28 March 2006 - CRINMAIL 766
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- COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Last Session Hands Over to New Council [news]
- SOUTH EAST ASIA: Capacity Building in Children’s Participation [publication]
- STREET CHILDREN: EU Fundraising and Project Management Seminar [event]
- CHILD SPONSORSHIP: Research by Plan International [call for researchers]
- UNITED KINGDOM: Campaign to End Government's Detention Policy [news]
- CHILDREN OF IMPRISONED PARENTS: European Perspectives [event]
- EMPLOYMENT: SOS-Kinderdorf - Consortium for Street Children [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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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Last Session Hands Over to New Council [news]
The much-criticised United Nations Human Rights Commission ended its last session yesterday after adopting a Resolution to transfer all its work to the recently created and stronger Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to hold its first meeting on 19 June in Geneva after the UN General Assembly votes on its members in May.
Addressing the 62nd and final session of the Commission, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the overwhelming General Assembly vote on 15 March to set up the 47-member Human Rights Council marked “a major stride forward” for the UN’s human rights system, although she said there was still much to do.
“While we can say for sure that the decision taken in New York was one of historical significance, its actual impact on people’s lives is still to be determined. Much will rest on the profound culture shift that must accompany this institutional reform,” Ms. Arbour said.
Ms. Arbour went on to say that it was important for the new Council to “quickly find a way to deal with its substantive mandate,” adding that its credibility “requires quick action on matters of substance,” although she added that people should not forget some of the achievements of the 60 years of human rights work performed by the Commission.
In particular, she highlighted the fact that in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the Commission drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948.
However despite these successes, the Commission – which meets just yearly in Geneva – has come in for increasing criticism over the years as being ineffective and not accountable, and so the idea of the Council was put forward by Secretary-General Kofi Annan a year ago.
The Council has several elements making it a stronger body than the Commission, including its higher status as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, its increased number of meetings throughout the year, equitable geographical representation and also the voting rights associated with membership.
However despite these improvements, the United States has said that the Council does not go far enough and it was among the four that voted against setting up the body earlier this month, although the Resolution was adopted by a vote of 170 in favour, with only 4 against and 3 abstentions. Despite its ‘no’ vote however, Mr. Annan has said that US Ambassador John Bolton has pledged that Washington will work cooperatively with other Member States to make the Council as effective as possible.
Chris Sidoti, from the International Service for Human Rights, read a letter signed by 265 non-governmental organisations, including CRIN. He said that during the 60 years of the Commission on Human Rights, NGOs had played an important role in the promotion and protection of human rights. Unfortunately the arrangement made for their participation in the final session of the Commission through a single statement did not allow this important role to be reflected.
NGOs had brought to the Commission the voices of victims of violations throughout the world. That diversity and those voices could not be encapsulated in a single statement. It was noted with disappointment that they were missing from the final session of the Commission. It had been decided, therefore, that a single non-governmental statement to assess the work of the Commission would not be made. The non-governmental organisations did not accept that this was an appropriate way to proceed now or in the future and urged States to acknowledge this.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7809
For updated information, keep checking: http://www.crin.org/chr/news
More information:
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SOUTH EAST ASIA: Capacity Building in Children’s Participation [publication]
Save the Children Sweden recently released a publication on capacity building in children’s participation. Creating an Enabling Environment contains the outcome of an overall documentation and assessment of capacity building in children’s participation during 2000-2004 which examined the quality and cost effectiveness of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes, making recommendations about future work in children’s participation in Viet Nam and the South East Asia and Pacific (SEAP) region.
In 2000, Save the Children Sweden (SCS) conducted an exploratory assessment in Viet Nam on the understanding of children’s participation among its staff, partners, and other agencies, as well as the level of children’s participation. The report of the 2000 assessment acknowledged that further skills were needed to involve children in programming.
As part of a larger capacity-building process, training was recommended to enhance skills and knowledge of staff and partners of SCS in Viet Nam and the SEAP region. Opportunities were created for the involvement of children, through pilot projects relating children-friendly learning environments in schools and a children-friendly district in Ho Chi Minh City. National forums were organised where children could discuss and share their experiences about issues affecting their lives.
All this work aimed to contribute to creating an enabling environment for children’s participation, providing opportunities for children to participate and ensuring that adults have the knowledge and skills to facilitate children’s involvement.
