CRINMAIL 762

14 March 2006 CRINMAIL 762

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- DAY OF GENERAL DISCUSSION: Child's Right to be Heard [call for contributions]

- INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: 124th Session [event]

- YOUTH GANGS: Central America Policy still Focuses on Repression [news]

- CHILDREN AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Children World Water Forum [event]

- COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Work Postponed for a Week [news]

- EMPLOYMENT: Save the Children - Watchlist [job opportunity]

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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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DAY OF GENERAL DISCUSSION: Child's Right to be Heard [call for contributions]

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has decided to devote its next day of general discussion to the theme: "To Speak, Participate and Decide - The Child’s Right to be Heard". The meeting will take place at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, 15 September 2006 from 10am-6pm.

The meeting is open to representatives of non-governmental organisations, children and their organisations/networks, UN programmes and agencies, governments and other interested individuals, experts and organisations.

Objectives

The aim of the discussion will be to explore the meaning of article 12 and its linkages to other articles of the Convention, focus on identifying gaps, good practices and priority issues and promote child participation at all levels. For more information on the approach and objectives of the Discussion Day, read the outline document.

In order to facilitate an in depth discussion of these issues, the Committee has decided to convene two working groups which should focus on the two following sub-themes:

The first working group will concentrate on the child’s right to be heard in judicial and administrative proceedings including those related to civil and criminal law, family and alternative care, protection, health, immigration status and schooling.
The second working group will focus on children as active participants in society in various settings such as family, school, associations and politics. A copy of the outline of the issues to be discussed is attached.

NGO contributions

NGOs and children are invited to submit written contributions on the themes mentioned above to the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) as soon as possible. The Committee requests that written contributions be limited to a maximum of seven pages. Although documents may be submitted in English, French or Spanish, they will not be translated into the other languages. Oral contributions from NGOs are also welcome during the day itself but should be limited to interventions in the debate rather than formal statements.

Written contributions should be sent electronically to [email protected]. Guidelines and additional information are available on the OHCHR website. Submission deadline: 30 June 2006

Registration

As the meeting is open to the public, written invitations will not be issued by the United Nations or the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. For security reasons and due to limited space, attendance at the meeting requires advance registration. Please note that there is no funding available for travel expenses either from the United Nations or the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and no assistance can be given for visas, travel or accommodation arrangements.

Registration deadline: 1 September 2006. Those who wish to receive copies of background papers via email should register prior to 28 July 2006.

More information

For registration and to submit written contributions, please contact:
Secretariat, Committee on the Rights of the Child
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/discussion.htm

For questions regarding NGO contributions, please contact:
Laura Theytaz-Bergman
NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Email: [email protected]

CRIN news
- Events calendar - English / Français / Español
- NGO submissions for the 2006 Discussion Day
- General information on Discussion Days
- News page on the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Information about the 43rd session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

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INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: 124th Session [event]

Date: 27 February - 17 March 2006
Location: Washington DC, US

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is currently holding its 124th session in Washington DC, United States. During this session, the Commission will discuss concerns about detention centres for young offenders in Brazil, the situation of indigenous people and child work in Central America, the situation of migrants in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, and violence against women in Latin America.

The IACHR is one of two bodies in the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The other human rights body is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is located in San José, Costa Rica.

The IACHR is an autonomous organ of the Organisation of American States (OAS). Its mandate is found in the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The IACHR represents all of the member States of the OAS. It is composed of seven experts who act independently, without representing any particular country. The members of the IACHR are elected by the General Assembly of the OAS.

The Commission's main function is to monitor compliance and defense of human rights in the Americas. The Commission's powers are derived from the Charter, but other Inter-American human rights Conventions and Protocols have authorised the Commission to supervise the compliance of Member states with their obligations regarding these Conventions.

The IACHR meets in ordinary and special sessions several times a year. The ordinary sessions usually last for about three weeks and take place twice a year. During these sessions, the Commission dedicates one week to the hearings and working meetings on various cases and also analyses specific topics or the situation of human rights in a country.

These sessions are important for human rights organisations and advocates because they can provide the Commission with information about a topic and request its intervention in resolving an issue, or appeal for the investigation of a particular situation.

CRIN has created a new web page on child rights at the Inter-American Commission. This provides up-to-date information about the work of the Commission, news updates about child rights at the current session, country reports, and useful links and contacts.

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YOUTH GANGS: Central America Policy still Focuses on Repression [news]

[13 March 2006] - Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras announced an all out war on gangs this February “to take back the streets of our cities held hostage by gangs for the past 10 years, and suffering a reign of terror”. The joint declaration was issued at the end of the conference Journalism, Violence and Gangs in Central America, organised by the Inter American Press Society (SIP) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The meeting brought together regional newspaper editors, governmental authorities and representatives of the Spanish language press in the United States, as well as lawyers, journalists and students. “We want to do away with the rampant violence in our streets, the children turned into cold blooded killers and the pain and mourning,” said the Minister of Governance of Guatemala, Carlos Vielman. “Mara members are involved in almost all criminal activities from drug felonies to sex crimes and murders,” said Vielman, adding: “Gang members live in a culture of violence; they turn exclusively to the maras, or gangs, for protection, prestige and the solution of their problems.”

The Minister of Governance of El Salvador, René Figeroa, has described the maras as “inhuman, a threat to national security, from the United States to Latin America”. He further added: “We must teach these groups that crime does not pay.”

