CRINmail 1391

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18 August 2014 subscribe | subscribe | submit information
  • CRINmail 1391

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    LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

    Inhuman sentencing in Bahrain and Egypt

    Two juveniles are among 14 people who were sentenced to life imprisonment last week in Bahrain under its anti-terrorism law for their alleged involvement in the death of a policeman, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has alerted. According to the case details, an improvised explosive device killed a riot police officer in the town of Sitra in July 2013, where protesters had gathered. The BCHR says that security forces started a campaign of house raids, separately detaining Nedhal Ali Hussain Al-Abood (now 16 years old) and Dhaif Abdulnabi Dhaif (who was 17 at time of arrest). The organisation says that Dhaif was detained without contact with his family for five days and was subject to torture and sexual abuse during his detention, while Al-Abood says he signed a confession to avoid being interrogated again. Since their arrest, both juveniles were at one time or another detained at the Dry Dock detention centre for adults. The number of children in Bahrain being tried and sentenced under the counter-terrorism law is increasing, according to the BCHR. 

    When the Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed the children’s rights record of Bahrain in June 2011, it expressed concern that the State was handing down life sentences to people who allegedly committed offences while under the age of 18.

    Meanwhile in Egypt, an Irish youth is among 480 defendants facing charges - some of which carry the death penalty - in a controversial trial for their alleged involvement in protests last year. Ibrahim Halawa, from Firhouse in Dublin, was 17 when he was arrested last August during a military siege of a mosque in Cairo during a family holiday. He and his sisters were attending a protest in response to the killing of demonstrators a few days earlier. Halawa has since been detained in a series of adult prisons, where he said he was forced to drink toilet water, was stripped naked and beaten by prison guards. He is being tried as an adult, but has still not been informed of what specific charges he faces.

    Read more about the campaign to end the inhuman sentencing of children.

     

    Rampant abuse found in immigration detention

    Asylum-seeking children currently held in Australia’s offshore detention centres have sent submissions to the Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in Detention, in which they recount their experiences in their home countries, the treatment they have received in the detention centres, and their hopes for freedom.

    The chief psychiatrist responsible for the care of asylum seekers in detention for the past three years, Dr Peter Young, recently said of the migrant detention system that it is “inherently toxic”, and deliberately harsh and harmful to people’s health. He added that it compromises the ethics of doctors, and is intended to place asylum seekers under “strong coercive pressure” to abandon plans to live in Australia. Dr Young says the process that asylum seekers endure is akin to torture: “If we take the definition of torture to be the deliberate harming of people in order to coerce them into a desired outcome, I think it does fulfil that definition.”

    Following widespread criticism of the treatment received by asylum seekers, especially children, Australia announced this week that it will release scores of migrant children and their families held in mainland immigration detention centres by the end of the year. However, many will be excluded from the new measures. Around 150 of the 876 children currently held in mainland detention centres will be released into the community on bridging visas while their asylum applications are processed. Only those aged 10 or under and who arrived on the mainland before tough new immigration laws were introduced in mid-2013 will benefit from the measures. UNICEF Australia’s chief executive officer Norman Gillespie said that the measure should also include the 300 children reported to still be detained with families on Christmas Island and on Nauru.

     

    Child abuse in religious institutions

    In Quebec, Canada an out-of-court settlement in a class-action lawsuit over sexual abuse by Catholic clergymen is the largest ever paid in the province. The Redemptorist Order of Catholic Priests was ordered to pay $20 million to dozens of victims of sexual abuse at its St-Alphonse Seminary near Quebec City for abuse committed during the 1970s and '80s. Since 2010, when Frank Tremblay launched the lawsuit, more than 100 victims - and counting - have come forward, whose lawyers allege there were systematic abuse and cover-ups at the private boarding school. Two of the alleged abusers were once principals at the school.

