CRINmail 1401
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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Children’s freedom of opinion and expression
Children and young people are being ignored in high-level talks on climate change, despite the global need to involve them directly in efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, according to a new report by the UNICEF Office of Research. The report aims to broaden understanding of how children's rights are affected by this phenomenon, opening with the shocking estimate that children make up 80 percent of deaths linked to climate change. Ninety-nine percent of these take place in developing countries. The authors also examine the global threats to children, which include lack of food security and access to drinking water and sanitation facilities.
Meanwhile the UN expert on freedom of opinion and expression says that measures to restrict children’s rights with the alleged aim of protecting them are “disproportionate” and “undue”. In his latest report, which focuses exclusively on children’s rights, Frank La Rue, says States should strengthen efforts to uphold children’s right to freedom of expression and access to information. To this end, the report analyses international standards on the issue, looks at how these rights are violated, and presents examples of how to promote these rights. Among the examples are: encouraging children to organise and take part in politics, encouraging child-led advocacy, and ensuring children’s access to information from a range of sources.
On the last point, children increasingly view access to digital media as a fundamental human right, according to another report, which found that “children understand their digital rights as closely intertwined with their human rights more broadly,” as they see digital media as an inextricable component of their daily lives. Especially in developing countries, children are demanding better and freer access to information amid ongoing restrictions of internet freedom.
UN expert condemns States’ blocking of NGOs
The UN expert on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, has expressed concern over the apparent blocking of NGOs by certain States on the ECOSOC Committee of NGOs. Getting ECOSOC status allows NGOs to participate fully in the UN system. Without it, they are confined to the sidelines - unable to submit questions, attend UN sessions or hold side events in their own name. But some Committee members (which is made up of States) appear to have employed tactics to deny access to NGOs critical of governments and select their own jury at the UN. CRIN is among the organisations that the Special Rapporteur cites in his report as having been “arbitrarily deferred” for many years.
The Special Rapporteur says such States have acted in a manner contrary to the spirit of resolution 1996/31, which stipulates that the ECOSOC Committee “should ensure, to the extent possible, participation of non-governmental organisations ... in order to help to achieve a just, balanced, effective and genuine involvement of non-governmental organisations from all regions and areas of the world”. In his final recommendations, the Special Rapporteur urges the UN to reform the ECOSOC Committee “to prevent Member States from blocking accreditation applications with perpetual questioning and to unilaterally vetoing applications. The reform process should be guided by the principle that the United Nations functions best when it is accessible to the greatest diversity of voices possible.” Mr Kiai also calls on Member States to “[r]efrain from unduly preventing NGOs from obtaining accreditation with multilateral institutions, arbitrarily withdrawing accreditations, or deferring the examination of periodic reports of accredited organisations.”
This follows a campaign by CRIN and partners urging ECOSOC to stop blocking access to legitimate human rights organisations, among other features.
Further information:
Call for World Bank to improve child safeguards
In response to the World Bank’s first draft of its proposed safeguards policies - which are designed to identify and prevent the negative impacts of World Bank-funded projects - organisations are being invited to add their name to a joint civil society letter calling on the World Bank to strengthen its child rights protections. As the review of the safeguards enters its second phase, the joint letter welcomes the inclusion of provisions related to child protection - namely that children are identified as a vulnerable group. However, the joint letter also notes the need for the draft text to explicitly distinguish children’s age-related vulnerabilities from those of other vulnerable groups, and for impact assessments to specifically look at how World Bank projects impact children. Under the current draft, it is unclear if child-specific assessments will take place.
The letter also expresses “serious concerns about several structural weaknesses with the draft in terms of accountability for compliance with the safeguards, the presence of a number of loopholes allowing borrowers to avoid some safeguard requirements, and a lack of detail in terms of how the safeguards will be implemented.”
The deadline for endorsements is Friday, 31 October 2014.
