CRINmail 1415

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11 February 2015 subscribe | subscribe | submit information
  • CRINmail 1415

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    LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

    Call for Iran to halt execution of juvenile

    Advocacy groups are calling on Iran to immediately halt plans to execute a man who was convicted of terrorism-related offences when he was under 18 years of age. Saman Nasim was 17 at the time of his arrest in 2011 for allegedly belonging to the Kurdish armed opposition group Party For Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), and for carrying out armed activities against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He was convicted in April 2013 of moharebeh, or “enmity against God”, with the Supreme Court approving his death sentence in December 2013, despite having initially overturned it because he was under 18 when he was arrested.  

    Nasim is among 24 detainees on death row who began a hunger strike on 20 November 2014, protesting against the conditions on Ward 12 of Oroumieh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province where political prisoners are held. In response to their protest, authorities threatened to speed up their execution. Even though judiciary officials have reportedly denied plans to execute Nassim, his lawyer says he could be executed as early as next week, after seeing an official letter clearing the legal path to his client’s execution. There have also been cases of detainees being executed without their families or lawyers being warned. Reports from advocacy groups suggest that as many as 31 child offenders may have been executed since 2010, making Iran one of the world’s most zealous child executioners.

     

    Proposal to limit UN transparency dropped

    China has withdrawn its proposal to reduce transparency in the UN accreditation process for human rights organisations. The proposal aimed to withhold the names of States that repeatedly defer NGO applications, allowing them to hide behind anonymity and further limiting scrutiny and accountability. The UN Committee on NGOs, which grants accreditation (ECOSOC status) to organisations, is consistently criticised for denying legitimate human rights NGOs full access to the UN system, with certain States on the Committee asking irrelevant or repetitive questions. These tactics deny access to NGOs critical of governments and enable them to select their own jury at the UN. Without ECOSOC status, organisations are unable to submit questions, attend UN sessions or hold side events in their own name. The withdrawal of China’s proposal follows public advocacy by the International Service for Human Rights. 

    Further information:

    • Read about CRIN's joint campaign calling on the  Committee on NGOs to stop blocking access to legitimate human rights organisations to ECOSOC status.
    • Read a summary of CRIN’s own ECOSOC application process, in which China’s repetitive questions were key to us getting deferred five times so far.
    • Read the open letter to the Committee on NGOs, signed by a group of civil society organisations from around the world.

     

    Child abuse in the home and schools

    In South Korea, children who have been sexually or otherwise physically abused by their parents are able to directly apply for an injunction by the courts in order to deprive their parents of their parental rights, the country’s Supreme Court has ruled. Currently, children may only apply for court protection from abusive parents through a legal representative while they are under 19 years of age. The new measure forms part of the Court's efforts to better protect children’s rights in family litigation, officials said. The Court also addressed the issue of children’s right to be heard in legal proceedings and held that it is mandatory for the courts to listen to testimonies of children in legal proceedings relating to their welfare and parental custody in divorce cases. Until now, South Korean courts were only obliged to hear testimony from children aged 13 and over. There are currently plans to revise South Korea’s family litigation laws, which have gone unchanged for the last 24 years, and the Court’s ruling will be included in a new draft bill later this year.

    Read more about access to justice for children in South Korea and CRIN's global access to justice for children project

    In the United States, a child victim of sexual abuse by a former priest in the Catholic Church of Chicago has brought a new lawsuit against the city’s archdiocese, claiming that the church created a “public nuisance” by shielding priests convicted of sexual abuse of children and allowing them to live freely in the community. Last year, the Archdiocese of Chicago released a number of files on several abusive priests. But under the new nuisance claim, the victim is seeking evidence of sexual abuse across the entire archdiocese and public disclosure of names and documents for all abusive clergy members dating back to 1950. A similar claim was successful in Minnesota last year, where it forced the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona to disclose tens of thousands of church documents and the names of dozens of accused priests. 

    Read more about the campaign to end sexual violence in religious institutions.

    In Indonesia, lawmakers in the city of Jember in East Java province have proposed that all schoolgirls be given a virginity test before graduation, with those who “fail” not being allowed to graduate. The idea is being debated between the city council and the Jember Education Agency, with the council currently drafting a regulation on “good conduct,” which includes an article installing a virginity test as a requirement for female students’ graduation. Similar bills have been discussed and dropped in other parts of the country following criticism.

     

    World Bank declines to probe child labour

    The World Bank said it will not investigate the possible use of child labour in agricultural projects it is financing in Uzbekistan. Despite acknowledging that children might be working against their will in farms that benefit from the bank’s funding, it has turned down the proposal by human rights campaigners to conduct an investigation. Advocacy organisations say this refusal questions the bank’s commitment to “robust implementation support and monitoring of measures to address child and forced labour issues.” The ruling is “shocking,” said Umida Niyazova, director of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, in a statement emailed by the Cotton Campaign. “To millions of victims of forced labour in Uzbekistan, the bank has said that despite recognising the relationship between their plight and its loans, it is not worth investigating,” Niyazova added. “Disturbingly, the bank’s decision is also a message to the Uzbek government that it can continue its forced labour system.” The World Bank’s decision comes as the institution develops its safeguarding policies, which are designed to identify and prevent negative impacts of World Bank-funded projects.