    A judge in Chile has barred a Catholic priest, who is facing claims he pressured single women to give up their babies for adoption, from leaving the country. Father Gerardo Joannon, 77, is alleged to have belonged to a network of clerics and doctors who gave the babies to married couples during the rule of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and '80s. The women who resisted were anaesthetised during labour and then told that their children had died during birth. Joannon’s archdiocese in the capital Santiago suspended him following the allegations, but after its own internal investigation only recommended that he apologise to the victims and go on a retreat to Spain "to initiate a process of psychological and spiritual accompaniment". However, Judge Mario Carroza has ordered Joannon stay in the country while a police investigation continues.

    Meanwhile a former principal of a Jewish Orthodox school in Melbourne, Australia is being extradited from Israel over claims that she sexually abused students. Former principal of the Adass Israel School, Malka Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 after the school board sacked her following complaints of inappropriate conduct with students. Ms Leifer is suspected of having committed more than 70 sex offences against three sisters between 2004 and 2008 at school, her home and at school camps. Legal action is being taken against both Ms Leifer and the Adass Israel School for breach of duty. 

     

    Child recruitment and health in armed conflicts

    The current conflict in South Sudan is “nothing less than a war on the children”, said the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) following an advocacy mission to the country almost two weeks ago to assess how children’s rights have been affected by the conflict. The committee’s findings show that children have been killed deliberately and thousands have been displaced, while attacks have targeted schools and hospitals. Recruitment of children is also carried out by both rebel forces and the national army. Government officials, however, claim that since the start of the conflict, children have approached them looking for protection and work.

    The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has left thousands of children traumatised across the Palestinian territory, with around 400,000 requiring immediate psychological treatment, the UN has said. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) currently has 200 psychotherapists working in up to 90 clinics in Gaza. Medics have said that some children with burns and shrapnel wounds sustained in Israeli shelling that hit their homes, stare at them blankly.

    Dozens of people in eastern Ukraine, including children, were killed as they fled fighting last week when their convoy of buses was hit by rocket fire. The convoy had been in an area of fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists when it is believed it came under fire from Grad and mortar launchers. The Ukrainian government accused rebels of targeting the convoy, which it said was bearing white flags when it was hit. The separatists denied responsibility for the attack.

    Armed groups in the Central African Republic released more than 100 children aged between eight and 17 from their ranks last week following negotiations with group leaders. The children were associated with the anti-Balaka armed groups who took up arms in retaliation for attacks from ex-Seleka forces. “As the conflict continues, the number of children being used in armed groups has increased dramatically,” said Souleymane Diabaté, UNICEF Representative in Central African Republic. The organisation remains concerned about the thousands of children who are associated with armed groups in the country, which could be as high as 10,000 according to the latest estimates.

     

    Russian coeliac families challenge food import ban

    People in Russia with wheat allergies have sent a petition to President Vladimir Putin to exclude gluten-free and dairy-free products from a ban on food imports from countries supporting sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian government retaliated to these sanctions by imposing a sweeping ban on fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy imports from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. Russia imports a staggering 70 per cent of food from abroad, including all gluten-free products. Autistic children will also be affected, as many follow a gluten-free diet.

     

    Blacklisting of ‘anti-Israeli’ organisation suspended

    Israel’s Justice Ministry has informed the organisation B’Tselem that the decision to stop allowing young people from working with it as a civilian alternative to military service has been put on hold. While all Israeli citizens must carry out three years conscription once they turn 18, the government has been increasing alternatives to military service to accommodate Orthodox Jews, Arab Israelis and pacifists with voluntary service programmes. But last week the head of the national body responsible for these non-military options, Sar-Shalom Jerby, blacklisted B’Tselem, which campaigns against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, because it had "crossed the line in wartime [by] campaigning and inciting against the state of Israel and the Israel Defence Force, which is the most moral of armies". However, Deputy Attorney General, Dina Zilber, said Jerby had overstepped his authority, while the Justice Ministry ordered that the ban be revoked and no steps taken to enforce it. The organisation said its current volunteer will complete his year-long service, and the organisation has begun interviewing candidates for next year.

