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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Trafficking, migration & legal aid in Europe
Up to 100 children were among 500 migrants who drowned off the coast of Malta last week after traffickers capsized their boat, in what has been described as the most deadly migrant shipwreck in years. According to survivors’ testimonies, their boat was “rammed” by the smugglers after the migrants, who were making the treacherous journey from Egypt to Italy, refused to change to a smaller, less seaworthy boat. “After they hit our boat they waited to make sure that it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing,” one survivor told the International Organisation for Migration. More than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing attempting to cross from Africa to Europe in 2014, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. In several incidents survivors have said traffickers overfilled rickety boats or locked people below decks to suffocate.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union Home Affairs Commissioner, insisted Member States must be “willing […] to create more legal ways to Europe, such as accepting more resettled refugees,” so that migrants do not resort to more dangerous routes to reach Europe’s coasts. In a recent report by Amnesty International, EU States are pushing those potentially seeking asylum to take increasingly dangerous routes to reach Europe through measures to keep irregular migrants out, regardless of their motives.
Unaccompanied children in Europe face a number of obstacles in accessing legal assistance, such as a lack of information, or a lack of support, according to a comparative report by the European Council of Refugees and Exiles and other partners. The research shows that despite legal assistance being provided for by law in a number of migration and asylum procedures, it is rarely available in cases where the age of a migrant is disputed or during an age assessment. The research examined the legislation and practice in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and included interviews with unaccompanied children. The key findings are available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Bulgarian.
Hundreds of children in Gaza left disabled
Hundreds of children in Gaza have been left with physical disabilities from injuries sustained during the recent Israeli-Palestinian war. The conflict left 501 children dead, 3,374 injured, and 1,500 orphaned. Preliminary estimates from the Palestinian Ministry of Health indicate that up to 1,000 of the injured children will have a permanent disability. Ismail Nasser, the chief paediatric surgeon at Gaza’s main hospital for trauma victims, said most of the children he operated on during the war suffered severe injuries from shrapnel or from being trapped in collapsed houses.
“There is a huge number of children with special needs for rehabilitation, prosthetics, surgery and medical care,” said Steve Sosebee, president of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). Making the situation more critical, he added, is the destruction of Gaza’s only rehabilitation clinic by Israeli airstrikes. In 2011 a survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics found that more than half of those with disabilities in Gaza said they had difficulty performing duties outside their homes or just crossing the road. School attendance is also a concern for children with disabilities in Gaza, with more than half illiterate.
Meanwhile Israeli authorities are unwilling to investigate human rights violations committed by security forces against Palestinians, according to B’Tselem and Yesh Din, the two leading Israeli human rights organisations monitoring the investigations of offences committed by security forces against Palestinians.
Call to enfranchise under-18s
Although the majority of Scottish voters last week chose for the country to remain within the United Kingdom, the independence referendum was “the greatest democratic experience in Scotland’s history”, according to outgoing first minister, Alex Salmond, in which many 16- and 17-year-olds took part. He said the referendum campaign resulted in Scotland having the most politically engaged population in western Europe. In the wake of the referendum, Mr Salmond called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 in UK general elections, saying: “There is an overwhelming, indeed an unanswerable, case for giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote in all future elections in Scotland, indeed across the United Kingdom.” According to a post-referendum survey, a significant factor in voters’ decisions appears to have been age, with just 27 percent of over-65s voting “Yes” for independence, compared to a staggering 71 percent of under-18s.
High school students in the United States care more about freedom of speech than adults, including their teachers, according to a recent survey by the Knight Foundation. Among its findings, the poll, in which 10,463 high school students took part, shows that students who consume the most news online were the most supportive of free expression, the majority of those familiar with the Edward Snowden debate support his actions, and more than 60 percent agreed that students should be able to report on controversial subjects in their school newspaper without needing approval from school authorities. Jon Sotsky, director of strategy and assessment for the Knight Foundation, thinks high school students might be more supportive of freedom of speech because they see themselves as the creators of content and not just the consumers.
In Lebanon, 30 teenagers from across the country have been elected to a National Youth Parliament on the basis of their political platforms, as part of an initiative to encourage children to exercise their democratic rights. Those elected will work across Lebanon to address youth-related issues and encourage young people’s civic engagement. In a 2011 interview, members of the Youth Clubs in Lebanon told CRIN that their most important rights are the right to education, the right to protection from abuse, and the right to participation and freedom of expression. “But the most important of all is freedom because it will allow children to speak more openly about all of these rights.” They added that “Educated children who have the right to participate become more responsible; they become active in achieving their rights instead of being passive receivers of rights!”