If you would like your organisation to be included in the list of endorsing organisations, please email Jolie Schwarz, Programme Associate at the Bank Information Center at [email protected]
Further information:
Privacy concerns over infidelity DNA tests
India’s Supreme Court has ruled that a child’s DNA can be tested in order to determine the infidelity of his or her mother, in a move which activists and some political leaders have warned violates children’s and women’s right to privacy. The court’s verdict relates to a family dispute in which the husband sought divorce on the grounds of adultery after alleging that the child born during his marriage to his wife is not biologically his. The ruling stated that the use of a DNA test was the best way of “ascertaining the truth” in the case. The decision appears to sacrifice the best interests of the child to further those of the husband, according to Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a doctor based in Mumbai. Rights campaigners also say the verdict could set a “dangerous precedent,” with adultery often used by Indian men to justify domestic violence or divorce, not to mention the practice could potentially harm the reputation of innocent women, as well as increase harassment against them. A Supreme Court ruling cannot be appealed, but lawyers are permitted to file petitions for review.
Child labour reports resurface
International experts monitoring child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields have found no evidence of schoolchildren being forced to pick cotton, despite claims by local groups that child labour is still being used. Experts from the World Bank, which is funding projects in parts of the country, as well as from the International Labour Organization (ILO) have been assisting national monitoring groups in recording instances of child labour since September this year. This is the second time since 2013 that ILO monitors have not discovered children younger than 15 - the international minimum age for labour activities - working on cotton fields. However, according to local Radio Ozodlyk, schoolchildren in the Chirokchi and Samarkand areas were forced to pick cotton during the weekends or unplanned school holidays. Following the ILO’s scrutiny, more 16 and 17-year-olds and adults have been forced to work in the cotton fields than in previous years to compensate for the reduced (child) labour force, according to the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights.
In another case of institutional forced labour, campaigners in Switzerland have launched a petition to pressure the government to pay compensation to the thousands of people who were forced into child labour until the mid-1960s. In the first stages of Switzerland’s child welfare system, hundreds of thousands of Swiss children - known as Verdingkinder, meaning “contract children” - were forcibly removed from their families by the authorities and sent to work on farms as cheap labour. Believing to be acting in the best interests of the children, authorities allowed families to be deprived of custody if they did not fit the middle-class family model. Non-conforming families included poor households and unmarried mothers. Once on a farm, the children were forced to undertake hard agricultural labour, with many being regularly beaten, sexually abused, denied food as a form of punishment, with barely any access to education.
Female domestic workers in United Arab Emirates (UAE) are subjected to overwork, underpayment, hunger and forced labour and have been offered no protection by the wealthy gulf state, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The organisation blames the kafala system - which decrees that domestic workers cannot look for a new job before an existing contract ends without their employer’s consent - for trapping the workers in inhumane and degrading employment. There are at least 146,000 migrant domestic workers in UAE. Across the world children make up between 50-100 million of the domestic labour workforce. Fifteen States have so far ratified the International Labour Organization’s Domestic Workers Convention, the first global standards for the rights of domestic workers, including children. Read more on the campaign to encourage national governments to ratify the Convention.
Rwandan officials say many of the women and girls, and to a lesser extent boys, who are being trafficked for domestic and sex work both internally and abroad, end up in neighbouring countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, China, Europe and the United States.
Report finds most abuse committed by trusted people
In Afghanistan, a religious teacher (known as a mullah) who brutally raped a 10-year-old girl in his mosque has received a 20-year prison sentence, after being prosecuted under a 2009 law meant to fight violence against women. The verdict is seen as a victory for girls’ and women’s rights in a country where rape victims have long been accused of adultery. For instance, following her rape, the girl had to be moved to a safe shelter run by the organisation Women for Afghan Women after activists heard her family intended to kill her for the supposed shame she had brought on them. The organisation was instrumental in bringing her case to court and persuading family members to support her.
Child victims of violence in Cambodia are mostly harmed by people they know and who occupy positions of trust, with sexual abuse often committed by friends and neighbours rather than strangers, according to the first study of its kind in the East Asia and the Pacific region. The survey, which asked children and young people aged 13 to 24 in Cambodia about their experiences of physical, emotional and sexual violence before the age of 18, found that more than 50 percent of children in Cambodia have experienced at least one form of violence before the age of 18, while roughly a quarter have been emotionally abused. The study also found that the impact of violence against children resonates long after the abuse has ended and can affect their quality of life in the long-term.
Read more about the past year’s developments regarding violence against children in the annual report of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children.
