15 September 2005 - CRINMAIL 713
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- UN SUMMIT: Barriers to Schooling Undermine Goals [report]
- CAMBODIA: Children Monitoring the Implementation of the CRC [report]
- INFORMATION: World Summit on the Information Society [event]
- CHILD ABUSE: Cases of Ritual Abuse of Children in the UK [call for information]
- CHILDHOOD AND TRAUMA: Experience of Bonding and Forming Values [conference]
- EMPLOYMENT: Business and Human Rights Resource Centre [job posting]___________________________________________________________
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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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- UN SUMMIT: Barriers to Schooling Undermine Goals [report]
[NEW YORK, 12 September 2005] - Children around the world face systematic barriers to schooling that are undermining global progress towards universal primary education, Human Rights Watch said this week in a report released ahead of the UN World Summit.
Human Rights Watch investigations in more than 20 countries found that school fees and related education costs, the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, discrimination, violence and other obstacles keep an estimated 100 million children out of school, the majority of whom are girls. The 60-page report, "Failing Our Children: Barriers to the Right to Education," is based on interviews with hundreds of children in all regions of the world.
An estimated 170 world leaders are currently gathered at the United Nations in New York, in part to assess progress on the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. One of the eight goals is to ensure that by 2015, every child attends and completes primary school.
In more than a dozen countries, Human Rights Watch found that school fees and related costs such as books, uniforms and transportation cause many children to drop out of school, start late or never attend at all. Human Rights Watch found that prohibitive school fees are often linked to children's entry into the worst forms of child labour, including sex work in Papua New Guinea, domestic labour in Indonesia, hazardous work on banana plantations in Ecuador, and child soldiering in Burma.
Human Rights Watch also documented the devastating effect of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic on children's right to education, particularly for the estimated 14 million children worldwide who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. Both in sub-Saharan Africa, where the crisis is most acute, as well as countries like India and Russia, Human Rights Watch found that children affected by HIV/AIDS may be denied access to school or mistreated by teachers because of the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. Many children, particularly girls, are pulled out of school to care for sick family members, or are forced to work to supplement their family's income when a parent falls ill or dies. Another of the eight Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 include halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The first target set for the Millennium Development Goals, which called for getting an equal number of girls into school as boys by 2005, has already been missed. Girls make up an estimated 60 per cent of children who are out of school. Traditional biases against educating girls often influence parents to give priority to their sons over their daughters for schooling, particularly when school fees or poverty make it difficult for parents to send all of their children to school.
Countries investigated as part of Human Rights Watch's report included Brazil, Burma, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United States and Zambia.
For more information, contact:
Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch, Children's Rights Division
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor, New York, New York 10118, US
Tel: + 1 212 216 1837 ; Fax: + 1 212 736 1300
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.hrw.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6188
For general information on the MDG progress, visit CRIN's dedicated webpage at: http://www.crin.org/mdgnews
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- CAMBODIA: Children Monitoring the Implementation of the CRC [report]
The Children and Young People Movement for Child Rights (CYPMCR) in Cambodia has just published the children's report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report was prepared for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. CYPMCR is a network of children and youth created in 2002 by nine children and youth led organisations/clubs. At present, this network has 13 organisations/clubs as members. Its role is to disseminate and monitor the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in Cambodia.
The report raises six issues to be checked and evaluated - education, health, drugs, child labour, trafficking and child sex exploitation and children's participation. Each section begins with the concluding observation (or recommendation) by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child at the 24th session with the Royal Government of Cambodia or related articles of the UNCRC. Then, the report presents an evaluation about the positive implementation of children's rights for the past five years, the issues still threatening their livelihood and development, and at last, it presents the recommendations to the government for the five upcoming years.
To more effectively facilitate the children's participation in the process of monitoring the implementation of the UNCRC in Cambodia, CYPMCR and CRF organised a national children conference on "Child Participation in Monitoring the Implementation of the UNCRC in Cambodia" in Phnom Penh from 15 to 17 December, 2004. The purpose of the conference was to facilitate a meaningful child participation process in the assessment of the progress made by the Cambodian Government, to seek children's input and recommendations and to support the children reporting on the preparation of the report. The 74 child participants were students and child rights activists, child victims, vulnerable children, disabled and minority children from the rural areas and suburbs.
For more information, contact:
Child Rights Foundation (CRF)
Children and Young People Movement for Child Rights (CYPMCR)
29E1, Mao Tse Toung Blvd., Beung Keng Kang 1
Chamcar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel/Fax: + 855 23 211 223
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6217
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- INFORMATION: World Summit on the Information Society [event]
Summit: 16-18 November 2005, Tunis, Tunisia
PrepCom: 19-30 September 2005, Geneva, Switzerland
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is held in two phases. The first phase of WSIS took place in Geneva hosted by the Government of Switzerland from 10 to 12 December 2003. It addressed the broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and adopted a Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action.
