CRINmail 1428
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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AND LGBTQI ISSUES
In this week’s CRINmail, and to mark the upcoming International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on 17 May, we are highlighting campaigns and resources from around the world concerning the rights of children who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or intersex (LGBTQI). It complements our special edition Children in Court CRINmail, which highlights legal cases and legislative developments concerning LGBTQI persons and the impact of these developments on children’s rights.
LGBTQI issues in brief
The rights violations affecting LGBTQI children are particular in that they arise from discrimination on the basis of their actual or perceived sexuality or gender identity. In some countries discrimination is state-sanctioned, with laws banning the “promotion of information on non-traditional relationships” to children, which is seen as “harmful” to their health and development.
LGBTQ children are more likely to be bullied at school than their peers, with schools in some cases being accused of inaction or teachers even playing an active role in their treatment. Sex education in schools has yet to be fully inclusive of the information needs of LGBTQI children, which denies them the chance to explore their own health, identity and relationships. This also applies to public services, including sexual and reproductive health services that should cater to the varied needs of people across the LGBTQI spectrum.
LGBTQ children also face being ostracised by their family, as well as psychological pressure to conform to heteronormativity or ‘convert’ to heterosexuality, including through so-called ‘conversion’ therapy despite the recognised dangers of the practice. They are also affected by discrimination based on their parents’ sexuality, including when authorities do not recognise both partners in a same-sex couple as legal parents.
Transgender children face obstacles in being identified in official documents by their chosen name and gender. Intersex children face violations of their autonomy and bodily integrity, as surgery is routinely performed to ‘correct’ their genitalia at an age when they are too young to give or refuse consent.
The following is a list of campaigns and resources that can be used to secure the rights of children identifying as LGBTQI.
Campaigns and resources
The organisation IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange) has launched a new digital tool to help LGBTQ children access information securely and privately online. The new playlist shows young LGBTQ people how to get around censorship and blocking of online health and community resources. It also provides advice on how to access information without fear that online activity will be saved on individuals' computers and risk being visible to others.
In response to the fact that governments do not always see the need to give specific attention to sexual diversity in education, the Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) offers a guide for advocates on how to push for better quality in how education deals with sexual diversity. People are able to map how the right to education is respected and implemented for LGBT people in each country, thanks to this survey. Similarly, UNESCO has published a report on the implementation of quality sexuality education, offering a look at effective approaches and case studies.
GALE has also developed a toolkit for teachers on giving lessons in sexual diversity in schools, which explains questions that teachers will frequently be asked by students, and includes examples of classroom exercises.
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has launched a campaign - “Write us in” - to ensure the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals include access to health care for LGBTQI people, including children. The enjoyment of the right to health also depends on children’s access to information, including on comprehensive sex education that is inclusive of all sexualities - an issue covered in CRIN’s campaign on children’s right to information.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights in the United States has launched the five-year #BornPerfect campaign to end conversion therapy of children. This seeks to raise awareness about the harms caused by the practice, encourage States to pass laws on the protection of LGBT children, and conduct legal advocacy on the issue.
The Human Dignity Trust has compiled a legal database on cases around the world that have challenged anti-gay laws. Similarly, a Council of Europe publication looks at case law of the European Court of Human Rights relating to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Every year, ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) produces a report monitoring anti-gay laws around the world, as well as an accompanying map (in various languages). The organisation’s Rainbow Europe website also includes a country ranking of the state of LGBTI rights in 49 European countries, with details about the legal provisions on anti-discrimination, family recognition, gender recognition, asylum, freedom of expression and assembly, and protection from hate crime.
For information about laws relating to same-sex adoption, marriage, gender recognition, conversion therapy and other topics globally, visit the Equaldex website, a collaborative LGBTI knowledge database.
A coalition of organisations has launched a Thunderclap to demand greater respect for the human rights of LGBTQI people. And under this year’s theme of LGBTQI Youth, the coalition is also calling on youth organisations to take into account the specific needs of LGBTQI young people.
Finally, the IDAHOT Committee is also monitoring events and actions organised globally around the Day.
LGBT news in brief
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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Reprisals and freedom of expression
On 6 May, CRIN, as part of a group of civil society organisations, called on the UN Secretary-General to clarify measures the UN has taken in response to reports of sexual abuse by French, Chadian and Equatorial Guinean troops in the Central African Republic, and the UN’s handling of the situation. The letter, which was copied to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was published in The Guardian yesterday - the newspaper that broke the story. We are still awaiting a response from the UN.
Now revelations have emerged of sexual abuse of women and girls by US soldiers and civilian defence contractors in Colombia. Claims that some 53 women and girls were sexually assaulted between 2003 and 2007 are detailed in a chapter of a report about the historical reasons for Colombia’s 50-year internal conflict, commissioned by the Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The author of the chapter on US involvement in the conflict states that there was “abundant information about the sexual violence” committed in towns near the Tolemaida military base in Tolima province, but that “thanks to bilateral agreements and diplomatic immunity granted to officials of the United States”, the alleged perpetrators have escaped with impunity.
