20 December 2005 - CRINMAIL 740
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- WORLD TRADE TALKS: Ministerial text a betrayal of development promises [news]
- MOROCCO: Girls Working as Domestics Denied Basic Rights [publication]
- UNICEF: State of the World's Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible [publication]
- IRAN: Juvenile offender executed despite calls for clemency [news]
- EDUCATION: Stealing the Future: Corrupting in the Classroom [publication]
- ROMANIA: Supporting the government's ban on inter-country adoptions [news]
- EMPLOYMENT: SOS-Kinderdorf International - Children in Scotland - University of Nottingham [job postings]
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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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- WORLD TRADE TALKS: Ministerial text a betrayal of development promises [news]
[LONDON, 18 December 2005] - International agency Oxfam condemned a text presented on the final day of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong as failing to deliver on development promises. It said the proposal, which emerged after all night negotiations, was unacceptable and reflected rich countries interests far more than those of developing countries. It would not deliver the reforms poor countries needed.
"This is a profoundly disappointing text and a betrayal of development promises by rich countries, whose interests have prevailed yet again. Poor countries have had to fight a rearguard action simply to keep some of their issues on the table. Small progress on some aspects of agriculture is more than cancelled out by extremely damaging proposals on services and industry," said Phil Bloomer, Head of Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair campaign. "Developing countries have been put in an impossible position. Either accept a text which is seriously flawed, or be blamed for the failure of the round," he added.
Ministers and commentators are assuming that another WTO meeting will take place early next year to finish off the deal but Bloomer warned that "unless rich countries fundamentally change their attitudes to these negotiations no amount of extra time will make a difference."
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6824
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- MOROCCO: Girls Working as Domestics Denied Basic Rights [publication]
Tens of thousands of girls working as domestics in Morocco face physical and psychological abuse as well as economic exploitation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Moroccan law denies these children basic labour rights, and the authorities rarely punish employers who abuse them.
The 60-page report, "Inside the Home, Outside the Law: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers in Morocco," documents cases of girls as young as five working 100 or more hours per week, without rest breaks or days off, for as little as six and a half Moroccan Dirhams (about 70 US cents) a day.
Current and former child domestics describe frequent physical and verbal abuse, denial of education and of adequate food and medical care, and sexual harassment by employers or their relatives. Some domestics said that employers forced them to work against their will by beating them, locking them indoors, or refusing to pay those who wanted to quit.
"There is a myth that these girls are improving themselves by working," said Clarisa Bencomo, children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The reality is that far too many girls end up suffering lasting physical and psychological harm."
Young and often illiterate, child domestics frequently lack the skills and the opportunities to seek help in leaving abusive workplaces. Hidden away in private homes, most do not attend school, rarely go out except for brief errands, and have only infrequent contact with their families. Some girls are brave enough or desperate enough to risk running away. But many more put up with abuse because they lack money and knowledge about how to return home, fear employers' threats of violence or denunciation to police, or fear getting lost or attacked if they try to make it home on their own.
Morocco's Labour Code does not regulate domestic work, and labour inspectors are not authorised to enter private homes to investigate violations of the legal ban on employment of children under 15. Police, prosecutors, and judges rarely enforce Penal Code protections against abuse in cases involving child domestics. Government child protection programmes rarely prioritise child domestic labour, are poorly co-ordinated and lack sufficient funds for implementation.
Human Rights Watch called on the Moroccan government to enforce the legal minimum age of 15 for all child workers, ensure domestic workers the same rights as other workers, eliminate the worst forms of child domestic labour, and sanction employers and labour recruiters who abuse children.
For more information, contact:
Human Rights Watch, Children's Rights Division
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor, New York, New York 10118, US
Tel: + 1 212 290 4700; Fax: + 1 212 736 1300
Website: http://www.hrw.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6823
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- UNICEF: State of the World's Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible [publication]
[LONDON, 14 December 2005] - Hundreds of millions of children are suffering from severe exploitation and discrimination and have become virtually invisible to the world, UNICEF said last week in its 2006 State of the World's Children, which explores the causes of exclusion and the abuses children experience.
The agency said that millions of children disappear from view when trafficked or forced to work in domestic servitude. Other children, such as street children, live in plain sight but are excluded from fundamental services and protections. Not only do these children endure abuse, most are shut out from school, healthcare and other vital services they need to grow and thrive.
"The State of the World's Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible" is a sweeping assessment of the world's most vulnerable children, whose rights to a safe and healthy childhood are exceptionally difficult to protect. These children are growing up beyond the reach of development campaigns and are often invisible in everything from public debate and legislation, to statistics and news stories.
