CRINmail 1417

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Juvenile hanged in Iran

Iran has reportedly executed a young man who was sentenced to death for offences he allegedly committed when he was under the age of 18. Saman Nasim had been convicted in 2013 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. According to the organisation Iran Human Rights, he was hanged at the prison of Urmia in the north west of Iran, either on 19 or 20 February 2015. Nasim was 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 where he and other political prisoners on death row were held. In response to their protest, authorities threatened to speed up their execution. Prior to his hanging, international human rights groups, the UN, and the European Union called on Iranian authorities to halt Naseem’s illegal execution.

Read about the campaign to end the inhuman sentencing of children. 

Minimum ages on the rise

Malawi’s National Assembly has unanimously passed a bill that effectively bans child marriage by raising the minimum age for consenting to marriage from 16 (or 15 with parental consent) to 18 years of age. In a country with one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, said the bill seeks to promote the wellbeing of children, especially girls, who when married off, she says, often drop out of school, face gender-based violence and health concerns related to teen pregnancies.

Indonesia’s government is preparing a bill to raise the legal age of marriage for girls from 16 to 18 years of age. While the country’s 1974 Marriage Law sets the minimum age at 16, it permits younger people to get married if their parents obtain the approval to that effect from a religious court. This is despite the definition of a minor as a person under 18 years of age in the 2002 Child Protection Law, which campaigners say this creates legal uncertainty. Conversely, the minimum age for boys to marry is 19. Nevertheless, government officials are saying the new measure aims to tackle high levels of malnutrition in the country, which have reached a “catastrophic” level. “If you can change the law on the legal age of marriage, that would have a massive impact on malnutrition levels,” said Lawrence Haddad, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). “[A]ge of first marriage and age of first pregnancy are highly correlated with stunting,” he added.

Forced labour, and state and domestic violence

Schools in Uzbekistan are reportedly forcing schoolchildren to collect scrap metal to meet the quota of a state-imposed recycling plan. Children have allegedly been expelled from school for not collecting enough scrap metal. In one case, a school set the minimum quota for first- to third-graders at 30 kilograms and 43 kilograms for older children. “They are turned back if it is even 1 kilogram less," said the parent of a child. Parents say that the practice is nothing new, but it has remained under the radar because child labour in the cotton fields has received more attention. Children in several regions of the country have also allegedly been used in efforts to collect plastic bottles for private businesses, or manure for farmers. The collection efforts are imposed under a special decree of the Uzbek government that sets quotas on state organisations, education and healthcare institutions, and private farmers.

In Venezuela, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead by a police officer during an anti-government protest in the western city of San Cristobal. The officer, who reportedly shot the boy in the head at point blank range, confessed to firing with plastic ammunition and has been arrested. While President Nicolas Maduro condemned the killing, the government issued a policy change last month allowing security forces to open fire and use deadly force to control protests. Dissatisfaction with the administration has grown in the past year, with February marking the one-year anniversary of the 2014 anti-government protests, which left more than 40 people dead, 800 injured and around 3,000 arrested, including children. What had begun as a student protest quickly turned into a mass demand for political change and measures concerning chronic shortages of basic foods, high inflation, and one of the highest violent crime rates in the world. The country also saw huge rallies in support of the government.

States that fail to prohibit corporal punishment as part of legislation on domestic violence and family protection are failing to comply with international human rights law, according to a new paper published by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children together with Save the Children. The report provides arguments for the at least 34 States that are currently reforming domestic violence laws to bring a ban on corporal punishment into legislation.

Children used as ammunition in conflict

Armed groups in South Sudan have kidnapped at least 89 children from a school near Malakal in the north of the country. Witnesses say the kidnappers conducted house-to-house searches in the community of Wau Shilluk in Upper Nile State where thousands of people have been internally displaced by the ongoing conflict in the country. Boys older than 12 were taken away by force, witnesses say. A UN report published at the end of 2014 said thousands of child soldiers were seen with state and non-state armed groups between December 2013 and September 2014. The security situation in South Sudan has deteriorated steadily over the past year since political in-fighting between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, started in mid-December 2013. 

In Nigeria, a girl believed to be as young as seven years old killed herself and five others in a suicide bombing last weekend, in what is the latest in a series of suicide attacks in which children have been used. The attack took place in a market in the town of Potiskum, Yobe state’s commercial capital, where now in an apparent sign of distrust, a local vigilante leader has banned women and girls from entering the market in order to prevent further attacks. Previous attacks have been blamed on Boko Haram. More than 13,000 people have been killed and more than a million others left homeless since 2009, as the group tries to carve out an Islamic state.

More than one million people have been displaced within Ukraine, including more than 134,000 children, since the beginning of the conflict in the east of the country, with a recent ceasefire agreement failing to halt fighting altogether. UNICEF noted that since September 2014, thousands of people in Donetsk had been spending most of their days and nights in bomb shelters with little or no access to water, hygiene, sanitation or food. Among them were an estimated 1,000 children who regularly sought refuge from the heavy shelling. The organisation also points out that the conflict has left 147 schools closed in parts of rebel-controlled Donetsk Oblast. Meanwhile in government-controlled areas, 187 educational institutions have been damaged or destroyed.

Read more on children and armed conflict in our latest newsletter on the issue.

Licensing strip searches of children

In Canada, Quebec’s Education Minister, Yves Bolduc, has given his approval for students to be strip searched in high schools where student security is deemed to be at stake. The only proviso is that such searches adhere to “strict” guidelines and are undertaken in a “respectful” manner. The comments follow the case of a 15-year-old girl who was told to strip behind a screen by school officials because they suspected her of selling drugs. Legal expert and Toronto criminal lawyer Boris Bytensky, decried the statement, saying that while courts have authorised searches of student lockers, “It’s a very different level of invasion of privacy if you are forced to take off your clothes, especially as a 15-year-old girl”. 

