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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Inhuman sentencing in South Asia
Pakistan has executed Shafqat Hussain, a young man who was sentenced to death for a crime he allegedly committed as a child and ‘confessed’ to under torture. Advocates say Hussain was 14 when he received the death penalty for the murder of a 7-year-old, a conviction based on a ‘confession’ that was obtained after nine days of torture. He was hanged in the early hours of Tuesday 4 August, despite widespread calls both within and outside the country to halt the execution. The Pakistani authorities were determined to kill Shafqat, according to anti-capital punishment organisation Reprieve. His execution was called off three times in 2015 following a campaign to save his life. But the latest petition to Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain fell on deaf ears, as “the government’s decision to push ahead with the execution... seems to have been more a show of political power than anything to do with justice,” said Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve’s death penalty team. The organisation says Pakistan has executed more than 150 people since December 2014 – like Shafqat, many were tortured by police, and many were sentenced to death as children.
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has commuted the death sentence of a child offender to “life imprisonment until natural death”, a sentence colloquially known as the other death penalty. Shukur Ali was 14 years old when his trial began for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old three years earlier. He was sentenced to death in 2001 under a law prescribing mandatory death sentences for rape and murder. Ali’s lawyer said this is the first time a death sentence has been commuted in Bangladesh after judicial review. Life imprisonment and the death penalty for child offenders is explicitly prohibited in the country under the Children’s Act 2013, but Ali was convicted before it came into force. Another of his lawyers said he would seek presidential clemency in the hope of getting the life sentence annulled.
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Sexual abuse and access to justice
The United Nations has spent over $500 million on contracts with a Russian aviation company despite discovering that one of its helicopter crew members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drugged and raped a teenage girl. Confidential internal UN documents reveal how the UN’s internal complaints unit uncovered evidence that the girl was physically and sexually abused and warned of a possible “culture of sexual exploitation and abuse” at the company. Copies of the report were circulated among top officials at the UN, including the office of the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. The disclosures come at a critical moment for the UN, which has already faced widespread criticism about how it handled revelations of sexual abuse of children by French and other peacekeeping troops in Central African Republic, with the Secretary-General later ordering an independent review of the case.
In India, four gynecologists have recommended that a 14-year-old rape survivor should receive a legal abortion, after the Supreme Court allowed the medical panel to determine whether she should have the abortion if it endangered her life. The young girl was allegedly raped by a doctor treating her for typhoid earlier this year. The High Court of Gujarat denied her a legal abortion since she was 23 weeks pregnant when she discovered the pregnancy - three weeks past the legal limit for termination. However, an appeal by a medical panel determined that because the pregnancy posed an immediate threat to her life she should be granted an abortion. This case underscores the urgent need to adopt proposed amendments to permit abortion at least up to 24 weeks, advocates say. Melissa Upreti, regional director for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said: “No young girl should ever be forced to continue with an unwanted pregnancy resulting from rape”.
In the United Kingdom, compensation paid to over 400 victims of sexual abuse has been reduced because the victims have criminal convictions. Offences for which reducing compensation was deemed justified include those involving drink, drugs or violence. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority said statutory guidance obliged it to reduce or refuse compensation if victims had unspent convictions. Since 2010, compensation has been paid to 12,665 people who were sexually abused as children, or as adults lacking mental capacity. A leading child abuse lawyer, Alan Collins, called for a review of the "scandalous" approach and said that judges handling civil cases increasingly took the opposite view, and accepted that abuse could have a lifelong effect, with drug dependency being a possible consequence.
Latvia’s statute of limitations for sex crimes against children should be removed, said the country’s children’s ombudsperson recently, as children may not be aware that they are victims of a crime at the time it is perpetrated, he said. Juris Jansons made the suggestion when discussing the case of a father and son who failed to receive custodial sentences for the abuse of a young girl. Despite community anger at the leniency of the punishment, Jansons defended the country’s child rights protection system, stating the laws and regulations are appropriate. But instead he pointed out that it is their practical application which needed to be questioned. The ombudsperson’s office also raised the significance of the issue of sexual abuse in Latvia's orphanages.
Racial and sexual discrimination
In schools in the United States, teachers respond differently to the same [mis]behaviour in children depending on whether the child is black or white, a new study shows. According to the research released in the journal Sociology of Education, black students are more likely to be suspended, expelled or referred to law enforcement, a phenomenon that contributes to funnelling schoolchildren into the criminal justice system; whereas white students are more often pushed into special education services or receive medical and psychological treatment for their perceived misbehaviours. This pattern, advocates warn, leads to the criminalisation of black students and the medicalisation of white students. The author of the study, David Ramey from Pennsylvania State University, thinks that racial bias could explain the differentiated treatment. He also suggests that disadvantaged schools tend to resort to suspensions and expulsions as the cheaper response. A more insidious theory, according to Ramey, is that suspending low-achieving students before an exam period helps schools boost their test scores. The same applies to students with perceived learning difficulties who are given stimulant medication, which will improve their exam results.
In Israel, a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed along with five other people taking part in a Jerusalem Gay Pride parade by an Ultra-Orthodox Jew has died from her wounds. Shira Banki had been in a critical condition since the attack by the suspect Yishai Shlissel, who was arrested at the scene. The attack took place just weeks after Shlissel was released from a 10-year prison sentence for stabbing participants of the 2005 Gay Pride march in Jerusalem, where he wounded three people. Police have come under criticism for not keeping Shlissel under surveillance.
