CRINmail 1411

In this issue:

View this CRINmail on our website. 

LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Children in conflict with the law

The execution of a man in Pakistan who was tortured into ‘confessing’ to manslaughter as a child has been stayed following weeks of campaigning by rights groups. Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death in 2004 when he was 14 years old for involuntary manslaughter over his alleged involvement in the killing of a 7-year-old boy, despite reporting that he 'confessed' to the crime after nine days of torture. Shafqat was due to be hanged on 14 January 2015, but the sentence has been halted pending an investigation ordered by interior minister Chaudhry Nisar into errors made in this case. Now activists are working to annul Shafqat’s sentence altogether. He is among the 500 prisoners on death row facing imminent execution after Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The organisation Reprieve believes more juveniles may also be facing imminent death at the hands of the State. 

In Egypt, a 16-year-old boy is facing a military trial for allegedly taking part in unauthorised demonstrations. Seif al-Islam Osama Shousha was arrested in March 2014 and subsequently charged with, among other things, “belonging to a terrorist group [the Muslim Brotherhood]”. In October last year a presidential decree was issued under which acts broadly deemed to “threaten the safety and security of the country” may fall under the authority of military courts. The organisation Alkarama has appealed to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to urge Egyptian authorities not to try the boy in a military court. The organisation also calls on authorities to stop placing civilians before military courts. Alkarama additionally highlights that there are a number of cases of children facing military trials, including that of Mohamed Ihab who was arrested in 2011 when he was 16 years old and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

A 14-year-old girl in Hong Kong, China, who was arrested and held at a children’s home for allegedly drawing flowers on a wall near government headquarters was freed after a public outcry. Notably, the wall was the same one that was plastered with notes of support for the Occupy democracy movement. Following the girl’s arrest, police filed a protection order, hence why she was sent to a children’s home. But one of the girl’s lawyers said that police did not consult social workers or show evidence that she was not well cared for at home, leading some commentators to suggest that the girl’s arrest was politically motivated. There are other similar cases, for example a 14-year-old boy who was arrested at a protest camp in November could also be removed from his parents’ care.

In response to calls in India to lower the age of criminal responsibility and try juveniles as adults for serious offences, Penal Reform International and UNICEF India have released a report on appropriate responses to juveniles who commit such offences. Download the report: “When the crime overshadows the child - international standards and national practice in reconciling serious crime and childhood”.

Meanwhile CRIN is organising a high-level panel discussion on Wednesday, 28 January from 16:45 to 18:00 pm in Geneva during the World Congress on Juvenile Justice. The panel entitled “Stop making children criminals: the ‘minimum age’ debate - separating ‘responsibility’ from ‘criminalisation’” will be chaired by Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. The panelists will discuss a paper published by CRIN to encourage a new debate about the setting of minimum ages of criminal responsibility and the design of systems which keep children out of the criminal justice system, focusing exclusively on their rehabilitation.

Girl forced to undergo chemotherapy

In the United States, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that a 17-year-old girl must undergo chemotherapy against her will. The girl, referred to as "Cassandra C",  was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma last September and withstood two rounds of chemotherapy before asking for the treatment to be stopped. Doctors say she has an 85 percent chance of survival with the treatment, but without it, is almost certain to die within two years. The court rejected the argument that she should be treated as a "mature minor", i.e. a minor who has the maturity and therefore the legal right to choose or reject a particular medical treatment. The idea of a mature minor is settled law in some US states, but not in Connecticut. However, the girl's mother, Jackie Fortin, expressed support for her daughter's choice, saying the family wanted to consider alternative treatments: "My daughter ran away because she didn't want chemo, didn't want poisons and toxins put into her body...that doesn't make her immature." 

Nigeria ‘deadliest’ attack on civilians

In Nigeria in the first week of January, Islamist fighters of the insurgent movement Boko Haram attacked the northern town of Baga, killing around 2,000 people in what Amnesty International described as possibly the deadliest massacre in the group’s history. District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims in the attack were children, women or elderly people who were not able to escape when insurgents forced their way into the town by firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Some 7,000 others fled into neighboring Chad, according to the UN refugee agency. Meanwhile last weekend, at least 19 people were killed in a bomb blast at a crowded market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, with reports suggesting that a child was used as a suicide bomber for the attack. The attacks come five weeks ahead of presidential elections, which are expected to trigger even more bloodshed. 

