CRINmail 1426
In this issue:
Problems viewing this CRINmail? Click here.
LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
UN aid worker suspended for leaking abuse report
A senior UN aid worker has been suspended for leaking a confidential report exposing the sexual abuse of children by French peacekeeping troops stationed in the Central African Republic. The document collects victims’ testimonies and details how soldiers sexually abused children as young as nine years old between December 2013 and June 2014 at a centre for internally displaced people at M’Poko airport in the capital Bangui. The children described how they were raped or otherwise abused in return for food and money. Anders Kompass is said to have passed the report, which was commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to French authorities after the UN failed to stop the abuse. Last week he was suspended from his post as director of field operations, accused of leaking a confidential UN document and breaching protocols, and is now under investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
The UN has faced sex abuse scandals in the past, including allegations of sexual misconduct by its troops in Haiti, Burundi and Liberia; and the failure to act over paedophile rings operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo and Bosnia. These cases have led to repeated calls demanding independent inquiries into the UN’s handling of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. Its treatment of whistleblowers has also been questioned, with one NGO describing the UN’s response to Mr Kompass’ actions as a witch-hunt. Notably in March, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mr Michel Forst, said whistleblowers should be considered human rights defenders.
Further information:
Indigenous medicine, vaccinations & pain relief
Babies are more sensitive to physical pain than adults, a new study suggests, which challenges the belief within the medical community that babies’ brains are not developed enough for them to really feel pain. This assumption has resulted in a systematic denial of pain relief medication for babies in hospital, with a 2014 study finding that 60 percent of babies in intensive care do not receive pain medication despite undergoing an average of 11 painful procedures each day. As recently as the 1980s it was common for babies to only be given neuromuscular blocks during surgery, but no pain relief. "Obviously babies can't tell us about their experience of pain and it is difficult to infer pain from visual observations," said Rebeccah Slater, a doctor at Oxford University's pediatrics department who led the study. "If we would provide pain relief for an older child undergoing a procedure, then we should look at giving pain relief to an infant," she added.
A draft law in California, United States, that would require children to be fully vaccinated as a condition of enrolling in state and private schools has cleared another legislative hurdle. While limiting parents’ ability to opt-out of vaccinating their children, the bill allows exemptions for home-schooled and independent study students. The draft law will now advance to the judiciary committee, where its legality will be examined. Previously, the constitutional courts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia affirmed the legality of laws requiring the compulsory vaccination of children. The Constitutional Court of Croatia also reached the same conclusion in March 2014, rejecting a proposal that the decision to vaccinate a child should only be taken by a child’s parent/s. In doing so, the court ruled that private concerns do not take precedence over public safety, and supported the Croatian Ministry of Health’s decision that “the child’s right to health [is more important] over the rights of parents to the (wrong) choice.”
In Canada, an Ontario court has issued a clarification of its November 2014 decision to allow an 11-year-old First Nations girl with leukaemia to pull out of chemotherapy and pursue traditional medicine instead. Now, while reaffirming that traditional medicine must indeed be respected, the court has clarified that the best interests of the child are also “paramount”. One legal expert said this means the child’s well-being has to be balanced against what the court previously recognised as a constitutional right to pursue indigenous medicine. "The aboriginal rights are one factor to be considered, but not the only factor," said Nick Bala, a law professor at Queen's University. The clarification comes with news that the child in the case has restarted chemotherapy after the cancer returned following a period of remission.
Juvenile justice in Nigeria and Canada
A court in Nigeria has rejected a motion to have charges against a child bride accused of killing her husband dismissed. Wasila Tasi'u, who was 14 when she was married to a man more than twice her age, is accused of lacing food prepared for a post-wedding celebration in April this year with rat poison, which resulted in the death of her partner and three other guests. If found guilty, she could face the death penalty. Rights activists say the case highlights the need to treat victims of early marriage as victims, not criminals, with one activist claiming Tasi’u was a victim of systematic abuse, including rape. Previously the presiding judge at the Gezawa High Court in northern Nigeria rejected the girl's lawyer's request for her to be tried in a juvenile court. In September last year, Nigerian senators failed to scrap a constitutional provision allowing child brides to be considered adults in criminal trials. Another child bride was sentenced to death in 2012 for allegedly killing her husband at the age of 13. But a court later overturned the judgment, ruling that the death sentence handed down for a crime committed while she was a minor was a violation of her fundamental rights. Wasila’s trial will resume on Friday.