A recent spate of targeted killings in the city of Benghazi, Libya included two teenage activists last week. Sami El-Kawafi, 17, and Tawfik Bensaud 18, both supporters of the Libyan Youth Movement, were gunned down as they drove through central Benghazi. While the identity of the gunmen is not known, radical Islamic militias have been blamed for frequent killings of secular activists, judges, moderate clerics, policemen and soldiers in Benghazi. Residents say the militants have checkpoints outside the city that control who goes in and out.
Mass student protests have also taken place in Hong Kong, China over proposals to restrict how many and which candidates can stand for local elections, with pro-Beijing loyalists being favoured. High school students are expected to join a boycott of classes for a day on Friday.
Militarisation and religion in schools
A number of “problematic” schools in the Brazilian state of Goiás have been “militarised”, advocates have warned, as part of a state government plan to curb violence in schools. In practice, military officers are now in charge of the management of the schools. The curriculum remains under the supervision of the education department, yet subjects such as citizenship studies and military physical education have been introduced in the curriculum. Students must also wear military uniform, and there are guidelines restricting hairstyles. Critics say that the military model does not work, and trying “to solve violence through fear of repression does not deal with the real problems,” said Miriam Abramovay, coordinator of the Brazilian Observatory of Violence in Schools.
A Satanist group in the United States says it will hand out religious pamphlets to students at Orange County schools in Florida in protest over the dissemination of Bibles in the school district by evangelical Christians. The Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves said: "If a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students [...] we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions." The school district, which has twice allowed a Christian group to pass out bibles to students, says it has not yet received a formal request from the temple, but officials say they reserve the right to review materials. Under the US Constitution, school districts can prevent outside groups from distributing literature to its students. But once they allow a single group to do so, there are strict limits on their ability to exclude other groups whose viewpoints they may disagree with.
In May, Chinese authorities issued a new rule prohibiting religious organisations or groups from indoctrinating abandoned or orphaned children under their care. The government said it welcomes the philanthropic work carried out by religious groups, but that supervision of social organisations, including religious ones, must be strengthened “to protect children’s rights”. The new government rule also says that religious groups’ accommodation for orphaned or abandoned children should have stable financial resources, sufficient manpower, fire prevention capability and hygiene and disease control. Two staff members of the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, Henan province, said that the 120 children under its care enjoy the freedom to choose their religion and are never forced to become vegetarians or to read Buddhist teachings. The children are, however, encouraged to learn Confucian classics and Shaolin kung fu on the weekends. Chinese authorities, however, are known to persecute some religious groups, including Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, and Buddhists.
Abduction and exile compensation in Argentina
Argentina’s Supreme Court has ruled that children born to political exiles should be seen as victims of the military dictatorship and therefore entitled to compensation. The decision came in relation to the case of the two daughters of a couple who fled Argentina out of fear for their lives during its last military dictatorship (1976 to 1983). Around 30,000 people were killed or abducted during this period. A lower court had previously denied the women compensation under Law 24,043, passed in 1991, which allows for money to be paid to political prisoners held in illegal custody during the dictatorship, as it said the women, who were born in Peru, had not been deprived of their freedom. But the Supreme Court Justices said “Neither the children nor the exiles decided to stay in a foreign country voluntarily. [...] The plaintiffs were forced — as a direct consequence of the illegal state action — to be raised in a different social and cultural background, that also affected their family ties.” The Supreme Court said judges in the country should have a broader understanding of the meaning of “detention”, to not only consider those who were held in clandestine prisons.
Also a first in Argentina, a number of health professionals are to face prosecution for their role in clandestine deliveries of children of political prisoners during the dictatorship. At least 500 women were known to be pregnant before they were disappeared, with military authorities falsifying paperwork for illegal adoptions by people sympathetic to the regime. In some cases, the children were even raised by their parents’ killers. The three doctors in the case are accused of stealing nine babies, five of whom were able to regain their true identity. In 2012, former Argentinian dictators Reynaldo Bignone and Jorge Videla (who died in 2013) were sentenced to 15 years and 50 years in prison respectively over the regime’s theft of babies.
