23 February 2006 CRINMAIL 757
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- UNITED KINGDOM: Inquiry into the Treatment of Children in Penal Custody [publication]
- SOUTH AFRICA: Government Adopts Focused Approach to Help Orphans [news]
- CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: Children's Rights in Peacebuilding [publication]
- CHILD LED ORGANISATIONS: Self Assessment and Planning Tool [publication]
- SOUTHERN EUROPE: Need for New Child Inclusion Policies [conference report]
- CHILD PARTICIPATION: UNICEF Youth Voice Project [website]
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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
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UNITED KINGDOM: Inquiry into the Treatment of Children in Penal Custody [publication]
A UK inquiry, commissioned by the Howard League for Penal Reform (a CRIN member), and carried out by Lord Carlile, looked into the use of restraint techniques and strip searching used on children in custody. The independent investigation found that pain was inflicted to enforce compliance. The study started following the death of a 15-year-old boy in a privately-run secure unit while he was being restrained by three adult staff.
Lord Carlile's Inquiry into the treatment of children in penal custody recommends severely restricting physical intervention, stopping the strip searching of children and ending prison segregation. The report also says that the Children's Minister should assume overall responsibility for children in custody and that more effort should be made to resolve conflict and reduce violence inside institutions. The 107-page report has 45 recommendations, including:
- Mechanical restraints like handcuffs should never be used
- The use of physical interventions must be severely restricted
- Physical force should never be used to secure compliance or as punishment
- Stripping children during searches should end
- Prison segregation units should not be used for children
The report gives positive suggestions for improving relationships, regimes and management systems. It stresses the importance of consistency throughout the penal estate and inside establishments.
Lord Carlile said today: "The rule of law and protection of human rights should apply to all children equally, regardless of whether they are detained in custody or in the community. We found that some of the treatment children in custody experience would in another setting be considered abusive and could trigger a child protection investigation. If children in custody are expected to learn to behave well, they have to be treated well and the staff and various authorities have to set the very highest standards. My team of expert advisers shared my shock at some of the practices we witnessed."
The Inquiry team, comprising 13 experts from the fields of children's welfare, prisons and social services, visited three prison service establishments, three secure training centres and five local authority secure children's homes. More than 80 members of staff were consulted and 30 children interviewed inside institutions and after release.
For more information, contact:
Anita Dockley
Howard League for Penal Reform
1 Ardleigh Road, London N1 4HS, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7249 7373 x 108
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.howardleague.org
The report can be purchased on the Howard League for Penal Reform website.
Read the press release including all 45 recommendations of the report.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Government Adopts Focused Approach to Help Orphans [news]
[JOHANNESBURG, 21 February 2006] - The South African government has begun addressing some of the problems over its delivery of social services, particularly help to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), according to experts.
In the past two years, a strategy to address the shortage of social workers and a change to the law enabling OVC in foster care to access grants has produced results, said Selwyn Jehoma, the acting deputy director-general of social security in the Department of Social Development. "In 2002, we had 150,000 children registered under foster care, now we have 300,000."
But the government has come under constant flak over the delays in processing grant applications for OVC, which leaves families destitute for months, as highlighted by a new study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
The foster care grant is about US $115 a month and is critical for families taking care of OVC, often grandparents, who have no other source of income. Foster parents or guardians can also apply for other grants such as care dependency and child support which amount to about $30 each.
Insufficient capacity and inadequate resources are "two of the most crucial challenges" faced by the government departments battling with an increasing number of OVC and high levels of poverty, said Donald Skinner, one of the authors of the HSRC study.
The HSRC report, 'A situational analysis of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in four districts of South Africa' was conducted over a period of four years in the Free State and North West provinces, which have one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
The government has adopted a policy to retain and recruit social workers by offering them incentives such as higher salaries to address the problem of capacity, said Jehoma. All the nine provinces in the country are expected to almost double the number of social workers over the next two years.
According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the AIDS pandemic has orphaned more than a million children in South Africa, which has the world's highest number of people living with the virus.
The government has also begun to take a more focused approach by developing a national action plan on OVC late last year, pointed out Skinner.
Under the action plan, mechanisms will be put place to fast track delivery of services such as access to birth certificates and identity documents, access to grants, protection from abuse and neglect as well as provision of psychosocial support and the monitoring of vulnerable households, according to the department.
"Last year, we also created a social services agency which will only handle the distribution of grants," said Jehoma. The justice department has also begun to set aside courts to deal exclusively with foster care cases to speed up the process.
The HSRC study has also called for closer co-operation between government agencies and NGOs, who also suffer from under-funding and staff shortages. Jehoma cited a campaign launched with church groups last year to identify vulnerable households as an attempt to work closely with civil society to help OVC.
[Source: IRIN news]
Read the article.
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CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: Children's Rights in Peacebuilding [publication]
Save the Children Norway has recently published a report of a seminar it held in 2005, on the occasion of the Children's Rights Week. The report, "Listen to Us! Children's Rights in Peace Processes and Peace Agreements" focuses on children's role in peace building activities.
The seminar can be regarded as part of the ongoing work of Save the Children Norway to address the issue of children and young people affected by armed conflict, which includes ensuring children's rights in peace agreements and supporting children's initiatives for peace.
