CRINmail 1412

In this issue:

View this CRINmail on our website. 

LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Somalia ratifies child rights treaty

Somalia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), becoming the 195th State to do so. Although the country’s children face ongoing challenges posed by conflict, displacement, disease, malnutrition and child mortality, Somalia’s ratification has been unanimously welcomed by UN agencies and NGOs alike as an important step towards improving respect for children’s rights.

This latest ratification leaves conflict-torn South Sudan and the United States as the only States in the world yet to ratify the CRC. In November 2013, the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly passed a bill agreeing to ratify the treaty, but official ratification has since been pending as the country deals with ongoing armed conflict. Progress has been significantly slower in the US - even though the State signed the treaty in 1995 - because conservative groups continue to oppose ratification. A campaign seeks to encourage lawmakers to ratify the CRC.

Corporal punishment as a criminal sentence

The High Court of Zimbabwe has abolished corporal punishment as a sentence against juvenile offenders, saying the practice is unconstitutional, as well as being globally regarded as a form of violence. The ruling came in relation to a case involving a 15-year-old boy who was found guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl and sentenced to be caned. In reviewing the boy’s case, Justice Esther Muremba cited the Constitution’s protection of citizens from physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to bodily and psychological integrity which includes the right to freedom from all forms of violence from public or private sources; and equal protection and non-discrimination under the law. Instead of corporal punishment, Justice Muremba said juvenile offenders should be rehabilitated, with the aim of reintegrating them into their family and society.

A new report on the use of corporal punishment in penal systems documents how children can be lawfully flogged, whipped and caned under secular, religious and/or customary systems of justice in 38 States around the world. The report, prepared jointly by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and Save the Children, also identifies the many immediate opportunities for achieving prohibition of these barbaric practices, and describes international and national advocacy for abolition – including medical opposition to the unethical involvement of doctors in the administration of cruel punishments. The report will be launched at the 2015 World Congress on Juvenile Justice, to be held in Geneva between 26 and 30 January.

Detention, trafficking & abduction

Police in the Philippines detained street children ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Manila in a bid to keep them from view, according to some media reports. While activists say the rounding up of street children is nothing new in Manila, which generally occurs over vagrancy and petty crime, “there’s definitely been a ramp up,” according to Catherine Scerri, deputy director of the Bahay Tuluyan NGO. “They were definitely told not to be visible, and many of them felt that if they didn’t move they would be taken forcibly.” The government has denied rounding up the children, with Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman explaining that any children who were detained were “abandoned, physically or mentally challenged or found to be vagrant or in trouble with the law, and we are taking care of them.” However, Juliano-Soliman did confirm that 100 homeless families — comprising 490 parents and children — were taken off the street of Roxas Boulevard, along which Pope Francis travelled several times, and taken to a hotel located an hour and a half away by car. 

Last week suspected Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria kidnapped around 80 people, most of them children, in a cross-border attack on villages in northern Cameroon. The country’s army has said it has secured the release of 24 of the hostages. The Islamist group is attempting to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, having also conducted attacks in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger in the past year in a bid to expand its area of operations. Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in the region as Nigeria prepares for the presidential election on 14 February.

In Thailand, dozens of children were among 98 Rohingya people found in pickup trucks, suspected of having been trafficked from Myanmar. The Rohingya are a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar, many of whom have fled the country since 2012, when violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists left hundreds dead and about 140,000 homeless. Trafficking routes in Thailand are thought to be thriving, and the country is ranked as one of the world's worst hubs of human trafficking. Advocates say that the Rohingya in the latest case will either be returned to Myanmar or languish in a shelter for months before the government decides what to do with them.

Freedom of expression & right to play

Kenyan police fired tear gas at schoolchildren protesting against plans to demolish their school’s playground located on a disputed patch of land in Nairobi. At least 10 students from Langata Road Primary School were taken to the hospital with injuries, including for exposure to tear-gas. The plot has been owned by the school since 1972, but was allegedly acquired by a “group of professional land grabbers” representing a senior politician. The incident prompted Twitter users to use the hashtag #OccupyPlayGround. 

French police arrested 54 people last week, including four children, for verbally supporting and inciting terrorist acts following in the wake of armed attacks at the office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris. Those arrested were charged with “glorifying” or “defending” terrorism. The four children and several others were swiftly convicted under special measures for immediate sentencing, according to the Associated Press. 

