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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Cabo Verde bans all corporal punishment
Cabo Verde has banned all forms of corporal punishment of children, including within the family. As part of article 31 of the Law on Children and Adolescents 2013, which entered into force this year, parents must, “In exercising the right to correction [...] always keep in mind the rights of children and adolescents to an upbringing free from violence, corporal punishment, psychological harm and any other measures affecting their dignity, which are all inadmissible.” Until now, corporal punishment was a criminal offence in all public and private institutions under the Civil Code, but it remained lawful in the home and other care settings. With the new reform, Cabo Verde has become the sixth African State and the fortieth worldwide to fully protect children from all corporal punishment by law.
Further information:
Responses to cases of child abuse
Vicars of the Church of England in the United Kingdom could be allowed to report serious crimes they hear about during confessions, including confessions of sexual abuse, if changes to the law of the Church of England are introduced later this year. Confessing sins to a vicar or priest has carried a pact of secrecy for more than 400 years. But the move is part of a drive to report serious crimes and stop protecting abusers. The proposal, which is set to be debated in November at the General Synod, the governing body of the church, follows the new model by the Anglican Church in Australia, which will allow priests to report offences to the police if the confessor refuses to turn themselves in. Church of English bishops in the UK are themselves facing questioning as part of a nationwide inquiry into abuse in institutions.
A bishop in Paraguay has been defrocked for protecting a priest suspected of sexual abusing young parishioners. Monsignor Rogelio Livieres Plano, now former bishop of Ciudad del Este, was sacked following a Vatican investigation of the bishop, the diocese and its seminaries. The priest in question had been described by his former Catholic Church superiors in the United States as "a serious threat to young people".
Migrants held in the Nauru detention centre have made claims that guards have sexual abused women and children at the facility, including with threats of rape. Among the allegations are reports that guards told female migrants they must expose their bodies if they wanted to shower for longer than two minutes, guards offered illicit drugs in return for sex from migrants, and two underage asylum seekers were to forced have sex in front of a guard.
Meanwhile a school in the south Indian state of Kerala has been ordered to shut following reports that a teacher locked a five-year-old boy in a kennel for talking in class. Kerala state authorities have ordered an investigation into the incident.
Vogue Kids accused of sexualising child models
A judge in Brazil ordered that the August edition of Vogue Kids - which is included as a supplement in the larger magazine Vogue Brazil - be removed from the shelves over complaints about the publication of photographs of underage girls in sexualised poses. "These are girls in sexy poses and [there is] a clear premature sexualisation of these children," said psychologist Lais Fontenelle from the Alana Institute in Brazil. She also points out that advertising targeted at children is prohibited by Conanda, the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents.
Teen magazines have been at the centre of debate over the sexualisation of children. Similar arguments were also behind France’s ban on child beauty pageants last year, and criticism of an underwear line that markets ‘sexy bras’ for four-year-olds and how cosmetics firms are targeting children with their advertising.
In August, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Farida Shaheed published her report on “The impact of commercial advertising and marketing practices on the enjoyment of cultural rights”. The report addresses how advertising can contribute to the promotion of detrimental behaviours, attitudes and stereotypes, including the impact that images of women as sex symbols have on the health of young girls.
Discrimination on school grounds
Hungary’s Equal Treatment Authority (ETA) found a school guilty of unlawful discrimination for rejecting the application of a boy because he was raised by same-sex parents. Following interviews with the 13-year-old and one of his mothers, an email from a teacher at Kispest Waldorf School to the family stated that “due to their family status” the child could not be admitted. School authorities upheld the teacher’s decision. After the family turned to the ETA with the help of the Háttér Society, the school claimed that their decision was in the best interests of the boy to prevent potential bullying. The ETA rejected this argument, stating: “It should be one of the aims of schools to teach children tolerance towards each other [...] The school’s behaviour ran against acceptance and inclusion, and the inability of a teacher to handle such a conflict cannot serve as an excuse.”