    Previously, the B’Tselem challenged an Israel Broadcasting Authority ban on reporting the names of several Palestinian children who had died in Gaza on the radio because it was “politically controversial”. But the High Court upheld the ban on the same basis.

     

    Policing gender norms in schools

    Forcing children to adhere to rigid gender roles, with fixed ideas of what is considered “masculine” and “feminine”, is harmful to their health, according to a study that observed 14-year-olds’ interactions. “Usually we think of gender as natural and biological, but it’s not… We actually construct it in ways that have problematic and largely unacknowledged health risks,” said lead researcher Maria do Mar Pereira from the University of Warwick. Pereira observed how boys and girls regulated their behaviour in order to stick to gender norms. The study concluded, “this constant effort to manage one’s everyday life in line with gender norms produces significant anxiety, insecurity, stress and low self-esteem for both boys and girls.” Sociologists agree that children learn gender through social expectations, including from parents who try to over-correct their behaviour. Schools themselves are also complicit in policing gender stereotypes, with pupils even sent home for wearing the “wrong” type of clothing.

    Last week a transgender girl in the United States was reportedly told she would not be allowed back to her school unless she dressed as a boy. Rachel Pepe, 13, previously attended Thorne Middle School in the state of New Jersey as a male student. But when Rachel’s mother informed the school that her daughter would be returning to school as Rachel, a school official refused. On Monday, however, the head of the school district, William O. George said measures would be taken to ensure that Rachel could return to school in a safe environment. The organisation Garden State Equality praised Mr George “for taking the right steps to affirm the health and safety of students”.  According to the organisation, school staff would receive gender and sexuality sensitivity training. Research shows that school administrators rarely work to improve transgender students’ school experience because they are not properly equipped to deal with it. Earlier this year, the US Department of Education clarified that federal legislation which bans sex discrimination also extends to transgender students.

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    ACCESS TO JUSTICE CHILDREN IN VENEZUELA

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

    The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been incorporated into the laws of Venezuela, thereby allowing children to directly make use of it in national courts. International human rights treaties ratified by Venezuela have constitutional rank and precede national legislation insofar as they contain provisions concerning the enjoyment and exercise of rights that are more favorable than those established by the Constitution. The laws of Venezuela provide that legal assistance for children and their representatives shall always be free of cost, thereby helping children access the courts. Generally, court proceedings are initiated not by a child but on behalf of a child by a legal representative or guardian, who is required to act in the child's best interest. Proceedings can be brought by non-governmental organisations on behalf of child victims as well and special provisions exist to protect child witnesses when giving evidence.

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

    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

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

    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

    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

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    EMPLOYMENT

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

    Consortium for Street Children: Advocacy & Research Intern
    Location: London, United Kingdom
    Application deadline: 7 September 2014 

    ERRC: Legal Officer for Italy
    Location: Budapest, Hungary
    Application deadline: 16 September 2014

     

    Jargon of the Week: **Intersex(uality)**

    When discussing issues of gender and sexuality it’s important to use standard and established terminology, as small changes in language can lead to confusion or even misrepresentation of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. One example of this is the case of intersex persons, as new terms like “intersexuality” and “intersexual” can unintentionally give a misleading impression of what it means to be intersex.

    Intersex persons are born with varying degrees of physical differences in their genetalia. Usually seen as a medical “syndrome” or “condition” - rather than as a form of anatomical difference - surgery is often performed on intersex children at birth to “normalise” their genitals, assigning them with a male or female sexual identity, despite the possibility that the “assigned” identity may not correspond with children’s gender identity as they get older.

    Yet by adding “-sexuality” and “-sexual” on the end, the words incorrectly suggest that being an intersex person is a form of sexuality, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Not only is this inaccurate, but when it comes to intersex children who have yet to develop a clear sexual or gender identity, it is inappropriate.

    For more details on what is intersex, read the explanatory page by the OII Intersex Network here.

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