The text of this report is divided into six chapters. The first two introductory chapters examine the largely documentary information about the context in which the capacity-building programme took place, with attention to the approach taken to participation by the Government of Viet Nam over time, and the response of SCS in Viet Nam. The third chapter describes the research process, in which three embedded research projects took place using a common protocol and core set of research tools. This chapter also describes the methods used and their limitations, as well as the types and numbers of research participants.
Chapters 4 and 5 describe and analyse the research data, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, comparing and contrasting the data collected from different groups and using different tools. The final chapter turns to a deeper analysis of what the data mean and makes recommendations both for the practice of children’s participation and for future SCS programming in Viet Nam.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7781
For more information, contact:
Henk van Beers, Advisor on children’s participation
Save the Children Sweden - South East Asia Pacific Regional Office
14th Floor, Maneeya Centre South Building, 518/5 Ploenchit Road
Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Tel: + 66 2 684 1046
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.scswedenseap.org
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STREET CHILDREN: EU Fundraising and Project Management Seminar [event]
Date: 27–28 April 2006
Location: Brussels, Belgium
The European Foundation for Street Children Worldwide (EFSCW) is committed to the improvement of the rights and situations of children at risk and particularly street children. As a platform for lobbying and advocacy towards the European Union (EU), it provides concerned NGOs with information concerning all EU children and youth-related policies and assistance programmes and facilitates the exchange of best practice between them.
EFSCW is organising a Fundraising and Project Management seminar on EU funding and assistance programmes for NGOs working for abandoned children and youth.
The learning objectives of the seminar will be:
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to convey information for ways of making autonomous use of all relevant EU support programmes for project financing of European and international organisations working for abandoned children and youth.
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to teach knowledge and practical project management skills relevant for the successful understanding of the EU application process by means of concrete working examples.
Participants (10-15) will be representatives from social NGOs working for child and youth protection, exercising their activities for at-risk children and youth in the EU Member and Accession States and in developing countries.
The speakers will be experts, either direct representatives of the European Commission and more specifically of the children and youth programmes presented at the event, or high-profile consultants with years of experience and expertise in the European Commission’s social policy and programmes.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7813
For more information, contact:
Melanie Vritschan
Information and Public Relations Officer
European Foundation for Street Children Worldwide
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
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CHILD SPONSORSHIP: Research by Plan International [call for researchers]
Plan International is seeking proposals from researchers to study the developmental impact of child sponsorship. This research requires an independent, multidisciplinary and unprejudiced team of researchers.
The research will be conducted in two parts over 2006. Part 1 will concentrate on a review of the literature and perceptions, the conceptual framework and preparation for Part 2, the main part of the research project. The empirical methodology of Part 2 will be scientific and rigorous. The inclusion of the explicit methodological approach to the research will be a crucial factor for Plan to assess proposals. Core costs and expenses associated with the research will be paid.
For development organisations largely funded through child sponsorship like Plan, the alignment of sponsorship processes with development programmes remains a challenge. At the same time, there is growing interest in the potential of child sponsorship relationships to create a ‘global civil society’ centred on the rights of children in developing countries. Some organisations are starting to use the sponsorship relationship to motivate and empower children, and use their communications with sponsors to educate them about development issues and encourage them to lobby their governments. This orientation is new and the organisational changes required to fully meet the potential of such linkages is still in its formative stage.
In order to contribute to assisting Plan in its transition to being a child centred community development organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible, the research has three objectives:
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to critically assess and review the effects of sponsorship processes and communications items on the attitude, understanding and behaviour of sponsored children, their families and communities, as well as the effects on sponsors and their families
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to draw out lessons from this experience to determine the extent to which sponsorship processes and communications contribute to a child centred community development process, the promotion and execution of child rights, the meaningful participation of children in development, and – via sponsors – the effects on policies and other structural causes which prevent children from realising their potential.
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to inform Plan’s future development strategies in the best interests of children
Application deadline: 13 April 2006
For more information, contact:
Dr Simon Heap, Global Research Portfolio Co-ordinator
Plan International Headquarters
Chobham House, Christchurch Way,
Woking, Surrey, GU21 6JG, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1483 733325
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.plan-international.org
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UNITED KINGDOM: Campaign to End Government's Detention Policy [news]
[LONDON, 28 March 2006] - More than two thousand children a year are locked up by the UK Government for immigration purposes, a major new campaign claims today. Launching the campaign, No Place for A Child, The Refugee Council (UK, Scotland and Wales), Save the Children and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) are calling on the UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke to end this inhumane and unnecessary practice and to use viable alternatives that take into account children’s welfare.
