CRINMAIL 737

8 December 2005 - CRINMAIL 737

 

___________________________________________________________

- UN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM: Human Rights Council Compilation Text [news]

- HIV/AIDS: Cross-country study of educational responses to HIV/AIDS [publication]

- PHILIPPINES: National anti-child trafficking campaign launched [news]

- CHILD RIGHTS: Towards a Transdisciplinary Dialogue [call for papers]

- CHILDREN AND EMERGENCIES: UK Policy on Disaster Risk Reduction [event]

- EMPLOYMENT: Save the Children - Children in Scotland [job postings]

___________________________________________________________

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.

___________________________________________________________

- UN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM: Human Rights Council Compilation Text [news]

[GENEVA, 5 December 2005] - Negotiations on the creation of a Human Rights Council are currently taking place in New York. A Compilation Text on the Human Rights Council will feed discussions. On Monday 28 October, General Assembly President Eliasson circulated the Compilation Text. Negotiations began on 30 November and are expected to end on 16 December 2005.

The Compilation Text looks like the text of a resolution and serves as a basis for a further intergovernmental negotiations. It contains the preambular and operative paragraphs from an Options Paper produced in early November, in addition to a variety of proposals of amendments and deletions by States and regional groups.

However, the Compilation does not yet reflect a consensus: a number of States, including the EU, have expressed concern that their views were not adequately expressed in the text, while multiple proposals from other States, such as Cuba, threaten to inundate and weaken the text. It is expected that the developing consensus will be reflected in a shorter, tighter text, to be distributed later. That text will then form the basis for future negotiations which will proceed on a paragraph by paragraph basis.

[Source: the International Service for Human Rights]

To read the Compilation Text, visit:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6765

For regular updates on negotiations, visit:

UN website on the reform:
http://www.reformtheun.org

International Service for Human Rights website:
http://www.ishr.ch

CRIN news page on the Human Rights Council:
http://www.crin.org/CHR/news

Amnesty International:
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/un-index-eng [Amnesty International]

--------------------------------

- HIV/AIDS: Cross-country study of educational responses to HIV/AIDS [publication]

The Global Campaign for Education recently published a report entitled "Deadly Inertia: a cross-country study of educational responses to HIV/AIDS", which charts the educational responses to HIV and AIDS in 18 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In 2004, education coalitions and HIV/AIDS coalitions came together to discuss their Ministry of Education's responses, as well as their own. Although varied, certain conclusions resonate across all the countries:
- governments are turning a blind eye to the educational needs of orphans and HIV positive students
- insufficient action is being taken to prevent the potential impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers
- donor funding is being directed towards a series of stand-alone initiatives that enjoy little ownership by government
- too much government and donor money is being spent on poorly designed interventions that go unimplemented because the most basic foundations - resources, ownership, training, even basic data - have not been put in place first.

The AIDS epidemic has become a global crisis currently threatening the lives of around 38 million people and devastating entire societies. Education systems have a critical role to play in fighting this epidemic, because of their capacity to reach very large numbers of young people with life-saving information and skills.

A complete primary education can halve the risk of HIV infection for young people; and in fact, basic education has such a powerful preventative effect, especially for young women, that it has been described as the 'social vaccine'. As the epidemic gathers pace, however, it poses increasing risks to education itself, threatening to stop children from enrolling, teachers from teaching and schools from functioning.

For more information, contact:
Tania Boler, Senior Education and HIV Adviser
ActionAid International
Email: [email protected]

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6753

--------------------------------

- PHILIPPINES: National anti-child trafficking campaign launched [news]

[6 December 2005] - ECPAT Philippines along with advocates and development workers launched a week-long national anti-child trafficking campaign in various regions in the country. Joined by government agencies and civil society with young advocates and children themselves, PACT (Philippines against Child Trafficking) for this December launches its theme: "Building communities; Creating a good life for the Filipino children." This theme promotes the rightful access of children to policies and programmes that ensure their development, survival, protection and participation in activities that have significant impact on their lives.

The growing battle to suppress human trafficking, particularly of women and children, is a rising struggle that calls for the involvement of children especially where communities and families fail to ensure their welfare; and which and who may at times, badly influence their concept of better living. Studies indicate the breakdown of families to be among the primary factors that push children to be trafficked, which accounts for the rescue of minors in exploitative situations within the country and across borders.

Considering their lack of knowledge about trafficking, children are also vulnerable due to jobless parents on top of the struggle to achieve better living standards and conditions. Child trafficking case studies reveal the desire of Filipino children to augment family income for the benefit of siblings; however, it is common for trafficked children to lose ties with their families due to illegal acts involved in trafficking. There are also cases where children are recruited by their relatives or through parental consent.

Since its first nationwide campaign in 2003, PACT has annually called for solidarity in combating child trafficking with mass information and community education efforts and the training of trainers in government to better facilitate preventive measures and intervention in communities. The key challenge today is ensuring the valuable implementation of the community-based mechanism placed in every barangay to address the survival, development, protection and participation rights of children.

The PACT 2005 national campaign will culminate on 12 December, in commemoration of the Palermo Protocol to suppress the trafficking in persons. On this day, the Young Persons Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (YP-ACSEC) and other youth organisations from various provinces will bring their advocacy to the public in the call to convict traffickers and exploiters of children.