Without focused attention, millions of children will remain trapped and forgotten in childhoods of neglect and abuse, with devastating consequences for their long-term well-being and the development of nations. The report argues that any society with an interest in the welfare of its children and its own future must not allow this to happen.
The report argues that children in four circumstances are most likely to become invisible and forgotten: children without a formal identity, children without parental care, children affected by armed conflict, and children in the worst forms of child labour.
The State of the World's Children is UNICEF's annual flagship publication. It is the most comprehensive survey of global trends affecting children and provides the most thorough almanac of up-to-date statistical data on children.
For more information, contact:
UNICEF
H-9, 3 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, US
Tel: + 1 212 824 6127; Fax: + 1 212 326 7731
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unicef.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6795
* VOICES OF YOUTH: What Young People Are Saying: Excluded and Invisible Children
In conjunction with the publication of the "State of the World's Children 2006" report on excluded and invisible children, UNICEF's Voices of Youth project held discussions on how young people think these children can be reached. These discussions are included in the 19th issue of "What Young People Are Saying" (December 2005), Voices of Youth's bimonthly newsletter.
The objective of "What Young People Are Saying" is to further links between programming and the concerns of today's youth. By providing easy to navigate summaries, relevant quotations, and suggested action points, "What Young People Are Saying" offers an additional means of connecting with young people globally and interweaving their concerns with UNICEF's priorities and objectives.
For more information, contact:
Victor Karunan, Senior Advisor
Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP)
Programme Division, UNICEF Headquarters
3 United Nations Plaza, New York 10017, USA
Tel: + 1 212 326 7266; Fax: + 1 212 824 6470
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Website: http://www.unicef.org/voy
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6818
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- IRAN: Juvenile offender executed despite calls for clemency [news]
[LONDON, 13 December 2005] - Twenty year-old Afghan national, Rostam Tajik, was executed in public in Esfahan on 10 December - ironically, the day which the UN has marked annually as Human Rights Day. He was reportedly sentenced to qisas (retribution) by Branch 9 of the General Court of Esfahan for the May 2001 murder of a woman, Nafiseh Rafi'i, committed when he was 16 years old. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.
On 9 December, Philip Alston, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called on the Iranian authorities not to proceed with the execution.
The Special Rapporteur said: "At a time when virtually every other country in the world has firmly and clearly renounced the execution of people for crimes they committed as children, the Iranian approach is particularly unacceptable. It is all the more surprising because the obligation to refrain from such executions is not only clear and incontrovertible, but the Government of Iran has itself stated that it will cease this practice."
As a State party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18.
Nevertheless, Iran has executed at least eight juvenile offenders so far this year, two of whom were still under 18 at the time they were executed. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors States' implementation of the CRC, in January 2005 urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18, and abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases.
The Committee said that it deplore[d] the fact that Iran had continued to carry out such executions even after it ratified the CRC, including the execution of Iman Farokhi, for an offence committed when he was 17 years old, that had taken place on the very day of the Committee's examination of Iran's second periodic report.
Draft legislation that would prohibit the use of the death penalty for offences committed under the age of 18 has been under consideration for four years, but has not yet been passed.
Iran has executed at least five other people since the beginning of December.
[Source: Amnesty International]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6821
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- EDUCATION: Stealing the Future: Corrupting in the Classroom [publication]
[BERLIN, 9 December 2005] - Corruption in education seriously undermines political, economic and social, development and has a devastating effect on the lives of students and parents, according to "Stealing the Future - Corruption in the Classroom", a research report launched earlier this month by Transparency International.
Bribes and other illegal fees required for admission to schools, to ensure good grades or for lessons in the required curriculum are a heavy burden on families, particularly for the poor, and help explain low school enrolment and high drop-out rates.
"A basic textbook and a good grade should not depend on greasing the palm of a corrupt teacher or administrator," said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International. "Poor parents who are forced to pay up may choose instead to feed their families, leaving a generation of students without a proper education and perpetuating the poverty trap."
Studies carried out by Transparency International chapters in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Georgia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Sierra Leone and Zambia show the extent and forms of corruption in schools, universities and in education administration, and illustrate the need for civil society to work hand-in-hand with parents, students and teachers to hold governments, schools and universities accountable for good education.
"Stealing the Future", an 85-page booklet, is being launched as part of International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December 2005). It presents the local reality of corruption in education and documents hands-on tools to prevent it. Through public opinion polls, household surveys and tracking of expenditures at the local level, the studies present a panorama of views and experiences.