The children are detained in immigration detention centres with their families, with one in three children held for more than a week - and some for months. They do not know for how long they will be detained, and can be held for an unlimited time. These children have committed no crime.
The campaign is demanding an end to detention for children because:
- it causes children distress, depression, creates behavioural changes and confusion
- it can cause and exacerbate physical health problems; and lead to lack of sleep and weight loss
- it disrupts a child’s education, and can seriously undermine their ability to learn
- it runs contrary to various international standards, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Home Office does not publish figures showing exactly how many children are detained with their families. The campaign is calling on Charles Clarke to release information clarifying the issue.
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children Chief Executive said: "Children come to the UK with their families to seek protection. Yet these already vulnerable children can find themselves forcibly removed from their familiar surroundings - home, school, friends, clothes and toys. They are locked up having committed no crime. This is no way to treat children. Unless Charles Clarke acts now children will continue to suffer the consequences of detention - becoming depressed, suffering from nightmares, and having difficulty eating."
The campaign believes that alternative methods should be considered, such as a successfully trialled system where asylum seekers are monitored by case-workers. This system has been proven to be both more effective and cheaper than detention.
Today the campaign will be launched in the UK Parliament when Members of Parliament (MPs) team up for a joint meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Children and Refugees. The groups will commission a joint report into alternatives to detention, and call for more transparent statistics.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7810
For more information, contact:
Save the Children UK
1 St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: +44 20 7012 6400; Fax: +44 20 7012 6963
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk
More information:
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CHILDREN OF IMPRISONED PARENTS: European Perspectives [event]
Date: 12-13 May 2006
Location: Paris, France
The European Committee for Children of Imprisoned Parents (EUROCHIPS), founded by Save the Children and Fédération des Relais Enfants Parents, is organising a two-day conference in Paris on the issue of children of imprisoned parents within the European Union.
The conference will serve to foster the exchange of expertise and “good” practice, thus providing professionals and volunteers with better tools and resources for working with children of imprisoned parents. The conference will also serve to raise awareness on a national and European level as to the situation of this group of children. An estimated 700,000 children are separated from an imprisoned parent each year within the European Union.
Participants should include early childhood professionals and practitioners, prison and probation services, justice ministry representatives, magistrates, international institutions and NGOs and associations. Some 300 to 350 participants from France, Belgium, Netherlands, the UK, Northern Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Luxemburg, Greece, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are expected to attend. The conference will be in English and French.
A book published by EUROCHIPS exploring various initiatives in Europe for children with imprisoned parents will be presented at the conference. Aimed at professionals and volunteers, it will include themes such as: influencing public policy; remaining a parent in prison; training and awareness-raising campaigns; children visiting imprisoned parents; and promoting a child’s rights approach to maintaining contact with imprisoned parents.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7798
For more information, contact:
EUROCHIPS
Boite Postale 38, 4-6 rue Charles Floquet
92122 Montrouge Cedex, France
Tel: +33 (0)1 42 53 71 85
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.eurochips.org
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EMPLOYMENT: SOS-Kinderdorf - Consortium for Street Children [job postings]
SOS-Kinderdorf International is the umbrella organisation for more than 130 affiliated national SOS Children's Village associations worldwide. SOS-Kinderdorf International has a vacancy for the position of liaison officer, to be based in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the Liaison and Advocacy Office. The postholder will be in charge of representation, networking and advocacy towards the institutions of the European Union and Brussels-based NGO-networks on child rights and child care related issues, both inside and outside the European Union; liaising with the services of the European Commission, in particular on human development and humanitarian aid issues; developing related policies and strategies.
Application deadline: 12 April 2006
More information on the website:
SOS-Kinderdorf International
Human Resources
Hermann-Gmeiner-Str. 51, A - 6021 Innsbruck, Austria
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org
- Consortium for Street Children: Corporate Fundraiser
The Consortium for Street Children (CSC) is a well established and internationally recognised NGO working to promote and protect the rights of street children in the developing world. CSC is seeking to recruit a Corporate Fundraiser, to be based at their London office, to develop and implement the corporate fundraising strategy, research and identify corporate partners and donors, manage the donor database and raise awareness of street children's issues throughout the corporate world.
Application deadline: 21 April 2006
For more information, contact:
Emily Browne, Consortium for Street Children
Unit 306, Bon Marche Centre, 241-251 Ferndale Road, London SW9 8BJ, UK
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.streetchildren.org.uk
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