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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Migration controversies in Australia and Europe

Officials in Australia’s Immigration Department covered up the scale of mental health concerns among child asylum seekers, according to findings by the country’s Human Rights Commission (HRC). Dr Peter Young, the former director of mental health services at detention centre service provider, the International Health and Mental Services (IHMS), said immigration officials asked him to withdraw figures on “significant” mental health issues from his reporting. The findings showed that the incidence of mental health problems among children in immigration detention centres is about 30 per cent higher than the normal child population. The HRC’s president Gillian Triggs has described the evidence as “very troubling and damning”.  "We're coming across what you'd see perhaps as a manipulation of the circumstances,” she said. "There seems to be ... almost a systemic process within the [Immigration] department to keep these figures under some sort of wrap - they're not being analysed, they're not being considered."

The HRC’s year-long inquiry into the effects of immigration detention on child asylum seekers has also found that many of the 174 children inside the Christmas Island detention centre are sick, with most of them having asthmatic conditions or stomach complaints, as well as there being instances of children attempting self-harm. Meanwhile the 157 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers currently at the centre of an Australian High Court battle, including 50 children were almost sent to India on lifeboats they were taught how to operate, according to the Tamil Refugee Council. They are now all being held on the island of Nauru, after being transferred from the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, and having spent three weeks detained on a customs vessel. The asylum seekers are seeking compensation for false imprisonment. 

Meanwhile States in the European Union are pushing potential asylum seekers to take increasingly dangerous routes to reach Europe through measures to keep irregular migrants out, regardless of their motives, Amnesty International has said in a recent report. The organisation documents that EU countries are taking drastic measures to “defend” their borders by funding sophisticated surveillance systems, coordinating a Europe-wide team of border guards to patrol EU frontiers, using the threat of lengthy detention to deter those thinking about coming to Europe, and unlawfully expelling migrants and refugees without access to asylum procedures and often in ways that put them at grave risk. The report also examines cases of child asylum-seekers, including those who are unaccompanied.

Uganda anti-gay law annulled

Uganda’s Constitutional court has annulled the country’s much-criticised Anti-Homosexuality Act on a legal technicality, but activists say homosexuality remains a crime under colonial-era laws. The law, which was signed into law in February, criminalised all expressions of homosexuality, including its “promotion”, and allowed for courts to sentence people to life imprisonment for certain actions such as touching in public. But the Constitutional Court’s panel of five judges agreed that the law, which had received international condemnation and prompted donor countries to cut aid, had not been properly passed through Parliament, as not enough MPs were in attendance when it was approved. Activists warn, however, that lawmakers could try to re-introduce new anti-gay measures. While welcoming the ruling, Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, lamented that “the case was not heard on its true merits. The truth is that not only is the anti-homosexuality act persecutory, it is also unconstitutional and illegitimate… Until the act has been dismissed on the substance of our arguments, we cannot rest easy."

Meanwhile activists in Belarus fear lawmakers may enact an anti-gay law similar to that passed in Russia last year banning the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations.” According to the Equal Rights Trust (ERT), a bill claiming to protect children from “propaganda of homosexuality” was included in a presidential decree concerning parliament’s legislative agenda.

UN committee finds Spain guilty of neglect

The UN has found Spain guilty of failing to prevent the death in 2003 of a girl who was killed by her father despite dozens of domestic violence complaints filed against him. The mother of the girl, who at the time was separated from the girl’s father, had filed more than 40 police complaints between 1999 and 2001 seeking a restraining order against the abuser. But the father was still granted unsupervised arranged visits with the girl, and during one of these shot his daughter dead and then committed suicide. After exhausting all legal remedies in Spain, the mother appealed to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which last month ruled that the Spanish State’s negligence was responsible for the girl’s death. 

According to a 2012 report by Save the Children, family courts in Spain continue to fail to systematically take children's best interests into account during court proceedings on domestic abuse. The organisation - as well as CEDAW in the case above - found that judges are often found to prioritise re-establishing a relationship between a child and an allegedly abusive parent over ensuring a child's protection from the risk of abuse. Decisions on custody and visitation rights, for example, are made even if a criminal proceeding against a parent for alleged abuse is open, thus ignoring the risk of further violence.