Children in Manitoba, Canada are being kept in jail long after their sentence ends due to a continuous lack of capacity for appropriate foster care places. The Civil and Family Services (CFS) is responsible for providing children with foster care, but the services are not sufficient for the numbers of children in the care system. Currently, more than 10,000 children are in care in Manitoba, with the vast majority being aboriginal. The family service minister says she had been warned of the situation some time ago, but advocates say she failed to take action. In several cases, judges notified Manitoba’s Children's Advocate that they had decided to leave children in police custody because of the lack of alternatives. The problem is not new; but rather than create more foster care placements, the province uses hotels to house children — a practice which has been criticised for more than a decade. President of the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties Corey Shefman called this practice a “detention for the convenience of government actors” and a breach of the children’s human rights.
Discrimination and access to information
Roma children continue to be exposed to daily discrimination and segregation in the Czech Republic’s school system, a new report by Amnesty International has found. Ongoing rights abuses include being segregated in mainstream education in Roma-only classes, buildings and schools, while many children are even placed in schools for pupils with learning disabilities. The report also finds that Roma children who are in mainstream mixed education are often treated differently by their classmates and teachers, and are not offered language support despite many not having Czech as their mother tongue. Last year the European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against the Czech government over complaints that it is breaching European Union law on non-discrimination by continuing to allow Roma children to be funnelled into separate schools. If the State fails to take sufficient measures to address the issue, the Commission may then bring the matter to the Court of Justice for the European Union. This week, Slovakia became the second State to be subjected to an infringement procedure for the same reason.
IFEX has launched a new digital tool to help LGBTQ children access information securely online. Just 43 percent of gender nonconforming children have a supportive family member. This makes seeking out information on health, community and other resources to help them explore their identities a difficult and private task. But a new playlist on surveillance self-defence aims to support young people to navigate social media and protect themselves from snooping and outing by ad companies that track online activity and social media. It covers personal computers, shared computers and mobile devices. Other tactics which organisations can use to help protect the online privacy of LGBTQ children include ensuring HTTPS encrypted access to their websites to secure against external keyword censorship and monitoring. They can also refuse to include social media analytics beacons on their site because these track readers and can reveal information about user interests to other organisations. Read more.
Children’s rights in sport
Violations of human and children’s rights occur before, during and after major sporting events; and with a number of these set to take place this and next year, organisers and sponsors are facing mounting pressure to assume a role of greater social responsibility. For instance, as the clampdown on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan escalates in the run-up to the inaugural European Games in Baku in June, a coalition of human rights organisations has urged the European Olympic Committees (EOCs) to press the State over its human rights abuses. On this occasion, however, the EOCs said it will not challenge the country’s rights record, as it is in no position to “pass judgment on the legal or political processes of a sovereign nation”. The coalition criticised this stance, saying that it sends the message that it is acceptable for a hosting State to silence critics.
This reluctance by sports associations to engage in human rights is unfortunately nothing new, even though they play an indirect role in exacerbating rights violations by giving hosting duties to countries with dubious human rights records. In 2014, for instance, FIFA’s second highest ranking figure, Jérôme Valcke, said that "the World Cup is not there to solve problems or create problems. A World Cup is a World Cup". Nonetheless, the pressure on sports associations continues. Campaigners recently persuaded the organisation behind Formula One racing to create a human rights policy after years of unwillingness, which commits it to monitoring the human rights impact of its events. A coalition is urging the International Olympic Committee to include human rights standards, including on the elimination of forced labour and child labour, in the 2024 host country contract. With FIFA set to elect a new president in May, NGOs and trade unions have asked candidates whether, if elected, they will address human rights issues in host countries.