The Child Helpline International (CHI) task force represented CHI at the Summit. Their efforts ensured that children were included in the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action. With this, they laid the foundation for the long journey to impact the telecom sector.
The second phase of WSIS will take place in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005. WSIS at Tunis is preceded by a PrepCom, to be held in the Palais des Nations in Geneva in September 2005. The taskforce and CHI will be present to put forward CHI's submission and a joint NGO submission to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and its members.
Further CHI will be hosting two side events on Children and ICTs with speakers including, Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary General ITU and Willy Jensen, Director of the Norwegian Post and Telecom Authority and children's NGOs and networks.
For more information, contact:
Shaheen Hoosenally, Advocacy Coordinator
Child Helpline International
Prinsengracht 468, 1017 KG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: + 31 20 528 96 25; Fax: + 31 20 638 76 55
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.childhelplineinternational.org
To read CHI's submission, visit: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/CHI_joint_submission.pdf
http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/CHI_submission_and_Stock... report.pdf
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- CHILD ABUSE: Cases of Ritual Abuse of Children in the UK [call for information]
The DFES (the UK government's Department for Education and Skills) is looking into the issue of children being at risk of abuse through being accused of being possessed, or other ritual abuse scenarios. Most cases reported to date have focused on African children, however there have been cases in all communities.
The DFES wants to identify if the cases covered by the media to date are the only, and evidently very extreme, cases or if there may be a bigger, underlying problem which, if better known, might be tackled with more preventative measures. The DFES is also keen for this work to look at whether overseas partners have similar issues, and if so, how they manifest themselves, and if there are any measures in place to tackle them.
Researchers intend to approach community and faith groups as well as statutory sector agencies, but they first want to hear from organisations directly working on child protection and children's rights. They are appealing for information on the following questions:
- Have any of your caseworkers come across anything that might represent a possession/witchcraft/ritual abuse case?
- Is it your caseworkers' impression that the cases reported are the 'tip of the iceberg', or do they feel that they are indeed isolated, one-off cases?
- The most commonly used term for these cases is "ritual abuse", but what do your staff think would be the most appropriate language to use?
- Finally, it has been suggested that there may be a level of acceptable practice of such abuse. For instance, possession is recognised in most religions, and some Churches argue that there are benign and safe 'exorcisms' such as blessings, a days fasting etc. What is the view of child protection practitioners as to the very effect on a child of being accused of being possessed?
As with so many instances of child abuse, it is often the weakest that are most vulnerable. Consequently, the researchers are particularly interested to know if there is any increased incidence of such abuse in families affected by poverty, disability, sexual abuse, bereavement, divorce/remarriage, trauma (refugee and post conflict), etc.
For more information, contact:
Heather Harvey
Tel: + 44 20 8314 5217
Mob: + 44 7905 522028
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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- CHILDHOOD AND TRAUMA: Experience of Bonding and Forming Values [conference]
Date: 20-23 October 2005
Location: Schwarzenberg, Austria
Welt der Kinder is organising an international symposium on conference on "Childhood and Trauma: Experience of Bonding and Forming Values" in Austria in October. The symposium will deal with the impacts of early childhood experiences, the development of a human being from a disordered form of existence into the structured emotional, cognitive and social aspects of life, aspects that are physically established.
The focus will be on the impacts of early childhood and the experiences of this time period, on the development of meaningful and lively things, and the forming of values and religious feelings. The symposium will also be an opportunity to reflect on how actions are made possible - actions in the social and political field, actions based on knowledge, cognition and experience.
For more information, contact:
Welt der Kinder
Anton-Schneider-Straße 28, A-6900 Bregenz, Austria
Tel: + 43 664 222 01 31; Fax: + 43664 39 03 373
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.weltderkinder.at
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6212&flag=event
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- EMPLOYMENT: Business and Human Rights Resource Centre [job posting]
Position: Researcher / Training Coordinator
Location: London, UK
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the charity tracking the social and environmental conduct (positive and negative) of over 2500 companies worldwide, is seeking a highly-motivated person to fill the post of Researcher / Training Coordinator. Applicants must have a good working knowledge of Spanish and/or French (Spanish preferred), and previous work or volunteer experience in a human rights, development or environmental NGO. They must also have an interest in training, assisting and supporting others.
They will be responsible to the Director and work closely with him and the other two members of staff to further develop the organisation and its website, recognised internationally as the leading information site on this subject.
Your responsibilities will include: daily online research and input of information on the Resource Centre website; coordinating the training, supervision and support of volunteers, and of future part-time researchers based in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions; assisting with the organisation's Weekly Updates, which draw attention to breaking news and important developments; inviting companies to reply to concerns raised about their conduct, so that their responses can be included in the Updates; assisting with administrative tasks and office management.
Application deadline: 21 September 2005
For more information, contact:
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.business-humanrights.org
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