‘Praying away’ AIDS and Ebola

A government official in Nigeria has warned that pastors claiming to be able to cure Ebola could face jail time. The country’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Aderemi Ibirogba, advised people to be wary of those who make claims about their ability to provide a cure for the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 930 lives, most in the west African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

In Papua New Guinea, revivalist Christian churches are promoting prayer as a substitute for medication to patients with HIV. Health workers have said that revivalists even visit hospitals, telling HIV-positive patients to throw away their anti-retroviral medication. Pastor Godfrey Wippon, who heads the country’s Revival Centres, claims baptism and prayer can cure AIDS and even bring the dead back to life. In a country where there is widespread belief in sorcery and poor medical facilities, people are increasingly turning to faith-healing.

Gang violence in Honduras & the UK

The threat of gang violence and organised crime in Central America has created a refugee crisis in the region, with children fleeing their home countries and travelling mainly to the United States. Gangs in Honduras are recruiting new members to kill and dismember those who refuse to join, according to a CNN journalist, who adds that children are even being recruited in schools. However, controversy remains around the Honduran State’s measure to curb gang violence, namely its “Guardians of the Fatherland” programme which involves children perceived to be at risk of recruitment receiving military training every Saturday for three months. Dozens of local organisations have said that it is not appropriate for the military to exercise a pastoral role, and that social protection and crime prevention already resides with child-specialist state institutions.

Gangs in London, United Kingdom are drawing up lists of teenage girls whom they consider to be “legitimate” rape targets, as sexual violence is being increasingly used to spread fear, to antagonise rival groups and as a form of revenge. According to youth workers, the creation of the lists has even resulted in girls being dragged from school buses and sexually assaulted. Claire Hubberstey, interim chief executive of the Safer London Foundation, says gang members are taking advantage of low conviction rates for rape, as they see sexual violence as less-risky than carrying a weapon. Young women connected to gangs are viewed as "currency" by rival gangs, according to Carlene Firmin, head of the MsUnderstood Partnership. She says that even if the acts do not have the desired effect, the violence is more about punishing girls directly. Her charity has even found that some girls are offered to rival gangs to bolster allegiances or foster a truce.

New resources on education and health work

The Right to Education Project has launched a new page on a justiciable right to education, that is, being able to challenge a violation of this right or pursue its enforcement through the courts. The organisations explains: “A justiciable right to education means that when this right is violated, the right-holder can take his/her claim before an independent and impartial body, and if the claim is upheld, be granted a remedy, which can then be enforced.” Among the page’s features, the organisation explores the importance of justiciability and why it is an issue, examples of the justiciability of the right to education, challenges, and the role of civil society in the area.

A new curriculum on children’s rights seeks to give health workers in east Africa a general introduction to children’s rights and their application in day-to-day practice. The CREATE (Child Rights Education in East Africa) curriculum is to help professionals protect children from emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The curriculum is an open educational resource that can be freely accessed and adapted, making it suitable for professionals, health workers, teachers, police officers, lecturers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Is available online and can also be downloaded as a pdf.

Call for submissions: IACHR

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is inviting organisations to send requests for hearings and working meetings for its 153rd Session, which will take place 23 October to 7 November 2014. Hearings during the session will be held on 27, 28, 30 and 31 October, and the working meetings on 29 October. The requests for hearings and working meetings can only be made through the following links in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The deadline for requests is 13 August.

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN MAURITIUS

In this week’s instalment of our access to justice report series, we look at children’s access to justice in Mauritius.

Although Mauritius has ratified the CRC, its status in the domestic legal system is weak - it has not been incorporated into domestic law, does not take precedence over conflicting laws, and cannot be directly enforced in court. However, children, with the help of their representatives, have several ways to challenge rights violations, such as: applying to the Supreme Court for redress for rights violations or judicial review of administrative acts, submitting complaints to the Ombudsperson for Children or National Human Rights Commission, and private prosecutions. In any proceedings, a child “capable of discernment” may request to be heard by the judge alone, with a legal counsel or person of his/her choice. Furthermore, Mauritius has signed the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communications procedure, which, once ratified, will enable children to bring complaints to the UN about violations of their rights under the CRC. 