     

    LGBT rights in South Africa, Slovakia & Russia

    Legal experts in South Africa say their proposal to extend to gay children the right to get married is “straightforward and uncontroversial”. Under the country’s Civil Union Act, the possibility of getting married only exists for heterosexual children. Heterosexual boys under the age of 18 and girls under 15 can marry in exceptional circumstances if they obtain consent from both a parent or legal guardian and the Minister of Home Affairs. (Sex discrimination regarding the minimum age has yet to be challenged.) But South Africa’s Law Reform Commission, which makes recommendations to the government on reforming existing laws, notes in a discussion document that the Act does not allow a homosexual child to enter into a civil union at all, saying that this exclusion is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and violates gay children’s right to dignity. According to commissioner Irvin Lawrence, the Commission’s proposal would stop differential treatment applying to heterosexual and homosexual minors, “ensur[ing] the benefits of equal protection under the law."

    Conservative groups in Slovakia have failed to gain enough public support on several questions that would have limited the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons, as well as children’s right to information. A referendum sought to affirm the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, that only heterosexual and married couples can adopt a child, and that parents be able to opt their children out of subjects involving education on sex and euthanasia in state-run schools. With a turnout of 21 percent, the referendum failed to reach the 50 percent mark necessary to make it valid. Worryingly, however, around 90 percent of those who took part voted ‘yes’ to the referendum’s three questions. The public vote followed a petition initiated by the Alliance for Family, a conservative national organisation that collected more than the 350,000 signatures required to hold a referendum, and which seeks to “preserve marriage and family” and “protect...social values”. Activists, however, questioned the constitutionality of the referendum, noting that the Slovak Constitution specifically prohibits referenda on issues of fundamental rights and liberties.

    An anti-LGBT group which targets teachers supportive of LGBT rights has emerged in Russia. The group, which identifies itself as the "public ombudsman for children's rights",  last week conducted a raid to demand the dismissal of a teacher in St Petersburg, who had spoken out publicly against LGBT discrimination. The genuine children's rights ombudsman of St Petersburg, Svetlana Agapitova, denied any involvement in the group’s activities and said the school had "every right to call the police if this unknown organisation is conducting illegal acts". Read more examples of how children have been supriously used to justify discrimination.

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    ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN GRENADA

    Although Grenada has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), it has not been incorporated in national law by statute, and cannot be relied upon before domestic courts. As a result, the CRC has had little impact in Grenada with regard to access to the national courts by child victims following violations of their rights. However, there has been an indirect adoption of some of the rights enshrined in the CRC in Grenadian national law, such as the requirement to act in the best interests of the child when initiating proceedings, and when deciding suitable remedies. There are also several legislative provisions which make specific reference to the child’s due process right to be heard. Nevertheless, children must normally be represented by a guardian or legal representative when initiating proceedings. There is also not a very developed pro bono culture, nor does there seem to be much scope for NGOs to intervene, or file claims on behalf of child victims, given the silence of Grenadian law on this issue.

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

    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

    Statelessness: International Conference - “None of Europe's Children Should be Stateless”
    Organisation: European Network on Statelessness
    Submission deadline: 15 February 2015
    Dates: 2-3 June 2015
    Location: Budapest, Hungary

    Courses: Research with children and young people
    Organisation: Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh
    Dates: February, March and April 2015
    Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Human rights: International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights
    Dates: 27 February - 8 March 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

    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

    Child labour: Course on ‘Skills & livelihood for older out-of-school children in child labour or children at risk of child labour
    Organisation: ILO International Training Centre
    Dates: 16-20 March 2014
    Location: Turin, Italy

    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

    Justice systems: International Congress “Children and the Law”
    Organisation: Fernando Pessoa University
    Dates: 11-13 June 2015
    Location: Porto, Portugal

    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

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    EMPLOYMENT

    CRIN: Russian-speaking Communications & Research Intern
    Location: London, Unted Kingdom
    Application deadline: 18 February 2015

    Open Society Foundations: Programme Officer / Senior Program Officer (Early Childhood Programme)
    Location: London, United Kingdom
    Application Deadline: 20 February 2015

    Centre for excellence for looked after children in Scotland (CELCIS): International Services Lead
    Location: Glasgow, Scotland
    Application Deadline: 1 March 2015

    CELCIS: Throughcare and Aftercare Associate
    Location: Glasgow, Scotland
    Application Deadline: 1 March 2015

    CELCIS: Knowledge and Information Lead
    Location: Glasgow, Scotland
    Application Deadline: 1 March 2015

    IBFAN-GIFA: Programme Officer
    Location: Geneva, Switzerland
    Application Deadline: 8 March 2015

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

    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

    Hitting a child is OK so long as their dignity is maintained, according to Pope Francis, who suggested this is done simply if parents aim their blows away from a child’s face. 

    “One time,” the pontiff recalled earlier this month during one of his weekly general audiences at the Vatican, “I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them’.”

    “How beautiful,” said the Pope. “He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.”

    Ahh - so it’s in their faces where children keep their dignity! And here we were thinking it was in their elbows.

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