28 July 2005 - CRINMAIL 699
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- CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: Security Council Resolution Provides for New Monitoring and Reporting System [news]
- NIGER: Famine Threatens 800,000 Children [news]
- CHILDREN IN PRISON: Gender Commentary on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners [call for information]
- CHILD PARTICIPATION: Take Children and Young People Seriously [publication]
- CRIN SERVICES: Arabic Language Resources [website]
- FILM: Young People Changing the World [call for information]___________________________________________________________
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Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.
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- CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: Security Council Resolution Provides for New Monitoring and Reporting System [news]
[27 July 2005] - Following a lengthy debate that started in February 2005, the UN Security Council (SC) has finally adopted a resolution aimed at protecting children exposed to armed conflict. The new resolution, which was voted for unanimously by all 15 members of the SC, is calling for a series of measures to be taken, including the establishment of a mechanism for monitoring and reporting violations, a SC Working Group to monitor progress and oversee implementation of these measures, and a demand to offending parties to prepare and implement concrete action plans for ending violations against children.
The proposed new mechanism will be monitoring violations by all parties, both governments and insurgents, including: killing and maiming of children, recruiting or using child soldiers, rape or other sexual violence against children, abduction of children, denial of humanitarian access for children and attacks against schools or hospitals. Under the new mechanism, UN-led task forces will be established in phases, to monitor the conduct of all parties and transmit regular reports to a central task force in New York.
Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said the UN had entered the 'era of application', "for the first time, the UN is establishing a formal, structured and detailed compliance regime of this kind. This brings together all the key elements we have been developing, over the last few years, to ensure accountability and compliance on the ground".
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers believes the proposed monitoring and reporting mechanism will be a positive development if serious efforts are made to report in detail on the serious violations of children's rights outlined in the SG's report. "The practicalities of implementing the mechanism have yet to be confronted. For it to work successfully it is vital that information from a wide range of government and civil society organisations is properly utilised and channelled upward to the Security Council and other international mechanisms responsible for child protection" says Victoria Forbes Adam from the Coalition.
The Coalition also welcomes the establishment of the SC Working group that will monitor the process of time-bound action plans to stop the use of children in armed conflict and to review reports of the violations outlined above. "However, comments Forbes Adam, "if the Security Council fails to take concrete action in response to reports of continuing violations then the new mechanisms will have failed, children will continue to suffer egregious human rights violations and the Security Council will lose credibility."
Overall, the Coalition said it was disappointed that the Security Council has again skirted the issue of targeted and graduated sanctions (such as cessation of military assistance, a ban on the export and supply of small arms and light weapons, travel bans, etc.) against government forces and armed groups well known for recruiting and using children. Such measures were initially proposed (although not explicitly defined) in resolution 1379 of 2002 and were explicitly called for in last year's resolution 1539.
The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict applauds this new resolution but said the SC's work begins with this resolution, "for the hundreds of thousands of children and their families that are devastated by armed conflicts raging around the globe, the UN must now ensure this system does not become a rhetorical exercise in information collection" said Julia Freedson.
The Watchlist is making several recommendations to the SC to ensure child protection systems are implemented, namely that the SC should ensure that political interests of parties in conflict do not interfere with the review of data submitted, it should impose targeted measures against parties that continue to recruit and use children as soldiers, and UN agencies collecting information on the ground must respect and engage with local civil society organisations and community leaders as equal partners.
To read the Security Council Resolution 1612, go to: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5957
To read the Security Council press release, go to: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5956
To read the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict press release, go to:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5959
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- NIGER: Famine Threatens 800,000 Children [news]
[NEW YORK, 27 July 2005] - Hunger and malnutrition are threatening the lives of 3.6 million people in Niger - among them 800,000 children under five. UNICEF and its partners have made an emergency appeal for $12 million as famine threatens to spread through the region. "Out of these 800,000 children, 250,000 are already malnourished, and [another] 30,000 of them are severely malnourished," said UNICEF Programme Officer Enrico Leonardi.
"The problem is facing Niger now. Unfortunately, we risk seeing it in neighbouring countries, like Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso. We need to tackle this problem as soon as possible, before the situation of these countries deteriorates to become like Niger."
At UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding centres, admissions are rising exponentially. So far, UNICEF has trained 80 health workers to treat severely malnourished children and has provided therapeutic materials, equipment and food to 15 nutrition centres around Niger. UNIMIX - a special food for malnourished children - and 600 metric tons of cereals will be distributed.