In another case of discrimination in the region, a baby was killed in an arson attack blamed on Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The 18-month-old boy died in the night-time attack on two homes in the village of Duma, while his parents and brother suffered serious injuries. Slogans in Hebrew, including the word "revenge", were found sprayed on a wall of one of the houses. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack an act of terrorism. But the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said the attack "is a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism".
Health, screenings and vaccinations
Genetically screening children could lead to stigma, discrimination or an adverse effect on a child’s psychological well-being, according to the American Society of Human Genetics. In a new position paper the organisation recommends that testing children for genetic diseases only focus on single genes or small groups to avoid children finding out about unrelated genetic conditions. The publication also notes the difficulties with identifying a child’s best interests and the role of parents in making decisions which could haunt their children for the rest of their lives.
The world's first malaria vaccine has been approved by European drugs regulators who recommended it for use on at-risk children in Africa. The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, could become the first licensed vaccine for humans to combat the parasitic disease and offers hope to many children, as more than 80 percent of people who die from malaria are under the age of five. The shot, also known as RTS,S, has been in the making for more than 30 years and now only needs to be assessed by the World Health Organization before it can be administered. If given the green light, the vaccine could be in use by the end of this year.
A vaccine which reportedly offers complete protection against the transmission of Ebola has been successfully tested in Guinea following the epidemic there. Although the outbreaks that plagued countries in West Africa over the last few years have largely been controlled, the new vaccine could be stockpiled to prevent the situation from escalating to crisis point again. The vaccine uses a virus that affects livestock to help the body prepare to fight the disease, without infecting the recipient. While the current vaccine must be stored at -80°C, a more hardy version may be created for wider use. The outbreaks of Ebola in West Africa have so far killed more than 11,000 people and left hundreds of children orphaned across the region.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN GEORGIA
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) takes precedence over national law in Georgia. It has automatically been incorporated into national law and can be directly enforced in court. The Constitution of Georgia guarantees every person’s right to apply to a court for the protection of his or her rights and freedoms. An individual has the right to challenge the constitutionality of a normative act or its particular provisions in the Constitutional Court of Georgia if his or her rights have been infringed or may be infringed. A child who has attained the age of 14 has the right to bring a case to court and start civil proceedings in order to protect his or her rights and interests in certain cases determined by law. In this case the court assigns a procedural representative. The child plaintiff has the right to decline the appointment of a representative and protect his or her rights by themselves. The court is obliged to involve guardians in legal proceedings. In civil proceedings the plaintiff is released from the obligation of paying court costs if the case is related to the violation of a child’s rights. Court costs are not payable in administrative proceedings related to domestic violence.
Read the full report on access to justice for children in Georgia.
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
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
Child indicators: ‘From Welfare to Well-being - Child indicators in research, policy & practice’
Organisation: International Society for Child Indicators
Date: 2-4 September 2015
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Call for papers: Sixth Int'l Human Rights Education Conference - 'Translating Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms to Today’s World'
Organisations: HREA and University College Roosevelt
Submission deadline: 6 September 2015
Dates: 17-19 December 2015
Location: Middelburg, Netherlands
Juvenile justice: Online training course on ‘Alternatives to Detention for Young Offenders’
Organisation: International School for Juvenile Justice
Course dates: 1 October 2015 (lasts three months)
Location: Online
Africa: Global Child Forum on Southern Africa
Organisation: Global Child Forum et al
Date: 8 September 2015
Location: Pretoria, South Africa
Child abuse: European Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Organisation: International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Dates: 27-30 September 2015
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Monitoring: Training workshop on monitoring children’s rights
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 15-17 October 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Health: Conference on child rights and sight
Organisation: Distressed Children & Infants International
Dates: 24 October 2015
Location: New Haven, United States
Asia Pacific: 10th Asian Pacific Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Organisation: International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Dates: 25-28 October 2015
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sports: 'Global sport - Reform or revolution?'
Organisation: Play the Game
Dates: 25-29 October 2015
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Participation: E-course on child participation
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 28 October - 8 December 2015
Location: Online
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EMPLOYMENT
CRIN: Legal Translation Intern
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Flexible, home-based
CRIN: Legal research internships (Arabic-speaking)
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: London, United Kingdom
CRIN: Communications Intern (French-speaking)
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Flexible, home-based
Save the Children Sweden: Area Manager for Darfur - Sudan
Location: El Geneina, Sudan
Application deadline: 7 August 2015
Elevate Children Funders Group: Coordinator
Application deadline: 19 August 2015
Location: Flexible (with travel to US and Europe)
Consortium for Street Children: Advocacy & Research Intern
Application deadline: 21 August 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
European Network on Statelessness: Communications Manager
Application deadline: 7 September 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
European Network on Statelessness: Operations Manager
Application deadline: 7 September 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom
LEAK OF THE WEEK
What better way to teach young people about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than by dressing up as a giant penis, creeping up on unsuspecting members of the public, and shooting one’s load - of confetti - on them.
This is one such initiative taken by a Norwegian sexual health charity to promote condom use among 16 to 25-year-olds to prevent them from contracting STDs. Data shows that 23,000 Norwegians contract chlamydia every year, and are less likely to wear condoms than their Nordic neighbours.
Yet while it remains to be seen if giant penises are better communicators than traditional public service announcements on the issue, the “Penis can surprise you” campaign does make the important point that confetti, much like an STD, lingers on the unsuspecting person.
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