For more information, contact:
Medge S. Olivares: [email protected]

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6766

--------------------------------

- CHILD RIGHTS: Towards a Transdisciplinary Dialogue [call for papers]

Brock University invites participants to submit abstracts for the conference: "Investment and Citizenship: Towards Transdisciplinary Dialogue in Child and Youth", to be held from 18-21 July 2006 in Ontario, Canada. This conference will be hosted by the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University and dedicated to exploring the current children's rights discourse from multiple perspectives.

The focus is on two of the contemporary, dominant rights-based discourses: investment and citizenship. Through these themes, the conference will examine children's and young peoples' human rights within and through applied contexts. The conference is keenly interested in how it is that rights are being conceptualised and operationalised within domestic legislation, social policies, and institutional settings, as well as comparative rights work and discourses beyond industrialised welfare states such as Canada or United Kingdom nations.

The conference sub-theme is 'child and youth rights-based theoretical approaches in law, policy and institutional practice'. As such, papers, posters, symposia, and workshops related to the promotion, monitoring, and evaluation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) within Canada and abroad are welcomed. Topic areas include:

- Law, policy and institutional practices supporting active citizenship for under-18s
- Theorising, teaching and implementing the CRC in public and post-secondary education
- First Nations, cross-cultural and international perspectives
- Monitoring the CRC and collecting rights-based data
- Participatory rights of vulnerable populations.

Submissions outside of these topic areas are also quite welcome. Graduate students and junior researchers are strongly urged to submit papers and attend.

Keynote speakers include: Ms. Cindy Blackstock (Executive Director, First Nations Child and Family Society), Professor Erica Burman (Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr. Phillip Cook (Institute for Child Rights and Development, Victoria BC), Dr. John Davis (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Jakob Doek (Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations), Dr. Michael Freeman (Professor of English Law and the Editor of the International Journal of Children's Rights), Mr. Stephen Lewis (former Deputy-Executive Director of UNICEF) and The Honourable Senator Landon Pearson (Ottawa).

Submission deadline: 31 January 2006

For more information, contact:
Tom O'Neill, Dawn Zinga, or Richard Mitchell
Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada
Tel: + 1 905 688 5550, ext. 4945
Emails: [email protected]; [email protected], [email protected]
Website: http://www.childsrights.ca

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5917&flag=event

--------------------------------

- CHILDREN AND EMERGENCIES: UK Policy on Disaster Risk Reduction [event]

Date: 12 December 2005
Location: Houses of Parliament, London, UK

Plan UK and the All Party Parliamentary Group of Debt, Aid and Trade are organising a meeting in Parliament to launch the UK Department for International Development (DFID)'s latest policy on disaster risk reduction: Preparing for the worst: Protecting the poor from natural disasters. Speakers will include:

- Anders Wijkman Member of the European Parliament, former Director General of the Swedish Agency for Research Co-operation with Developing Countries (SAREC), Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross, and President of the International Red Cross Disaster Relief Commission.
- Angela Penrose, trustee of Plan UK and formerly Head of Policy at Save the Children UK.
- Senior representative from DFID's Conflict, Humanitarian Affairs and Security Department (CHASE).

Angela Penrose will address the role of children in disaster situations as outlined in her report Children and the Tsunami, to be released next week. Mr. Wijkman will examine the balance between high profile relief operations and disaster mitigation, and their roles in long-term development and EU policy. The CHASE representative will present the conclusions from DFID's forthcoming policy paper on disaster risk reduction and will outline its role within the UK's international development strategy. Following the speakers there will be time for questions from the floor.

For more information, contact:
Feyi Rodway, Plan UK
5 - 6 Underhill Street, London, NW1 7HS, UK
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7482 9571; Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7482 9778
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.plan-international.org

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6741&flag=event

--------------------------------

- EMPLOYMENT: Save the Children - Children in Scotland [job postings]

* SAVE THE CHILDREN: Child Rights Advocate

Location: London, UK

Save the Children UK is seeking to recruit a Child Rights Advocate, to act as a source of leadership and expert advice, and actively achieve changes to policy and practice that enable children to enjoy all their rights. The post holder will undertake international advocacy work and provide ongoing support to Save the Children's national programmes - increasing their awareness of child rights, sharing experience between them and connecting them to international advocacy opportunities. Importantly, the Child Rights Advocate will also lead the development and delivery of an organisational strategy on child rights and children's participation.

Application deadline: 9 January 2006

For more information and to apply online, visit:
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/jobs

*CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND: Conference Co-ordinator

Location: Edinburgh, UK

Children in Scotland is looking for a part-time Conference Co-ordinator to assist the Practice Development Manager in the initiation, design, delivery, administration and evaluation of a comprehensive programme of training and practice development which focuses on services, legislation and other provisions for children and their families in Scotland at national/regional levels.

Application deadline: 9 January 2006

For more information, visit:
http://www.childreninscotland.org.uk/html/jobs/ConferenceCo-ordinatorjob...

___________________________________________________________

The CRINMAIL is an electronic mailing list of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). CRIN does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to the CRINMAIL. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator.

To subscribe, unsubscribe or view list archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.

___________________________________________________________