UNICEF Representative in Niger Aboudu Adjibade said the situation could have been avoided if there had been an adequate response to the drought and locust infestation which hit the country's crops during the 2004 growing season. "It's a great pity to see many, many children malnourished," said Mr. Adjibade. "This was a predictable situation. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough attention for our appeal, and we didn't get enough resources to deal with it."
Mr. Adjibade expressed hope that the international community would now react very positively to the urgent needs of the situation. "We will take the opportunity to save the maximum number of lives we can," he said.
[Source: UNICEF]
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- CHILDREN IN PRISON: Gender Commentary on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners [call for information]
The Quaker United Nations Office has prepared a gender commentary on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. This commentary identifies a number of the key problems for women prisoners and highlights how the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the key reference in management of prison systems, apply to these problems. It also identifies other human rights instruments and standards that apply to women's imprisonment and examines what measures these human rights standards require.
This analysis, "Women in Prison: A commentary on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners" is designed to assist legislators, prison administrators, United Nations bodies and human rights advocates to recognise the particular needs of women prisoners, and to use a human rights approach in meeting those needs.
The commentary highlights the impact of imprisonment upon children, children living in prisons with their mothers, juvenile girls in prisons, and the need to consider child rights when sentencing mothers.
The Quaker United Nations Office has prepared the commentary as a discussion draft to encourage input. They would be grateful for comments and feedback on this draft commentary - such as further ideas about the needs of girl prisoners and prisoners' children, and further examples of regional and national good practice, standards and case law.
For more information, contact:
Megan Bastick, Programme Assistant
Human Rights and Refugees
Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)
13, Avenue du Mervelet, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 748 48 03; Fax: + 41 22 748 48 19
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.quno.org
To read the draft, visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5966
To read the study "Babies and Small Children Residing in Prisons", visit:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5454&flag=report
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- CHILD PARTICIPATION: Take Children and Young People Seriously [publication]
The Children's Rights Alliance for England has launched a comprehensive set of training and tools - called "Ready Steady Change" - to achieve children's and young people's effective participation in decision-making. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child gives all children the right to be heard in all matters affecting them. Domestic law and guidance increasingly requires those working with children to listen to them and involve them in decision-making. Yet children and young people consistently report feeling left out and patronised.
Over 40 organisations and more than 100 individuals helped prepare the materials. The main pack includes two training handbooks (one for training adult decision-makers; the other for training children and young people), a DVD of participation in practice, and promotional materials. A wide selection of handouts are included, including rights and the law, top 10 facts about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, dreamers and visionaries (about people who have done great things for human rights and equality), and messages from research.
In addition to the training packs, six sets of specialised participation materials have been launched - Advocacy in Somerset launched "The Headspace Toolkit" relating to adolescent psychiatric units; Barnardo's and Nacro launched "Committed to Rights", relating to youth justice; CROA (Children's Rights Officers and Advocates) launched "Make it Count" relating to looked-after children and young people; the English Secondary Students' Association launched "Confidence in Communication", relating to school; Save the Children launched "Changing Places Together", relating to regeneration; and the Queer Youth Alliance launched "What's so Queer?" about listening to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people.
For more information, contact:
Children's Rights Alliance for England
94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, UK
Tel: + 44 20 7278 8222; Fax: + 44 20 7278 9552
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.crae.org.uk
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5968
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- CRIN SERVICES: Arabic Language Resources [website]
CRIN has dedicated a small zone of the website - http://www.crin.org/index-a.asp - to Arabic language resources. The web pages feature a frequently asked questions section that informs about CRIN and child rights issues generally, as well as a section on Child Rights with links to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and other relevant international treaties in Arabic.
The pages also provide Resources with links to other sites that carry child and human rights materials in Arabic (for example the UN Arabic Official Documents System, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, DCI Palestine, and others); Child rights organisations that work with or have materials in Arabic, such as CRIN members in the Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF, the OHCHR, and others.
CRIN will welcome contributions from subscribers of resources, links and other suggestions in order to build this area of the site.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/index-a.asp
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- FILM: Young People Changing the World [call for information]
The National Film Board of Canada is currently working on a project about young people who have or are doing things to make their world a better place. Perhaps they have taken a corporation to task for employing children or for cruelty to workers, animals or the environment. Or maybe they have helped devise a way to get better living and learning environments within their communities.
The film is tentatively entitled "Dream Makers." It is meant to feature inspiring young people who have found a project they can sink their teeth into, and which benefits the whole community. The National Film Board of Canada is looking for such children, aged 12-18, to participate in the project.
For more information contact:
Juanita Peters, National Film Board of Canada
5475 Spring Garden Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3T 3T2
Tel: + 1 902 426 7350
Email: [email protected]
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