Recently Save the Children Norway focused its attention on children's role in peace building. This new focus is reflected in a workshop held in Oslo in December 2001, around the "Childhood 2005" conference, and in Save the Children Norway's strategy for 2006-2009 where the issue of children's rights in peace processes and reconstruction is presented as an expected result.
Through the Oslo seminar, "Building Peace out of war: Children and young people as agents of peace", Save the Children Norway wanted to push the issue one step further, bringing together representatives from civil society at national and international level, academic institutions and NGOs and the Norwegian government in order to respond to the four following issues:
- How can we ensure the inclusion of rights-based action plans for children in peace agreements?
- How can we give recognition and support to children and young person's peace building initiatives?
- What can civil society and UN organisations do about this?
- What can the Norwegian government do, considering the intentions of: the strategic framework for development and its importance for peace; and the Norwegian Development Strategy for children and youth in the south: "Three Billion Reasons"?
The seminar not only supported the Special Representative to the Secretary General's call for an era of application, but also joined the proposal of an era of participation.
For more information, contact:
Sidsel Karin Moe
Save the Children Norway
Postbox 6902, St. Olavs plass, N-0130 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 22 99 09 00; Fax: +47 22 99 08 50
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.reddbarna.no
Listen to Us! Children's Rights in Peace Processes and Peace Agreements
Information on the Oslo conference
Building Peace out of war: Children and young people as agents of peace
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CHILD LED ORGANISATIONS: Self Assessment and Planning Tool [publication]
Save the Children has just released a set of three publications which are intended to help strengthen support to child led initiatives and organisations: "Strengthening Support to Child Led Organisations and Initiatives: the Spider Tool. Self assessment and planning tool for child led initiatives and organisations."
In a colourful and reader-friendly format, these three publications provide a complete guide to using a Spider Tool which has been specially developed to help child led initiatives and organisations assess their own groups, what they are trying to achieve, what they feel they are good at and areas they would like to improve. The Spider Tool therefore helps provide child led initiatives and organisations with a starting point to plan changes and improvements in their groups.
The publications are based on a piloting of the tool by child led groups supported by Save the Children and partner organisations in seven countries and two regions during 2004-2005. The 3 publications combine a Lessons Learnt from the piloting, a revised Spider Tool and an accompanying Facilitators Guide. A list of key resources are contained at the end of each publication.
The set is currently available in English but will also shortly be translated into French, Portuguese and Spanish.
For more information, contact:
Ravi Karkara, Regional Programme Manager
Save the Children Sweden, Regional Programme for South and Central Asia
G.P.O. Box 5850, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: + 977 1 5531928; Fax: +977 1 5527266
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.savethechildren.org.np
More information
To order an electronic or printed copy email:
Ravi Karkara: [email protected] or
Akmal Shareef: [email protected], [email protected]
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SOUTHERN EUROPE: Need for New Child Inclusion Policies [conference report]
The European Foundation for Street Children World-wide (EFSCW) and the Representation of the European Commission in Italy held a European Forum on "Child Inclusion as a Challenge to the Mediterranean Partnership of the EU - the consequences of migration on children at risk in the Southern European Member States" in Italy earlier this month.
The phenomena of increasing migration flows especially with regards to children are representing a growing strain on and challenge for the European Union particularly throughout the Southern European Member State region, which borders many countries of origin.
Which answers can be given at EU level and in the different Member States concerned? Which solutions can be found to prevent the risk of a "ghetto phenomena"? What measures to take at EU- and national level to guarantee a successful insertion of migrant populations including children into the European Union with a special focus on its Mediterranean countries?
The event assessed the situation and problems of migration and unaccompanied children in the different Member States such as France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain and tackled required solutions to the issues at EU-level. It also clearly demonstrated and established the importance of NGOs as "facilitators" and "dialogue initiators" between different institutions, minors at risk and concerned authorities.
For more information, contact:
Melanie Vritschan, Information and Public Relations Officer
European Foundation for Street Children World-wide (EFSCW)
Square Vergote 34, B - 1030 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: + 32 2 347 78 48; Fax: + 32 2 347 79 46
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.enscw.org
Conference report
Information on the European Forum
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CHILD PARTICIPATION: UNICEF Youth Voice Project [website]
UNICEF has recently launched its new UNICEF Youth Voice site - http://www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice. Designed in consultation with young people, this site has now replaced UNICEF UK's The Rights Site. Aimed at 11 to 18-year-olds, the site provides young people with news and information, as well as tips on fundraising, campaigning and spreading the word about children's rights.
Young people can sign up to join UNICEF Youth Voice, a network of young people who want to help to create a world fit for children. They'll receive a bi-monthly newsletter, featuring all the latest opportunities for young people in the UK:
The Youth Voice site provides:
- opportunities to get more directly involved in UNICEF's work
- information about children's rights, including a youth-friendly version of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- up-to-date information about the State of the World's Children, the Millennium Development Goals, and the biggest issues faced by children globally
- all the latest from UNICEF's global campaign, Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS competitions (and games, coming soon)
The UNICEF Youth Voice team welcomes any suggestion or comment.
For more information, contact:
Hannah Wright, UNICEF Youth Voice Web Editor
Email: [email protected]
Visit: http://www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice
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