then be charged with a criminal offence themselves. 

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development now has 18 months to amend the relevant provisions. The Constitutional Court has also ordered Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to ensure that the details of any convicted children would not appear in the National Register for Sex Offenders and that such a child would have his or her record expunged. The criminal prohibitions against non-consensual sexual acts with children of any age will remain in place. Full story. 

 

Teen couple arrested for posting kissing photo on Facebook

Police in Morocco arrested a teenage boy and girl last week for violating “public decency” after posting a photograph of themselves kissing on Facebook. A friend of theirs who took the photo was also arrested. Under article 483 of the State’s penal code, those found guilty of violating public decency risk up to two years in prison. The three teens have since been released fom the juvenile detention centre in the northeastern town of Nador following a national public outcry. Online protests called for internet users to post similar kissing photos on their Facebook pages. 

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, a young man who posted a video online of himself dancing naked on a car roof has been sentenced to receive 2,000 lashes and ten years inprisonment. Full story. 

As the above examples show, web users continue to face a series of reprisals for their activities online as a result of increased state surveillance of the Internet. Despite this, as well as an array of State restrictions of internet freedom, online activists have become more effective at alerting to new threats and rights violations, in some cases even forestalling them, says a new report by Freedom House. The report identifies main trends across 60 countries by looking at barriers to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. For the second consecutive year China, Cuba and Iran were found to be the most repressive States in the area of internet freedom, while Iceland and Estonia topped the country list as the countries with the greated degree of internet freedom. Download the report. 

 

Lawmakers pass bill allowing fathers to marry adopted daughters 

Parliamentarians in Iran have passed a child protection bill which conversely includes a provision allowing a man to marry his adopted daughter once she reaches the age of 13. The bill stipulates that a court must approve the marriage if it deems it to be in the best interests of the individual child. Activists have condemned the bill, saying it legalises paedophilia. The law must now be reviewed by Iran’s Guardian Council, which can reject laws for violating Sharia law.  

While marrying adopted children or stepchildren has so far been illegal in the country, the minimum age for marriage for boys is 15, and for girls 13 if their father consents. Girls younger than 13 can still be married with the approval of a judge. In 2010 alone, as many as 42,000 children aged between 10 and 14 were married. Full story. 

Recently voicing its position on child marriage was the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which last month adopted a resolution on “Strengthening of efforts to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage”, in which the HRC recognises that the practice is not only a violation of children’s rights but has “adverse consequences on the enjoyment of human rights, such as the right to education, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, and the right to be free from all forms of violence”. The resolution sets up a panel discussion on preventing and eliminating the practice for its 26th session (June 2014), and requests the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights to prepare a report ahead of the session with civil society input. 

For more on early marriage, read this report by the International NGO Council on Violence against Children.

 

Court denies nationality to surrogate children

In France, the Court of Cassation, the country's highest appeals court, has quashed a decision from a lower court that had authorised two children born through surrogacy to be recorded on the civil registry. The lower court had then considered that it was not asked to pass a judgment on the validity of the surrogacy agreement (which is not legal in France), but solely on the registration of the births. The Court of Cassation also cancelled the declaration of paternity made prior to the birth, arguing that the father had evaded the law by resorting to surrogacy. This decision appears to contradict a January circular from the Ministry of Justice asking courts to stop denying nationality certificates to children born of a surrogate mother abroad. Full story (in French). 

On the issue of birth registration, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is inviting submissions on the subject in preparation for an upcoming report. The report will cover the legal, administrative, economic and physical barriers to access to universal birth registration and possession of documentary proof of birth. It will also contain good practices adopted by States in fulfilling their obligation to ensure birth registration. The deadline for submissions is 15 November 2013. More details here. 

 

ILO chief underscores need to boost erradication efforts

States must boost their efforts to end child labour if they are to erradicate the worst forms by the target of 2016, said Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization at the opening ceremony of the Third Global Conference on Child Labour. While the number of child labourers has dropped by one third since 2010, according to ILO figures, the remaining 168 million show that progress to-date has not been fast enough. Mr Ryder warned that States should keep up the momentum as the “long march” enters its final phase, as a failure to meet the 2016 objective would represent “a collective policy failure” on the part of the international community. More on the story.


Restrictions on right to education

In Russia, federal lawmakers have drafted a bill that would ban children of foreign migrants from schools and kindergartens unless they can show proof that their parents pay taxes in Russia. The authors of the bill say it responds to a lack of sufficient places in schools for all children, noting that the number of migrants in Russia has increased. Some commentators say this bill reflects the rise in anti-migrant sentiment, with immigration becoming one of the most politically charged subjects in the country. Full story.

Some schools in Uzbekistan are denying children textbooks if they do not subscribe to state-run newspapers. The move seems to come in response to local authority demands to sell hundreds of copies of the newspapers The Village Pravda and The Oriental Pravda, among others, to schools and colleges. Full story.