Further information:
UN news
The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Maud de Boer Buquicchio, is inviting submissions on the care and recovery of children victim of sale and exploitation, including sexual exploitation. Contributions will help formulate a report on assistance, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for child victims, with the aim of proposing comprehensive care and recovery systems. The report will be presented to the General Assembly in October 2015. The deadline for submitting responses to the questionnaire is 15 May 2015. More details here.
The International Coalition on the ratifications of the CRC’s Optional Protocol on a communications procedure is inviting organisations to join the Coalition. For more information, or to join, visit: http://ratifyop3crc.org/about-us/joinus/.
Back to top
ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN BRAZIL
Brazil has ratified and incorporated the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into its national laws through its 1988 Constitution and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent as well as other related legislation. Brazil has not yet ratified the third Optional Protocol to the CRC establishing a complaints mechanism, but it has accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Convention takes precedence over national law, but not over the Constitution, and can be directly enforced in domestic courts. Children are generally required to be represented by their parents or guardians in court, but the Public Prosecutor and Guardianship Council have the duty to ensure children’s best interest in court proceedings. Collective action is possible for the protection of children’s rights, and can be presented by public officials and NGOs alike without naming a specific victim. Access to the court and legal representation is guaranteed free of charge to all children at all court levels and the statute of limitations for sexual abuses committed against children only begins to run when the victim reaches adulthood. The implementation of the rights of the child varies greatly by region, and reaching the higher - and often more progressive - courts can take time.
Read the full report on access to justice for children in Brazil.
Back to top
UPCOMING EVENTS
Torture: Webinar on 'Torture of Children Deprived of Liberty: Avenues for Advocacy'
Organisation: Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law
Date: 5 May 2015
Location: Online
Asia-Pacific: Alternatives to detention and restorative justice for children
Organisation: Asia-Pacific Council for Juvenile Justice
Date: 5-8 May 2015
Location: Phuket, Thailand
Bodily integrity: 2015 Genital Autonomy conference
Organisation: Genital Autonomy
Dates: 8-9 May 2015
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Budgeting: Webinar on ‘Making the budget work for and with children’
Organisation: Plan Academy
Date: 12 May 2015
Location: Online
Gender development: Girls' and women's rights - progress under threat in a fragile world?
Organisation: Overseas Development Institution
Date: 15 May 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
Call for papers: Institutionalised children - explorations and beyond
Organisation: Udayan Care
Submission deadline: 31 May 2015 (abstract), 31 July 2015 (final paper)
Location: N/A
LGBT rights: Int'l Day against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia (IDAHO)
Organisation: IDAHO Committee
Dates: 17 May 2015
Location: N/A
HTPs: Training course - Child abuse linked to belief in witchcraft and juju
Organisation: Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA)
Date: 29 May 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
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
Justice sector reform: Training programme on applying human rights based approaches to justice sector reform
Organisation: International Human Rights Network
Dates: 22-26 June 2015
Location: Maynooth, Ireland
FGM: Female genital mutilation as a child safeguarding Issue
Organisation: Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA)
Date: 26 June 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
Participation: Children as actors for transforming society
Organisation: Child to Child et al.
Dates: 27 July - 2 August 2015
Location: Caux, Switzerland
Back to top
EMPLOYMENT
Plan: Deployable child protection in emergencies specialist
Application deadline: 30 April 2015
Location: Flexible
ECPAT: Campaigns Officer
Application deadline: 15 May
Location: London, United Kingdom
Open Society Foundations: Youth Fellowship Programme
Application deadline: 15 May 2015
Location: N/A
All We Can: Senior Partnership Manager
Application deadline: N/A
Location: London, United Kingdom
Mary’s Meals: Director of Programmes
Application deadline: N/A
Location: Glasgow, United Kingdom
LEAK OF THE WEEK
If Forrest Gump had been female, and she had attended Al-Taqwa College near Melbourne, Australia, she probably would’ve never been told to "Run, Forrest! Run!" - that is, at least by the school’s headteacher who has banned female students from taking part in sports out of fear that running may cause them to “lose their virginity”.
To read more, click here. WARNING: clicking there may also cause you to lose your virginity.
Back to top
| 