During the minute’s silence held in remembrance of the victims of the Paris attacks, many children in Muslim-majority areas in France refused to observe the silence. There were even incidents where children sided with the attackers. Some commentators, however, were unsurprised by the children’s reaction. “There is such a huge social gulf now between these young people and the rest of society,” said French filmmaker Laurent Cantet, who won the top prize at the 2008 Cannes film festival for The Class, which chronicles a year in the life of an idealistic young teacher and his largely disillusioned and demotivated class. Cantet said France has to “look at what’s behind that reaction – at the ghettoes we’ve created, the contempt we’ve instilled. For some of these young people, the only path we’ve left open is a kind of horribly deformed version of their religion they see as a kind of identity card.”

Convenient omissions in school textbooks

In an attempt to rewrite history, Japan's Foreign Ministry has asked a US publisher to delete references to "comfort women" from school textbooks. The term is a common euphemism for the tens of thousands of women - primarily from the Korean peninsula - who were forced to work as sex slaves before and during the Second World War. The request was made after a Japanese publisher applied to the Education Ministry to remove these references - a revision which was accepted. In 2014 Japan's administration altered curriculum guidelines to order publishers to state the government's official view on contentious issues.

Conflicts elsewhere are also being played out in the classroom. After attracting heavy criticism, publisher HarperCollins is set to pulp copies of an atlas meant for use in Middle Eastern schools that omit Israel. HarperCollins' subsidiary Collins Bartholomew said last week that the atlas reflected "local preferences". However, the decision was met with widespread criticism, including 150 one-star reviews on Amazon, with one customer declaring: "Geography is about accuracy, not political views or opinions."

Meanwhile, Britain's Oxford University Press has also been pilloried for asking a children's author to remove pig-related references to avoid offending Jewish and Muslim readers. One industry insider said: "It is incorrect to ascribe this to self-censorship - it's more a case of global market forces at work.”... “If there’s a choice between having a pig or, say, a bunny, as a minor character in a particular children’s book, publishers are aware that choosing the pig character will severely limit the book’s potential international market,” said Lydia Moëd, an agent with the Canadian literary agency The Rights Factory. But some commentators have argued that attempts to appeal to the broadest possible audience result in the homogenisation of children’s literature. And this phenomenon applies across the board, for instance one Canadian publisher noted that many European children’s books never reach the North American market because they contain scenes of nudity or sex.
 

LGBT school, study & adoption

Plans to open a school in Manchester, United Kingdom for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pupils struggling in the mainstream education system have been criticised by a gay rights group for being counter-productive for eliminating homophobia. The concept of a school especially for LGBT pupils is based on the Harvey Milk High School in New York City, established in 1985. The organisation Stonewall says that segregation of LGBT pupils will not develop more tolerance and empathy and will therefore do nothing to foster their integration. Criticism also comes from Manchester’s city council which, while welcoming initiatives for LGBT children, regards the plans as spurning the idea of school as an inclusive place for children regardless of their sexual orientation.

This month the Constitutional Court of Austria overturned a ban on adoption by same-sex partners, saying that the difference in treatment between same- and opposite-sex couples was unjustified and therefore unlawful. Same sex couples in Austria have been allowed to adopt the biological child of a partner since 2013, following a judgment against the state by the European Court of Human Rights. However, the new decision by the Constitutional Court means that couples will be allowed to adopt a child regardless of the existence of a biological connection, and adoption legislation will be applied without discrimination. Until now, this was prohibited in law. The government has until the end of the year to effect the change in legislation.  

The Council of Europe (CoE) has released an expert study on the specific challenges facing trans and intersex children in Europe. The study highlights the importance of information, better knowledge and understanding of trans and intersex children in order to protect them from violence related to sex and gender norms. Previously, the CoE’s Commissioner for Human Rights also drew attention to safety and equality concerns affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex children.

Back to top

ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN UZBEKISTAN

Although ratified, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is not fully incorporated in national law. It takes precedence over conflicting provisions of the Family Code, however, the Convention is not being enforced by the courts. Children must be represented in legal proceedings, except in relation to labour disputes, however, children above the age of 14 must be involved in the proceedings. No legal aid is available in Uzbekistan and a legal pro bono culture is not well developed. In addition to the civil courts, children and their representatives also have the option to submit complaints of violations of children’s rights to the Ombudsman.

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

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

Justice Sector Reform: Training programme on applying human rights based approaches to justice sector reform
Organisation: International Human Rights Network
Application deadline: 28 February 2014
Event dates: 22-26 June 2015
Location: Maynooth, Ireland

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

Transnational child protection: Expert meeting on children on the move - children’s participation and discussion of the way forward
Organisation: Council of Baltic Sea States et al.
Date: 10-11 March 2015
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

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

Save the Children Sweden: Advisors on Child Protection in Emergencies x 2
Location: Sundbyberg, Sweden
Application deadline: 4 February 2015

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Internships
Location: Washington DC, United States
Application deadline: 8 March 2015

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

THE LAST WORD

Back to top