Birth registration, nationality & surrogacy

A new draft constitution in Nepal includes proposals to bar single parents from passing on their citizenship to their children. The draft text also asserts that parents in a two-parent family must both be Nepalese for their child to acquire citizenship, which is needed to access a host of other rights in the country, from securing a driving licence to a bank account. This would overturn a 2006 act that says children are entitled to citizenship provided that one parent is Nepalese. The Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) says the development would affect one million children, with more than 90 percent of those affected living with single mothers. While the bill provides exceptions in some cases where the child's father is unknown, such as in cases of rape, the burden of proof would still rest with the mother, according to the FWLD. 

An Italian court has for the first time recognised the legal status of a child born to a gay couple. The boy was conceived by artificial insemination and born in Barcelona to a Spanish and Italian lesbian couple. Overturning a 2013 verdict that the birth could not be legally recognised in Italy, the appeals court in Turin ordered that the birth be registered in the town where the Italian woman lives as this was “in the best interest of the child”. The ruling, which was issued in October but only made public this month, effectively gives the child Italian citizenship and the right to live in Italy with his mother, who is now divorced from her Spanish former wife. Same sex marriage is legal in Spain and, under Spanish law, both women in the case are recognised as the boy’s mothers. While Italy does not allow gay marriage or civil partnerships and the government has yet to legislate on same-sex parenting, some courts and town councils have started to recognise the validity of same-sex marriages contracted abroad. 

In December Germany’s highest court recognised a child of a gay couple born through surrogacy abroad. The child, who was born to a surrogate mother in California using one of the men’s sperm, was registered in the United States as the child of the two men and a California court recognised the couple as the legal parents of the child. Upon returning to Germany, however, the authorities refused to register the child’s birth or the couple as the child’s parents, a decision which was upheld by lower courts on the basis that surrogacy agreements are against public policy. The German Supreme Court ruled that the decisions of foreign authorities in such matters must be respected as "part of a child's welfare to be able to rely on the parents to have continuous responsibility for its well-being". Although surrogacy remains illegal in Germany, this ruling means that German authorities must now register the births of children born using such procedures abroad and recognise the intended parents as legal parents where the kinship between the child and the parents has been legally recognised by foreign authorities. For more information, see CRIN’s case summary. 

Access to education in Liberia, Syria & the UK

The Liberian government has announced that schools will be reopened in February now that the number of new Ebola infections is declining. All schools had been closed throughout the curfew that was put in place in September last year following the second outbreak of the Ebola virus in August. The influx of medical staff, together with the training of Liberian health workers, has led to a significant reduction in infections. However, Ebola survivors, including children and their families, report experiencing discrimination and social stigma as fear of infection continues to hold sway.  

An estimated 670,000 children in Syria are being denied access to education by ISIS forces, while the group works on changing the curriculum to fit with “religious rules”, according to a new UNICEF report. The Islamic group plans to eliminate all subjects which are considered “blasphemous”, including mathematics, philosophy and chemistry. But it will introduce the teaching of Islam and force teachers to undergo re-training, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. News reports also show that armed attacks on Syrian schools by ISIS fighters have left 160 pupils dead and at least 343 wounded. 

A children’s rights group in the United Kingdom is challenging new guidance to headteachers whereby schoolchildren in England can be expelled for being 'detrimental' to the education or welfare of fellow pupils. Previously, expulsions were allowed only if a pupil posed a serious threat. The organisation Just for Kids Law says the new guidance removes the emphasis of expulsion as a measure of last resort. Activists fear certain groups are more likely to be expelled, including boys and children with special needs, or from low-income families or ethnic minorities. The policy also gives headteachers overly broad discretion in expulsion cases, with activists fearing it could lead to more cases like that of a six-year-old boy who was excluded last year from a Church of England primary school for having a bag of Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox in violation of the school’s new healthy eating policy. Activists also warn that parents wishing to challenge a school exclusion often cannot afford to pay legal fees as a result of legal aid being cut for most education-related cases.