In the United Kingdom, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled this week that safeguards set out in PACE Code C on the detention and treatment of persons by police officers must be followed by police whenever a child is strip searched. The case was brought against the Merseyside Police on behalf of a 14-year-old girl with a history of mental illness who was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and strip searched in police custody without an appropriate adult present. The lawsuit alleged a violation of the girl’s right to respect for her private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as her rights under the CRC. The Court held that, “[e]xcept in cases of urgency, where there is a risk of harm to the detainee or to others, an appropriate adult must be present (unless the detainee wishes the appropriate adult not to be present)”. However, it rejected the claim that the girl’s rights had been breached, finding that the police acted “reasonably and proportionately in the urgency of the situation”. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that more than 4,500 children as young as 10 years old have been strip searched by the Metropolitan Police over the past five years.

Surrogacy, adoption and IVF

Thailand has enacted a law which bans commercial surrogacy as well as the use of surrogacy by foreign and same-sex couples. Under the new provisions, surrogacy arrangements will only be permitted in the case of heterosexual couples who have been married for a minimum of three years, and where at least one spouse is Thai. The new rules also stipulate that women acting as surrogates must be over the age of 25 and related to one of the spouses. Anyone involved in surrogacy arrangements for commercial purposes will be liable to a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine of up to 200,000 Thai baht (£3,972). The move to legislate on this issue follows two international surrogacy scandals, including the case of a Japanese man who had fathered 15 children through several different Thai surrogates. A Member of the Thai Legislative Assembly summarised the law’s purpose as “[t]his law aims to stop Thai women's wombs from becoming the world's womb”.

Read a special edition CRINmail on surrogacy and children’s rights in the courts.

The Constitutional Court of Colombia has refused to grant same-sex persons the right to adopt a child in cases where the child has no biological link to the prospective parents. The ruling made last Wednesday, which confirmed a previous decision by the same court, holds that adoption by a homosexual person is only allowed for those applying to adopt their same-sex partner’s biological child. Although the adoption application in the case was granted in relation to a child conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by one of the applicants, the Court clarified that this is the only circumstance in which adoptions will be allowed. In a statement, the national organisation Colombia Diversa strongly criticised the decision as constitutionally unsound and “contradictory because it says that [same-sex persons] are good biological parents but bad adoptive parents”. 

The United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to permit the use of “three-person IVF” to prevent incurable genetic diseases known as mitochondrial diseases. Around 100 children in the UK are affected each year by genetic defects in the mitochondria - which are only passed down the maternal line - and in around ten cases the defects cause severe illnesses such as liver failure, muscle wasting, blindness and brain damage. The three-person IVF therapy is intended to help eliminate mitochondrial diseases by swapping the affected mother’s DNA with that from an anonymous female donor. Critics of the new rules say they will pave the way for “designer babies” and doctors will be meddling with nature. Conversely, Robert Meadowcroft, chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said: “This result will be life-changing for many women living with mitochondrial disease, giving them the precious chance to bear unaffected children, removing the condition from a family line and reducing the numbers faced with its devastating effects.”

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN SLOVENIA

Slovenia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but has yet to implement a consolidated child law that would incorporate all the provisions of the CRC into national legislation. Nonetheless, the CRC is directly enforceable in the courts and takes precedence over national laws. Children aged 15 years and older can bring cases by themselves and in their own names. All cases on behalf of younger children must be brought by or with the assistance of a representative, but representation is curbed by the concept of the best interests of the child. Yet, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has voiced particular concern about the lack of weight given to the views of children in court proceedings.

Every claimant in Slovenia is entitled to free legal aid, and limitation periods for criminal and civil claims stemming from criminal offences committed against children elapse only five years after a child turns 18. Cases by or on behalf of children can be filed in civil, criminal, administrative and constitutional courts and special provisions exist to protect child victims and witnesses giving evidence, but there are no specialised juvenile courts. Laws and regulations deemed to be contrary to the Slovenian Constitution or international instruments can be challenged by way of a constitutional complaint in front of the Constitutional Court and such complaints can also be brought in the name of a legal entity without the need of naming an individual victim. The Ombudsman for Human Rights can also lodge constitutional complaints. In addition to the national courts, children can also turn to the European Court on Human Rights and collective complaints can be made in front of the European Committee of Social Rights.

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

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

Funding opportunity: Advocacy fund on post-2015 violence against children agenda
Organisation: Elevate Children Funders Group
Application deadline: 31 July 2015
Location: N/A

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 2015
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 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom

Education: 'The Future of Global Education - What is the Role of Non-State Actors?'
Organisation: The Brookings Institution
Date: 5 March 2015
Location: Washington DC, United States

Migration: ‘Closing a protection gap for European children on the move’
Organisation: Terre des Hommes International Federation
Date: 5 March 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium

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: 154th IACHR session
Organisation: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Event dates: 13-27 March 2015
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 2015
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

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

Child rights: 9th European Forum on the Rights of the Child
Organisation: European Commission
Date: 3-4 June 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium

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

Open Society Foundation: Internship in the Education Support Programme
Location: London, United Kingdom
Application deadline: 1 March 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

Caucus for Children’s Rights: Community Manager
Location: Arusha, Tanzania
Application Deadline: 12 March 2015

Oak Foundation: Call for organisation to lead project on understanding resilience in children exposed to abuse and exploitation
Location: N/A
Application deadline: 3 April 2015

LEAK OF THE WEEK

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