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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Health, consent & access to justice

Child protection legislation in New Zealand should be amended to protect children with intellectual disabilities from being made to undergo unnecessary medical procedures, Disability Rights Commissioner Paul Gibson has said. The call comes following the case of a severely disabled girl whose parents gave her hormone treatment to stunt her growth so they could continue to physically care for her. The treatment was started in South Korea after a New Zealand ethics committee did not approve it. Yet under the country’s Care of Children Act, the parents of a child with disabilities can consent to treatment such as growth attenuation on behalf of the child. Mr Gibson, however, says the Act conflicts with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, that non-therapeutic treatment should not be performed without authorisation by a judge, and all possible alternatives should be exhausted first. 

In the United States, legal action on behalf of a child who suffered brain damage after his mother, an air force captain, was administered incorrect medication during childbirth at an army hospital has been disallowed because of a rule banning acting military officers from suing the government. The mother was given Zantac before a caesarean section, despite her medical records noting she is allergic to the drug, and she was then administered Benadryl to counter an allergic reaction, but the antihistamine caused her blood pressure to plummet, depriving the unborn child of oxygen. As a result, the baby was born with brain damage, cerebral palsy and other injuries. While the legal action would be allowed if the mother were not in the military, the Feres doctrine bars active-duty troops from suing the government. Lawyers acting on behalf of the child have now filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to consider the case.

Belgium’s Constitutional Court has rejected appeals against the lifting of age restrictions on the right to die for terminally ill patients. In 2014 lawmakers amended the country’s 2002 euthanasia law extending the right to die to children who are incurably sick and suffering extreme pain. Three pro-life organisations brought the challenge against the amendment, claiming that legalising euthanasia for children violated their rights, including their right to life. But the Constitutional Court rejected their arguments, confirming that there are enough safeguards to ensure respect for a child’s rights when the procedure is requested. In doing so, the Court also recognised that lifting age restrictions on euthanasia was based on “the right of everyone to choose to end their life to avoid…[an] undignified and distressing life, which derives from the right to respect for private life”.

Sexual and reproductive rights

The government of China stunned the world this week by repealing its infamous one-child policy, which throughout its history has led to repurcussions for disobeying couples ranging from financial penalties to forced sterilisation. The effective ban on a second child, which was enacted due to concerns over resource usage in the 1970s, will not be fully removed until March 2016. But many fear that discrimination against single parents will continue, with the State refusing to give benefits to unmarried parents. As well as restricting reproductive choices, various human rights abuses have been linked to enforcement of the policy, including mothers being abducted, forced abortions and infanticide.

A new law in Indonesia’s Aceh region that imposes caning for consensual sex may have consequences for children’s rights in the country as well, according to Amnesty International. The legislation introduces punishments of 30 to 100 lashes for consensual sex outside of marriage, adultery and homosexual acts, but also introduces a new offence - “adultery with a child”. Advocates warn that if this law is applied in cases where children are sexually abused by adults it could potentially see sex offences treated as sex outside of marriage or "adultery". The new measures were voted in last year, only applying to the country’s most religiously conservative region, and have been opposed by civil rights groups.

Discrimination: race, disability & homelessness

In Canada, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that municipal bylaws used to move homeless people from public spaces in Vancouver violate the right to life, liberty and security. The city has a nationally recognised homelessness crisis, with research pointing to there being more young people on the streets than in previous decades. The Court found in favour of a group of homeless people who challenged the laws and ruled out the city’s request for a permanent ban on homeless camping. Campaigners have said that the victory represents a first step towards a recognised right to housing and is a huge win for the city’s homeless population. Generally, the issue also affects children who live or work on the street and whose survival behaviours include vagrancy, as they are disproportionately affected by freedom of movement restrictions in public spaces.

The Supreme Court of Slovakia has ruled that denying individualised support to children with learning disabilities so that they can be educated at mainstream schools could amount to unlawful discrimination. The decision was issued in relation to the case of a 10-year-old girl with an intellectual disability and a hearing impairment who was refused enrolment at the local primary school because the school would not be able to cope with her disabilities - a decision backed by the local government. As part of its ruling, the Supreme Court cited an expert opinion: “The presence of children with a disability in a group of healthy children is mutually enriching for both parties. Children learn empathy and acceptance of differences. Such an opportunity will provide the claimant with new patterns of behaviour and enables her a superior development of her mental capabilities.” The ruling is of significance to more than 20,000 children with disabilities in Slovakia who end up placed in segregated schools.  