Corruption in textbook and school building procurement deprives students of the materials and supportive learning environment they need to succeed. Corruption in teaching appointments and promotions allows poorly qualified educators to reach positions they do not deserve, and significantly lowers the quality of teaching. But most importantly, corruption at schools and universities contradicts basic values of integrity, equity and the public good, ultimately destroying the trust in government that is necessary for social and economic development.
At the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000, 180 nations committed to achieving quality education for all the world's children by 2015. In the same year, the United Nations Millennium Summit endorsed the achievement of universal primary education as the second Millennium Development Goal. Corruption in education severely diminishes the chances of achieving these important goals.
For more information, contact:
Transparency International International Secretariat
Alt Moabit 96, 10559 Berlin, Germany
Tel: + 49 30 343 8200; Fax: + 49 30 3470 3912
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.transparency.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6820
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- ROMANIA: Supporting the government's ban on inter-country adoptions [news]
The International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO) is calling on all Euro Parliamentarians to enforce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and back the Romanian Government's moratorium on inter-country adoption. IFCO sent a statement to some Euro parliamentarians, in the light of the voting taking place this month concerning Romania's progress toward European integration.
How a society cares for its children reveals its innermost values and principles. Following the extreme problems created under the Ceausescu regime, the Romanian Government has taken responsibility for tackling this legacy and has made great strides forward to improve its child-care system. One central part of this improvement has been the ban on inter-country adoptions brought in 2001. Inter-country adoption created massive corruption and hindered the development of social services within Romania.
IFCO is currently carrying out an evaluation of the maternal assistant network, comprising of foster families for many of the children who now live in a substitute family instead of an institution. There are many such initiatives helping and supporting the Romanian authorities take responsibility for improving the care of children.
IFCO is asking Euro Parliamentarians to back these efforts by resisting the powerful international adoption lobby. While these lobbyists are concerned with the rights of the adults who wish to adopt Romanian babies, IFCO is concerned with the rights and best interests of the children: to be brought up in their own country and culture. If they cannot live safely with their biological parents, then their extended family, a foster family, an adoptive family or a family-type home should be found, within their country.
For more information contact:
Bep van Sloten, Executive Manager
International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO)
Anna Paulownastraat 103, 2518 BC Den Haag, The Netherlands
Tel: + 3170 346 2153; Fax: + 3170 427 9242
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ifco.info
To read the statement in full, visit:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6822
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- EMPLOYMENT: SOS-Kinderdorf International - Children in Scotland - University of Nottingham [job postings]
* SOS-KINDERDORF INTERNATIONAL: Advocacy Officer
SOS-Kinderdorf International is the umbrella organisation for more than 130 affiliated national SOS Children's Village associations worldwide. It provides family-based childcare and supports vulnerable children and their families through educational, social and medical programmes. SOS-Kinderdorf International is recruiting an Advocacy Officer to support the development of SOS Children's Villages advocacy work in the field of "children without parental care". Assignment will be based in Vienna, Austria, as part of the Liaison and Advocacy Office team.
The role of the Advocacy Officer will be to support the development of SOS Children's Villages advocacy work (guidance, concepts, planning, strategy) in the field of "children without parental care"; promote and advise related capacity-building, develop concepts and tools for key SOS staff on all levels; contribute to planning, co-ordinating and implementing experience based advocacy activities on international level.
Application deadline: 5 January 2006
For more information, contact:
SOS-Kinderdorf International, Human Resources
Hermann-Gmeiner-Str. 51, A-6021 Innsbruck, Austria
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.sos-kd.org/jobs
* CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND: Senior Manager
Children in Scotland is at the heart of Scotland's largest network dedicated to improving the lives of children and their families. An experienced Senior Manager is required to lead a team of dedicated staff to provide independent advice and information on additional support for learning to children, young people, their families and professionals working with them, across Scotland.
Application deadline: 10 January 2006
For more information, contact:
Children in Scotland
Princes House, 5 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh EH2 4RG, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)131 222 2402; Fax: + 44 (0)131 228 8585
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.childreninsscotland.org.uk
* UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM: Human Rights Law Centre Research Assistant
The University of Nottingham's Human Rights Law Centre are seeking to recruit a Research Assistant to support the research and training programmes of the Human Rights Law Centre. The post holder will contribute to the research and training projects of the Centre, conceptualising and drafting proposals for research projects, producing research outputs relating to the Centre's programmes and undertaking administrative duties related to activities run by the Centre, including fundraising and donor relations. In particular the successful candidate will support the Research and Programmes Co-ordinator in the carrying out of his duties.
Application deadline: 10 January 2006
For more information, contact:
Hannah Curd, Human Rights Law Centre
School of Law, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hr/vacancies/vacancies.html
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