Sexuality, gender and abuse

In Chile, a court has dismissed a challenge brought by a religious organisation against the distribution of a children’s book featuring same-sex parents. The book “Nicolas has two dads” was published earlier this year to introduce the theme of different sexual orientations and equality to pre-schools across the country. The petition is one of five to have challenged the distribution of the book, with claimants alleging that it violates children’s right to freedom of conscience by attempting to “indoctrinate” them into accepting homosexuality. But the Court said that there is no set definition of a family in Chile’s Constitution and that the Convention on the Rights of the Child conceives of the existence of a variety of family types. This is the second challenge to the book which has been rejected by the Chilean courts. Three others are currently pending. 

Calls for sex and reproductive health education in schools are increasing in Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago and Kenya, where advocates say the best way to combat the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the rising rate of teen pregnancies, and recognise and prevent sexual abuse is through education.

Finally, a school in Sweden was criticised for getting students to answer a 'slut shaming' test on sex education. The test, which contained over a hundred questions on love, sex and relationships for students aged 13 or 14, included an exercise in which the ‘correct’ word to describe girls who sleep around was “mattress”. Previously in the US, female students protested and conducted school walkouts over “sexist” dress codes, which they say are designed to “humiliate” them for not covering up. According to one journalist, the language used in the dress codes reinforces the idea that women’s bodies are inherently tempting to men and it is their responsibility to cover themselves up. In one school in New York, an anonymous leaflet was handed out among staff which read: “It’s hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.”

Back to top

ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN BULGARIA

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by Bulgaria and forms part of national law, making it directly enforceable in the courts. Children over the age of 14 can file civil cases to challenge violations of their rights, but only with parental consent. Cases on behalf of children younger than 14 must be filed by the parent or legal guardian. There is a right to legal aid for any matter concerning the rights and interests of the child. In addition to the national courts, children can turn to the Ombudsman and the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination, as well as the European Court on Human Rights.

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

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.

Back to top

UPCOMING EVENTS

Juvenile Justice: Interrogations of Young Suspects in the EU
Organisation: Maastricht University
Date: 16 January 2015
Location: Maastricht, the Netherlands

Child rights: 25th anniversary of the UK's ratification of the CRC
Organisation: Oxford Brookes University
Dates: 21 January 2015
Location: Oxford, United Kindom 

Juvenile justice: World Congress on Juvenile Justice - Towards restorative justice?
Organisation: Terre des hommes et al.
Date: 26-30 January 2015
Location: Geneva, Switzerland 

Safeguarding: E-learning course on child safeguarding
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 28 January-10 March 2015
Location: Online

Emergencies: E-online course on education in emergencies
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 4 March-14 April 2015
Location: Online

Online safety: Protecting children on the internet
Organisation: Policy Knowledge
Date: 4 March 2014
Location: London, United Kingdom

Americas: Request for hearings for the 154th IACHR session
Organisation: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Event dates: 13-27 March 2014
Location: Washington DC, United States

Health & well-being: Eradicating Child Poverty in the UK
Organisation: Public Policy Exchange
Date: 18 March 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom

Child abuse: 9th Latin American Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Organisation: International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Dates: 26-29 April 2015
Location: Toluca, Mexico

Bodily integrity: 2015 Genital Autonomy conference
Organisation: Genital Autonomy
Dates: 8-9 May 2015
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Street children: International Conference on the Legal Needs of Street Youth
Organisation: American Bar Association et al.
Date: 16-17 June 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom 

Back to top

EMPLOYMENT

International Rescue Committee: Reading Advisor
Location: Islamabad, Pakistan
Application Deadline: N/A

LOVE146: Residential deputy manager
Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom
Application Deadline: Until filled

LOVE146: Safe accommodation live-in worker
Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom
Application Deadline: Until filled

LEAK OF THE WEEK

Back to top