Read the full report on access to justice for children in Mauritius.

This report is part of CRIN's access to justice for children project, looking at the status of the CRC in national law, the status of children involved in legal proceedings, the legal means to challenge violations of children’s rights and the practical considerations involved in challenging violations.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Surrogacy: Hague conference on the private international law issues surrounding the status of children, including issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements
Organisation: International Institute of Social Studies
Date: 11-13 August 2014
Location: The Hague, Netherlands 

Europe: Ensuring the Rights of the Child, and Family-based Services
Organisation: International Foster Care Organisation
Date: 26-29 August 2014
Location: Waterford, Ireland

Course: MSc in Children’s Rights
Organisation: Queens University Belfast
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Application deadline: 1 September 2014

Africa: Keeping Children Safe in Africa - Identifying and addressing the challenges
Organisation: Keeping Children Safe et al.
Date: 3-5 September 2014
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Mental health: Third European Conference on mental health
Organisation: Various
Date: 10-12 September 2014
Location: Tallinn, Estonia

Justice: Access to justice for children - Legal clinics & other instruments for the promotion of children's rights 
Organisation: Save the Children - Italy
Date: 11-13 September 2014
Location: Pisa, Italy 

Child rights: European responses to global children’s rights issues - Key findings and future directions
Organisation: UK Economic and Social Research Council
Date: 14 September 2014
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Juvenile justice: ‘Making deprivation of children’s liberty a last resort - Towards evidence-based policies & alternatives’
Organisation: International Juvenile Justice Observatory
Call for papers deadline: 15 September 2014
Event date: 3-4 December 2014
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Consumerism: 'Protecting and Valuing Children as Consumers – European Perspective'
Organisation: Eurochild et al.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Date: 15 September 2014

Statelessness: Global Forum on Statelessness
Organisation: Tilburg University
Date: 15-17 September 2014
Location: The Hague, Netherlands 

Child-friendly cities: 7th Child in the City conference
Organisation: Child in the City Foundation
Location: Odense, Denmark
Date: 29 September - 1 October 2014

Course: Master of Advanced Studies in Children's Rights
Organisation: University of Geneva and the Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch
Application deadline: 30 September 2014
Location: Sion and Geneva, Switzerland

Best interests: Developing Child-Centred Practice in Law, Social Work and Policy for Cross-Border Families
Organisation:  International Social Service – USA Branch
Date: 2 October 2014
Location: Baltimore, United States

Violence: 7th African Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Organisation: African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect
Date: 13-15 October 2014
Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Digital media: Institutionalisation of child rights in the digital future
Organisation: UNICEF Turkey et al.
Date: 16-17 October 2014
Location: Istanbul, Turkey

LGBT: Rights on the move - Rainbow families in Europe
Organisation: University of Trento et al.
Date: 16-17 October 2014
Location: Trento, Italy

Social protection: Sixth International Policy Conference on the African Child
Organisation: African Child Policy Forum
Date: 27-28 October 2014
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Child protection: The role of child helplines in protecting children and young people online
Organisation: Child Helpline International 
Date: 30-31 October 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom

Course: MSc Children, Young People and Family Wellbeing
Organisation: Oxford Brookes University, UK
Date: September 2014 or January 2015 entry
Location: N/A - Distance Learning course

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EMPLOYMENT

CRIN: Journalism Internship
Application deadline: 10 August
Location: London, United Kingdom

Love146 Europe: Residential Deputy Manager (for Senior Social Worker)
Job location: Hampshire, United Kingdom
Deadline: 8 August 2014

Save the Children Sweden: Child Protection Advisor
Application deadline: 10 August 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom

European Roma Rights Centre: Human Rights Monitor in Moldova
Application deadline: 31 August 2014
Location: N/A

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JARGON OF THE WEEK: Human rights acronyms

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