Children with physical and learning disabilities in China are regularly denied education, with a quarter of them receiving no basic education at all, according to Maya Wang, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. Despite government claims of near-universal enrolment for the general population, more than 40 per cent of the country’s 83 million people with disabilities are illiterate. Reports show that some schools refuse to enrol children with behavioural or learning disabilities as they would “affect other children”. And in mainstream schools, staff receive little to no training, funding or support workers to help them teach disabled children. Universities can also refuse to enrol prospective students if they have certain physical or psychological "defects". For example an applicant who uses crutches was denied a place on five different degree programmes in medicine and psychology because "his physical disabilities do not match his chosen subjects". Full story. 

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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS WIKI: Spotlight on Turkey

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, recently announced a series of long-awaited reforms as part of a “democratisation package” to create a more inclusive society. Among them is the broadening of education in the Kurdish language, spoken by about 20 per cent of the population, but until recently unavailable in all schools. A lack of possibilities for children of ethnic groups in Turkey to learn their mother tongue is a children’s rights concern expressed by several UN bodies and experts. The following is a list of other persistent violations of children’s rights taking place in Turkey: http://wiki.crin.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Turkey

  • Corporal punishment is not explicitly prohibited in the home and continues to be practised in schools; 
  • Persistence of forced and early marriages; 
  • Persistence of “honour killings”; 
  • High prevalence of domestic violence; 
  • The persistence of gender stereotypes; 
  • Inadequate possibilities for children belonging to ethnic groups to learn their mother tongue; 
  • Barriers to education for girls; 
  • Ill-treatment of children in detention; 
  • The minimum age of criminal responsibility is too low; 
  • Insufficient compliance with international standards on juvenile justice, especially in the context of the enforcement of anti-terrorist laws; 
  • Impunity for brutality against children by members of the security forces; 
  • Trafficking of children; 
  • Insufficient protection for children in employment; 
  • Inadequate access to education, health care and employment for children with disabilities. 

For more information on these persistent violations, visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=26140&flag=report

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Sexual violence: Evidence into action
Organisation: Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Date: 14-17 October 2013
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
More details here. 

Ratification: "UP - Universally Promoting child rights" campaign
Organisation: Child Rights Connect (formerly the NGO Group for the CRC) 
Date: 21 October - 21 November 2013
Location: N/A 
More details here. 

Africa: 54th Session of the African Commission 
Organisation: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
Date: 22 October - 5 November 2013
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
More details here. 

Violence: 19 Days of Activism - Prevention abuse and violence against children and youth 
Organisation: Women's World Summit Foundation
Date: 1-19 November 2013
Location: N/A 
More details here. 

Participation: Building an inclusive Europe - the contribution of children's participation 
Organisation: Eurochild
Date: 13-15 November 2013
Location: Milan, Italy 
More details here. 

Child rights: Honouring the child, honouring equity
Organisation: University of Melbourne's Youth Research Centre 
Date: 15-16 November 2013
Location: Melbourne, Australia 
More details here. 

Advocacy: Results in advocacy - an advocates guide to impact assessment
Organisation: Pamoja Consulting
Date: 3-4 December 2013
Location: London, United Kingdom  
More details here. 

Statelessness: Global Forum on Statelessness - New directions in statelessnes research & policy 
Organisation: Tilburg University
Deadline for presentations: 1 December 2013
Event date: 15-17 September 2014
Location: The Hague, Netherlands 
More details here. 

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EMPLOYMENT

Save the Children Sweden: x3
- Senior Child Protection Advisor
- Response Team Leader/ Deputy Response Team Leader 
- Monitoring Evaluation Accountability Coordinator & Learning Coordinator
Location: TBC
Application deadline: 11 October 2013 
More details here. 

Children in Crisis: Programme & Organisational Development Advisor (Afghanistan) 
Location: Kabul, Afghanistan
Application deadline: 14 October 2013 
More details here. 

Watchlist on Children & Armed Conflict: Research Officer 
Location: New York City, United States  
Application deadline: 16 October 2013
More details here. 

African Child Policy Forum: Programme Head (Children & the Law) 
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Application deadline: 18 October 2013
More details here. 

Save the Children Sweden: Thematic Advisor for Child Rights Governance and Organisational Capacity Development
Location: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire 
Application deadline: 20 October 2013
More details here. 

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Leak of the Week

A Kazakhstani MP says that homosexuality should be criminalised in his country because gay men are apparently unable to guard the country’s borders.

“Our country is located in a strategic region, where we have to be on our guard day and night”, said Bakhytbek Smagul, who went on to question how the borders of the country could be effectively guarded by “men with a different orientation”.

However, it’s not exactly clear what Smagul is getting at. By “different orientation” does he mean that gay men have a bad sense of direction, are visually impared, or are unable to grasp that the thick lines on a map are usually country borders?  Or by mentioning the need for 24-hour border patrol, does Smagul assume that gays can’t handle an all-nighter? Has Smagul ever heard of an all-night gay pride march? 

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Over 40 human rights resolutions were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in its 24th Session last month in Geneva. You can view the most important ones for children’s rights in our database and our webpage covering the 24th session.
© Child Rights International Network 2013 ~ http://www.crin.org

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