As these stories show, children’s rights advocacy depends on the freedom to speak out - for both advocates and journalists. Every year Reporters Without Borders issues a World Press Freedom Index which acts as a barometer for this freedom of expression. The index ranks the performance of 180 countries according to criteria such as media pluralism and independence, respect for the safety and freedom of journalists, and the legislative, institutional and infrastructural environment in which media operate. In this year’s index launched last week, Finland, Norway and Denmark top the list, while Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea trail the list. Most worryingly, the index registers a decline in press freedom in two thirds of countries. Reasons given include: the proliferation of conflicts in which all parties wage an information war; the use of reprisals among non-state groups to silence journalists; the stretching of prohibitions to protect political systems from opposition; and the use of national security concerns to muzzle independent voices.
Juvenile justice
In India, a bill that would permit children aged 16 or older to be tried as adults for serious crimes has been passed in the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The bill, which would amend the Juvenile Justice Act 2000, will now be considered by the upper house. The bill was first introduced in the lower house (the Lok Sabha) in August 2014, but was referred to a standing committee which recommended retaining the definition of a juvenile as anyone below 18 years of age. However, the government bypassed the committee's recommendations for cases in which 16-18 year-olds are involved in a serious crime.
Meanwhile in the United States an Illinois man has been resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his apparent involvement in a double murder when he was 14 years old. Adolfo Davis was convicted as an accomplice to the gang-related murders, but proof that he fired the gun has never been determined. The case has attracted attention from across the country as it follows a 2012 US Supreme Court ruling which found that sentencing children to life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment, but allowed states to determine whether this ruling could be applied retroactively.
However, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal against a sentence of mandatory juvenile life without parole and decide whether its previous ruling in Miller v Alabama that such sentences are unconstitutional can be applied retroactively, settling the question once and for all. The ruling will have an impact on the sentences of an estimated 2,100 persons currently serving life without parole for offences committed as children. The case, known as Montgomery v Louisiana, is due to be heard later this year.
Discrimination & access to information
South Korea’s new sex education policy discriminates against LGBTQ people by excluding any mention of homosexuality or sexual minorities in the curriculum. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Education, the curriculum aims at “maintaining value neutrality regarding society, culture and religion”. This contradicts South Korea’s support for an end to violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, after it voted for two resolutions to this end at the Human Rights Council in 2011 and 2014. Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch, states that “excluding homosexuality and LGBT people in the curriculum sends a pejorative, intolerant message to the youth of South Korea and violates basic rights to information, health, and education.” In addition, UN treaty bodies, the World Health Organization and others recommend access to inclusive sex education as the best way to reduce maternal mortality, abortion, child pregnancy and HIV rates.
A 15-year-old Muslim girl, who had been barred from attending school in northern France for wearing a long black skirt, has been allowed to return in her usual attire. The skirt had been judged to be a religious symbol by her teacher, with a 2004 law banning “ostentatious signs of religion” in the country’s classrooms. But the student said that her the skirt has no religious meaning: “This skirt is really nothing special. It is quite simple. It is not ostentatious.” A show of support for the girl emerged on Twitter carrying the hashtag #JePorteMaJupeCommeJeVeux (I wear my skirt as I please). The Anti-Islamophobia campaign Le Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France (CCIF) recorded 130 cases in 2014 where students were prevented from attending classes in French schools as a result of the secular law.
Also in France, the mayor of Béziers has been accused of racism after he used the names on pupils lists to decide how many were Muslim (64.6 per cent). Robert Ménard’s statement goes against the country’s secular laws under which the government does not maintain statistics on people’s religion or ethnicity.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Juvenile justice
Violence
Health
Nationality
Privacy
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS
The status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Marshall Islands is very weak. Although the Convention was ratified in 1993, it has not yet been incorporated into domestic law, therefore, it has no force of law and has never been used by the national courts. Children are only able to bring legal proceedings with the assistance of a representative. Legal aid is available in relation to both civil and criminal cases. Although a system of child-friendly procedures for children giving evidence exists in the criminal context, there are no equivalent provisions in relation to civil cases. A major concern is the lack of an institution competent to receive complaints of violations of children’s rights.
Read the full report on access to justice in the Marshall Islands.
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
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
Child helplines: 7th Int't Child Helpline Day - 'The right to be heard'
Organisation: Child Helpline International
Date: 17 May 2015
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
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
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
Missing children: Second int'l academic conference on missing children & adults
Organisation: Various
Date: 8-10 July 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium United Kingdom
Participation: Children as actors for transforming society
Organisation: Child to Child et al.
Dates: 27 July - 2 August 2015
Location: Caux, Switzerland
Child labour: The Nairobi Global Conference on Child Labour
Organisation: African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect
Date: 23-25 August 2015
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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EMPLOYMENT
Child Rights Connect and CRIN: External Evaluator
Application deadline: 25 May 2015
Location: Geneva and London
CRIN: Legal research internships (Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish)
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: London or Paris
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
In Iran, a celebrity preacher warned listeners about new ways to ‘become’ gay, with men being told not to fantasise about other women while having sex with their wife, as this will somehow - though no idea how - trigger same-sex attraction in their children. Women were also scolded for not wearing the hijab properly, as this is apparently so repulsive to the heterosexual male gaze that it drives men to homosexuality. On the plus side, it’s one way of deterring unwanted attention.
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