In China, more than 80 percent of the approximately 500,000 school-aged children with disabilities from migrant families have never attended school, in part because schools possess a disproportionate power of discretion when it comes to deciding which students they accept. Twenty Chinese organisations have sent a letter to the Ministry of Education urging authorities to amend the 1994 Education Bill of Individuals with Disabilities, which they say is sorely out of date. The letter urges the government to reduce schools’ discretionary powers, take provisions to penalise schools which reject children with disabilities, and make legal aid available to migrant families with disabled children so that they can challenge a school’s enrolment decision. Part of the problem also lies with China’s household registration system, which categorises migrant families as second-class citizens.
In Canada, Quebec’s Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission is investigating “systemic discrimination” in schools against students with special needs. The commission has received more than 350 complaints relating to children with special needs since 2000, with three-quarters of these alleging an improper assessment of of students’ needs. The investigation will determine how well schools in Quebec are implementing the province’s policy on the integration of disabled children in the school system.
More States ratify complaints mechanism
Andorra, Ireland and Monaco have become the latest States to ratify and accede to the UN’s complaints mechanism for children. Ratification of the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure (OP3) will allow children and their representatives to bring complaints to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and seek justice when their national legal system cannot provide a remedy for violations of their rights. The Committee will then investigate a complaint, and can ask governments to take action. The other States that have ratified so far are: Albania, Belgium, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Gabon, Germany, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Thailand. A further 36 States have signed the OP3, indicating their support and intention to ratify the Protocol.
You can track the latest ratification news through the ratification around the world home page.
Also download CRIN’s guide to the complaints mechanism.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN THE BAHAMAS
The Bahamas ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child but has not incorporated it into national law, meaning that the rights granted by the Convention cannot be relied on in court. Children are only able to bring cases through a representative who in practice is often their parent or legal guardian. It is not possible to bring a case for violation of children’s rights without naming a specific victim. A serious obstacle to access to justice in the country is the lack of any state legal aid programme. Few organisations provide free legal services and the costs of legal proceedings are prohibitively expensive for the average person. Lastly, The Bahamas is not a party to the American Convention on Human Rights and does not therefore recognise the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
Read the full report on access to justice in The Bahamas.
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
Workshop: Monitoring Children’s Rights workshop
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Date: 13-15 October 2014
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Detention: Special panel discussion on children deprived of liberty
Organisation: Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty
Date: 14 October 2014
Location: New York, United States
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
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
Palliative care: 2nd Congress on Paediatric Palliative Care
Organisation: Maruzza Foundation
Date: 19-21 November 2014
Location: Rome, Italy
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
Discrimination: ‘Children’s right to non-discrimination’
Organisation: CREAN - Children’s Rights Erasmus Academic Network
Date: 4-5 December 2014
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
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EMPLOYMENT
Coram Children's Legal Centre: Paralegal/ Legal Advisor
Location: Colchester, United Kingdom
Application deadline: 6 October 2014
UNICEF Somalia: Consultant on Development of alternative care policy
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Application deadline: 7 October 2014
LEAK OF THE WEEK
SpongeBob SquarePants is once again standing trial in the court of morality, this time under charges of hooliganism.
Kazakhstan’s education ministry called SpongeBob “self-absorbed” and “violent”, and is advising parents not to let their children watch the cartoon. SpongeBob “regularly inflicts violence on others in his community and seems to enjoy what he does,” said Zabira Orazaliyeva, who oversees children's rights at the Kazakh Education and Science Ministry. In particular, he “beats up his neighbour [and] misbehaves.” “This hooligan behaviour stays in the child’s mind. They [see SpongeBob] as a role model and try to re-enact [his behaviour] in real life,” said Orazaliyeva.
This is not the first time SpongeBob, who lives in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom, has got himself into hot water. In 2012, Ukranian conservatives called for the show to be banned, as it was perceived to promote homosexuality and was “a real threat to children”. Apparently StraightPants were more in fashion at the time.
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