Read more about the involvement of medical practitioners in human rights abuses.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN TUNISIA
In this week’s instalment of our access to justice report series, we look at children’s access to justice in Tunisia.
The CRC was automatically incorporated into the national law of Tunisia following its ratification. It takes precedence over conflicting domestic law, and has been cited in a number of court decisions. Children may bring civil cases for damages, lodge criminal complaints, or bring cases before the family court, but only through their official tutor, who is the child’s father. In “matters of special urgency” and in case of “danger at home”, however, a child aged over 13 may bring an independent action for damages. The minimum age for a child to give testimony is also 13. Alternatively, complaints about child rights violations may be submitted to the Tunisian High Committee on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Although the 2014 Constitution envisages a Constitutional Court that can hear complaints about violations of fundamental rights referred to it by another court, the status of the Constitutional Court is unclear, and it appears that individuals are not permitted to seek redress directly before this Court.
Read the full report on access to justice for children in Tunisia.
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
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
Workshop: Monitoring Children’s Rights workshop
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Date: 13-15 October 2014
Location: Brussels, Belgium
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 labour: Course on eliminating harmful practices in agriculture
Organisation: International Labour Organization
Date: 27-31 October 2014
Location: Turin, Italy
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
Poverty: Understanding child and youth poverty - Beyond ‘business as usual’
Organisation: Development Studies Association
Date: 1 November 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom
Child labour: Course on ‘Laws, policies and reporting tools - supporting the fight against child labour’
Organisation: International Labour Organization
Dates: 3-7 November 2014
Location: Turin, Italy
Juvenile justice: ‘Deprivation of Children’s Liberty a Last Resort - Towards Juvenile Justice Guidelines in Asia Pacific and Beyond’
Organisation: IJJO - International Juvenile Justice Observatory
Date: 5-6 November 2014
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Pro bono work: 2014 European Pro Bono Forum
Organisation: PILnet - Global Network for Public Interest Law
Date: 5-7 November 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom
Gender: 2nd MenEngage Global Symposium 2014
Organisation: MenEngage
Date: 10-13 November 2014
Location: New Delhi, India
Childhood: 6th World congress on childhood and adolescence
Organisation: Various
Date: 12-14 November 2014
Location: La Puebla, Mexico
Children's rights: International conference - 25 Years CRC
Organisation: Leiden University et al.
Date: 17-19 November 2014
Location: Leiden, Netherlands
Courts: Children’s rights moot court competition
Organisation: Leiden University
Date: 18-20 November 2014
Location: Leiden, Netherlands
Juvenile justice: ‘Making deprivation of children’s liberty a last resort - Towards evidence-based policies & alternatives’
Organisation: International Juvenile Justice Observatory
Event date: 3-4 December 2014
Location: Brussels, Belgium
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EMPLOYMENT
CRIN: Communications Intern (French-speaking)
Location: N/A
Application deadline: 28 September 2014
Save the Children Sweden: Deputy Response Team Leader (SHARP programme)
Location: West Africa
Application deadline: 28 September 2014
LEAK OF THE WEEK
North Korea seems to think that human rights are an intercountry racket game of “you’re worse, we’re better. No, you’re worse, we’re better”. At least this is what the State has demonstrated by publishing its own report on its human rights record, which it paints in a, to say the least, rosy colour.
Contrary to a UN February report on the country’s human rights abuses, which said that the State was committing violations “without any parallel in the contemporary world," this latest North Korean report - published by the dubiously named Association for Human Rights Studies - seems to think that the country has “the world's most advantageous human rights system."
At 53,558 words, it’s a gruelling read. More gruelling, however, is the authors’ sense of twisted irony as they remind readers of the basic human rights enshrined - on paper - in the North Korean Constitution. The report also lists a number of "civil rights," including the right to fair trial and the right to be free from slavery and torture. According to the report, citizens also apparently have socio-economic and cultural rights, including the right to work (does this include in forced labour camps?); the right to rest (does this include rest from forced labour?); and the right to free medical care and social security (does this include medical treatment for injuries sustained by forced labourers and through torture?).
The only time the report makes a fair point is in the conclusion, where it arguably acknowledges that the report won’t convince anyone: “How to accept the truth here depends on the views of people. What’s clear here is that truth always remains as it is and it won’t lose its nature even though it is sometimes denied or fabricated.” So true, North Korea, so true...
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