Alleged racial prejudice throughout the United States’ criminal justice system could be tackled by the outcome of an ongoing Supreme Court case. Timothy Foster, 18, was found guilty of killing an elderly white woman and was sentenced to death in 1987 by an all-white jury, after Georgia prosecutors struck every black member of the jury pool. The lawyers bringing the appeal are arguing that when recommending capital punishment the jurors did not fairly consider evidence that Foster was intellectually disabled. An amicus brief filed by a group of former prosecutors also slammed the decision to strike potential black jurors, stating that the reasons given were “inaccurate; inconsistent with other reasons; or applied with equal or greater force to white jurors who were not struck.” In a previous case, the conviction of 14-year-old George Stinney who was executed by electrocution after being found guilty by an all-white jury of murdering two white girls, was thrown out by a judge in 2014 who found there had been no physical evidence connecting him to the crime.

 

Ritual killings and police custody death

In Liberia, the mutilated body of a 5-year-old boy is believed to be linked to Gboyo activity, the practice of killing young children and extracting body parts as sacrifice. The practice is believed to bring political power, wealth and success, and increases ahead of elections. Deputy Minister for Children and Social Protection, Madam Lydia Mai Sherman, said the alleged perpetrator has been arrested and is awaiting trial, and that in mid-November the Ministry will carry out a nationwide awareness-raising campaign on the issue. 

A Tajik baby who was separated from his migrant mother while under Russian police custody has allegedly died. The mother and 5-month-old child were detained at their St Petersburg apartment, and once at the police station she was placed in a temporary holding cell away from her child. After an investigation which later found her to be in violation of Russian migration laws, she was told the baby had fallen ill and was taken to a hospital. The following morning, the parents were told that their son had died and his body taken to the morgue. The parents were only allowed to see the body four days later. But the mother said "I'm not even sure if it's my son. I couldn't recognise the body because the face is bruised and black around the eyes, nose, and lips." Police have declined to comment until their investigation is complete, with autopsy results expected by November 14. 

Child rights hearings and reservations

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held its 156th session from 17-28 October. This featured child-specific hearings on sexual violence against children in schools in Ecuador, the criminalisation of children in Brazil, the rights of women and girls in Nicaragua, of children in Haiti and of the children of prisoners in the region. A full report on the session will be released at a later date. In the meantime, find webcasts of the sessions on the Commission's website: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/sessions/default.asp

Even though Somalia beat the US in ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child, one detail that many of us missed was the reservation that Somalia made upon ratification. The State said: “The Federal Republic of Somalia does not consider itself bound by Articles 14, 20, 21 of the above stated Convention and any other provisions of the Convention contrary to the General Principles of Islamic Sharia.” While the three cited articles address children’s right to freedom of religion, protection of children deprived of their family environment, and adoption, the reservation extends to the Convention as a whole. Such reservations, however, are generally regarded as incompatible with the object and purpose of human rights treaties, and their generality and vagueness is considered impermissible. But this did not stop Saudi Arabia, Brunei Darussalam, Qatar and Iran from making the same general reservation against all the provisions of the Convention upon ratifying it. 

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN VANUATU

Vanuatu ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992. Ratified treaties automatically become part of national law, so the CRC is incorporated into it. However, the Supreme Court claims that only some provisions of the CRC are directly enforceable in courts, but it is unclear exactly which provisions are. Minors do not have legal capacity in Vanuatu, so can only bring claims or defend legal proceedings through a litigation guardian. However, the proceedings can be brought in a child’s name. Violations of children’s rights under the Constitution by the state can be challenged in the Supreme Court. The Ombudsman is empowered to enquire into the conduct of any government agency, defect in any law or administrative practice, or suspected discriminatory practice and to undertake mediation. Any person charged with a serious offence is entitled to a lawyer, and the Constitution requires the state to provide the ‘needy’ with legal aid.

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

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 bringing a case.  

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Call for submissions: Multi-agency collaboration in child protection in South-eastern Europe
Organisers: Terre des hommes Kosovo, Child Protection Hub, DCI-Netherlands
Date: 9-10 November 2015
Location: Prishtina, Kosovo

Reproductive rights: New reproductive technologies and the European fertility market
Organisation: Erasmus University Rotterdam et al. 
Date: 19-20 November 2015
Location: Santander, Spain

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EMPLOYMENT

CRIN: Middle East and North Africa Intern
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Bethlehem, Palestine

CRIN: Legal Research Intern (Russian-speaking)
Application deadline: 16 November 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom

BICE (International Catholic Child Bureau): Researcher for Latin America & the Caribbean
Application deadline : 15 November 2015
Location : Geneva, Switzerland

ERRC: Information Officer
Application deadline: 16 November 2015
Location: Budapest, Hungary 

Consortium for Street Children: Resilience Manager
Application deadline: 16 November 2015
Location: London, United Kingdom

LEAK OF THE WEEK

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