Honduran Minister of Security, General Álvaro Romero, however, was the sole voice of discord. He disclosed that he had spoken “over the phone with mara leaders who claimed they were ready to establish dialogue with the government”. The general further explained that the odds are against the social re-insertion of former gang members who rarely come out. The fact they sport face tattoos makes it even harder. According to the current Mano Dura gang repression policies, mara membership is a crime. “They are intelligent in spite of their aggressiveness,” the General stated. Romero also announced that he is interested in reincorporating ex-gang members to society “so they can have a normal life”, but did not offer any solutions.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, admitted that the violence sparked by gangs is rampant in Honduras, and enjoined his compatriots to help him combat the scourge. “The maras are a serious problem that affects all of us, irrespective of class, we must put the nation back on course by adopting policies that are based on public morals and the common good,” President Zelaya said. He explained that gangs are at the service of the drug trade and organised crime. “Our prisons are overcrowded with sick children and youths, we must do something for them,” said President Zelaya.

International Affairs Director at the United States of America’s Internal Security Department, Cresencio Arcos reaffirmed his nation’s resolute combat of the maras.

According to the SIP, the conference will make available tools and methodology to journalists covering violence and gangs. The conference stopped short however, of analysing editorial policy in the media.

It is estimated that gangs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and Nicaragua employ, jointly, over 100 000 members.

[Source: COAV - Children in Organised Armed Violence]

More information

COAV press release

Views of Young Guatemalans on How to End Gang Violence [ID21]

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CHILDREN AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Children World Water Forum [event]

Date: 16-22 March 2006
Location: Mexico City, Mexico

The second Children’s World Water Forum will start this week with the 4th World Water Forum. More than one hundred children aged 11-15 will work together to identify the best examples of local action by children on water issues. The event is framed within the decades Education for Sustainable Development and Water for Life, launched by the United Nations Organisation in 2005. The Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA) will coordinate this event.

The children (from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific) will present their local actions in water, environment and sanitation. Thematic workshops will introduce participatory tools and educational activities designed to enhance and support the local actions of children. These workshops will be conducted by programme partners such as: UNICEF, the Japan Water Forum, UNEP, UNESCO, UN-Habitat and Project WET, between local action presentations.

Young participants will work together at the Children’s Forum to identify five local actions which are to be formally presented during the Intergenerational Dialogue Session at the Thematic Forum. Participants will write and present a “Call for Action” to the Ministers, which will be designed to build on the vision set forth in the Children’s Water Manifesto at the Third World Water Forum.

For more information, contact:
Rita Vazquez
Tel: +52 (777) 329 3673
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx

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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Work Postponed for a Week [news]

[13 March 2006] - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights opened its 62nd session in Geneva on Monday 13 March and then almost immediately suspended its work for one week, as diplomats at UN Headquarters in New York continued to seek wider consensus on a new stronger Human Rights Council to replace the much criticised body.

Ambassador Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros of Peru, chairman of the session, said the Commission was facing an “extraordinary situation,” particularly because of the ongoing negotiations to create the Council which they understand would “strengthen the capacities of the United Nations human rights system.”

The Commission decided by consensus to suspend its work until Monday, 20 March at 10am.

As proposed, the new Council would have a higher status and greater accountability than the Commission that meets yearly in Geneva. It would be a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, meet year round as opposed to the six-week annual session of the Commission, and its members would be elected by a majority of all 191 UN Members.

On Friday, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson postponed until early this week a plenary meeting on the Council, which the United States opposes in its current proposed form, in a bid to secure wider consensus on what Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called an essential element in UN reform.

The US feels that as proposed the new body does not go far enough and has called for renegotiation, a move that Mr. Annan has said “chagrined” him, warning that renegotiations could “unravel” the whole mechanism.

Mr. Eliasson has said there is sympathy from many quarters for some of the US objections, adding that proposals put forward by European and other countries, which support the Council, should pave the way for consensus.

Mr. Annan, in presenting his reforms a year ago, wanted elections to the Council to be by a two-thirds majority, and the proposed draft’s failure to require this is among the main US objections.

But in noting that he had been unable to secure his goal on this point, Mr. Annan has repeatedly said that the Council, as proposed by Mr. Eliasson after months-long consultations, could be a basis for more effective human rights protection.

More information

Read the UN press release

Agenda of 62nd session

CRIN website
- Page on child rights at the 62nd session of the Commission on Human Rights
- News page on the reform / work of the Commission

UN websites
- Reform the UN
- OHCHR website - Commission on Human Rights
- OHCHR website - Human Rights Council

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EMPLOYMENT: Save the Children - Watchlist [job opportunity]

Save the Children Canada: Regional Programme Manager Asia

Save the Children Canada is looking for a Regional Programme Manager for Asia, based in Delhi, India to work closely with the Regional Director Asia, in strengthening Save the Children Canada’s impact across the globe as a fully contributing member of Save the Children Canada. The Regional Programme Manager will be responsible for planning, providing oversight to existing programmes and new programme development in the region.

Application deadline: 17 March 2006

For more information, contact:
Regional Director - Asia, Regional office - Asia
Save the Children, Canada, A-20, Kailash Colony
New Delhi - 110 048, India
Email: [email protected]

Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict: Programme Manager

The Watchlist Programme Manager will be responsible for managing activities in the area of capacity strengthening with local NGO partners and networks. This includes management of all in-country projects related to monitoring, reporting and advocacy to end violations against children in armed conflict situations. This position will have overall responsibility for management of Watchlist’s “Partnerships for Protecting Children in Armed Conflict (PPCC),” a Nepal-based child protection working group. The Programme Manager will also contribute to other areas of Watchlist’s work as relevant, such as communications strategies, public awareness, advocacy and development of policies and fundraising.

Application deadline: 27 March 2006

For more information, conatc:
Mary Jane Escobar-Collins, Officer of Board Relations and Operations
Women’ s Commission for Refugee Women and Children
122 East 42nd Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10168-1289, US
Fax: +1 212 551 3180
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.watchlist.org

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