Reining in use of restraint on children
Two private security companies, G4S and Serco, have been ordered to pay £100,000 in compensation to 14 children in the United Kingdom who were assaulted by staff while being detained in secure training centres between 2004 and 2008, resulting in the deaths of two of the teenagers. The public outcry over the deaths and the subsequent investigation by the British newspaper, The Guardian, resulted in more details emerging about the deaths. One of the teenagers was killed after being unlawfully restrained by three officers for refusing to clean a sandwich toaster, which he denied using. He was only 4ft 10in tall whilst one of the restraining officers was 6ft 1in. The other teenager killed himself after also being unlawfully restrained by four adult carers. It was found that staff in England and Wales were routinely using force to discipline children, which is against the terms of their contracts with government.
In Alaska, United States, a new law bans state-run schools from sedating students with drugs or placing them in restraint chairs or in positions where the child’s airway might be compromised. The ban is part of new statewide standards on the use of physical restraint and seclusion of students. Unlike before, when schools were left to formulate their own policies regarding what they believed to be “seclusion” and “restraint”, the new law specifically defines these terms. National data shows the practice of restraining or secluding students is widespread, with one study showing that children with disabilities were the subjects of these techniques in 75 percent of incidents. The new rules also require staff members to be trained in safe restraint techniques.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN GUATEMALA
Guatemala has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and incorporated the Convention into its national laws. Yet, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says that the laws currently in place in Guatemala are insufficiently enforced by the national courts. Under the Guatemalan constitution, human rights treaties take precedence over national law and courts regularly apply the CRC. Generally, court proceedings are initiated not by a child but on behalf of a child by a next friend or a guardian. Free legal assistance is available in cases concerning children’s rights and specialised juvenile courts, including a juvenile appellate court, deal with criminal and civil cases concerning children. Limitation periods for criminal proceedings only start after the victim turns 18 and children and their representatives can present criminal complaints directly to the courts if a prosecutor fails to do so. The courts have wide-reaching powers and can declare any law void which infringes children’s rights. Nonetheless, Guatemalan courts have been criticised for not permitting children to testify and coercion and corruption still play a role in the country’s legal system, especially with regard to indigenous communities.
Read the full report on access to justice for children in Guatemala.
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
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
Street children: 'Do I count if you count me? A critical look at counting street-connected children'
Organisation: Consortium for Street Children
Date: 4 November 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom
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
Childhood poverty: Advancing equity for children - Perspectives from the ‘Young Lives’ study
Organisation: Equity for Children, The New School
Date: 5 November 2014
Location: New York City, United States
Protection: E-learning course on Child Safeguarding
Organization: HREA - Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 5 November - 16 December 2014
Location: Online
Emergencies: E-learning course on Education in Emergencies
Organization: HREA - Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 5 November - 16 December 2014
Location: Online
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
Education: ‘The relevance of children's rights in a higher education context'
Organisation: Institute of Education, University of London
Date: 19 November 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom
Migrant detention: ‘End Immigration Detention of Children in Asia’ - Call for Film Submissions
Organisation: Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network
Date: 20 November 2014
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Course: Master of Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights
Organisation: University Institute Kurt Bösch
Application deadline: 20 November 2014
Location: Sion, Switzerland
Transnational child protection: The role of judges, social services and central authorities
Organisation: Council of Baltic Sea States
Date: 25 - 26 November 2014
Location: Riga, Latvia
Investment: 'Children First - Better Public Spending for Better Outcomes for Children & Families'
Organisation: Eurochild
Date: 26-28 November 2014
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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
CRIN: Communications Intern (Spanish-speaking)
Location: N/A
Application deadline: 10 November 2014
Consortium for Street Children: Advocacy Manager
Location: London, United Kingdom
Application deadline: 3 November 2014
Child Rights Connect: Director
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Application deadline: 6 November 2014
Child Soldiers International: Campaign manager
Application deadline: 16 November 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom
LEAK OF THE WEEK
Every year in the run up to Halloween, sweets in Russia get swapped for sour grapes, as jolly politicians come up with new reasons to ban celebrations in parts of the country.
In 2012, is was because the holiday allegedly "poses a great danger to children".
In 2013, the reason given was that Halloween "breeds extremism".
And this year, it’s because celebrations can "degenerate into orgies".
We'll report back in 2015 with the next totally non-irrational reason.
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