6 April 2006 - CRINMAIL 769
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- ASIA EARTHQUAKE: 300,000 Children Still Unable to Go to School [news]
- IRAN: Concern over Quake-Affected Children in Lorestan [news]
- CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: International Day for Mine Awareness [news]
- TURKEY: Children Killed in Increasingly Frequent Clashes [news]
- JUVENILE JUSTICE: Master's Degree in Children's Rights Module [event]
- EMPLOYMENT: EveryChild - Save the Children - Swansea University [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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ASIA EARTHQUAKE: 300,000 Children Still Unable to Go to School [news]
[LONDON, 4 April 2006] - 300,000 children in Pakistan remain desperate to return to school, six months after their classrooms were destroyed and their friends and teachers were killed in the earthquake on 8 October, 2005. Save the Children UK is urging the Government of Pakistan and other international organisations to take immediate action to get children back into classrooms.
"Missing out on an education has a profound effect on a child’s future. The longer a child is out of school, the higher the risk that they will never return and will be put to work. If the Government of Pakistan, the UN and international donors don’t prioritise getting these children back into school soon they will have failed them.” said Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of Save the Children who recently returned from Pakistan.
Save the Children is one of the largest agencies working on education in the aftermath of the earthquake, providing temporary and transitional classrooms for schools in Pakistan. But the scale of the problem means more organisations and donors urgently need to assist. Across the entire earthquake zone, a total of 7,669 schools were destroyed.
Save the Children issued a briefing on the education situation in Pakistan after the earthquake on Tuesday. The charity’s key recommendations are:
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A mass teacher training programme to replace the hundreds of teachers who were killed in the earthquake and to provide extra teachers to improve the quality of education and reduce class sizes.
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The international community must rebuild and improve the quality of school buildings. They must ensure that transitional structures are provided in the meantime so lessons are not held in tents for years to come.
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Catch up classes should be provided for children who have missed months of education and allowances made for those who missed exams due to the earthquake.
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An effort must be made to facilitate girls' access to education.
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IRAN: Concern over Quake-Affected Children in Lorestan [news]
[ANKARA, 4 April 2006] - There is growing concern over the welfare of tens of thousands of children affected by a series of quakes in western Iran last week, which killed at least 66 people and injured over 1,000 more.
"Preliminary indications suggest that 36,000 school-age children were affected in the two districts of Douroud and Boroujerd," Country Representative for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Christian Salazar Volkmann, told IRIN on Tuesday from the badly affected town of Boroujerd in Lorestan province.
"Fifty percent of the schools in Douroud and 25 percent in Boroujerd - a total of 130 schools - were destroyed, with others receiving light to moderate damage," Volkmann explained. "Schools that should have started today have not."
Despite poor weather conditions, people were still encamped outside in school yards following reoccurring aftershocks - a total of 94 since Friday - he said, underscoring his concern over the psychological impact this was having on children.
"We would like to restore a little degree of normalcy," the UNICEF country representative said. "Over the next few days, we are hoping to help the authorities here to restart some form of schooling and some kind of kindergarten as quickly as possible."
On Monday, UNICEF dispatched 10,000 blankets and 300 tents to Lorestan province. In collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN children's agency will also send a team of experts to the area on Wednesday to assess the educational and psychological needs of children. Based on that assessment, further resources would be mobilised to support the authorities with temporary educational facilities, supplies and toys.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), at least 66 people have been confirmed dead and 1,246 injured after a series of moderate sized tremors occurred around the industrial towns of Doroud and Boroujerd on Thursday and Friday in Lorestan, measuring up to 6 on the Richter scale.
"Some 150,000 people, or approximately 30,000 families, were affected by this quake," Mansooreh Bagheri, IRCS Programme Coordinator for International Cooperation told IRIN from Tehran. "Of the 330 villages affected, 47 were badly damaged".
Earthquakes are not unusual in Iran, which sits on some of the most active seismic fault lines in the world. On 26 December 2003, a devastating earthquake levelled the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Kerman province, killing over 43,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
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CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT: International Day for Mine Awareness [news]
[NEW YORK, 4 April 2006] – Ridding the world of landmines and other explosive remnants of war could be accomplished in years instead of decades, saving thousands of children from devastating injuries and death, UNICEF said today on the first International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
The agency said explosive remnants of war, including landmines and unexploded ordnance, pose a huge threat to children and their communities in more than 80 countries, most of which are no longer in conflict. At least 20 per cent of the estimated 15,000-20,000 people who are killed or disabled each year by these deadly weapons of war are children.
But UNICEF said recent progress has renewed hope that the threat of explosive devices can be eliminated sooner than previously thought. The number of new victims has been decreasing over the last decade, due largely to increasing efforts by governments and NGOs to destroy and clear mines and to educate communities about their dangers. UNICEF said the continued support of donors and the public is vital to these initiatives.
Landmines are designed to disable, immobilise or kill people travelling by foot or in motor vehicles. Other explosive remnants of war include unexploded ordnance – weapons such as grenades and cluster bombs that did not explode on impact but can still detonate – and weapons that are discarded in civilian areas by combatants, known as abandoned ordnance. These munitions outlast the conflicts during which they were planted and become hazards for innocent civilians, particularly for unsuspecting children who often make the fatal mistake of playing with the unfamiliar objects.
Children face the daily threat of explosion in every region of the world. Landmines are buried in nearly half of all villages in Cambodia, and in Lao PDR nearly one-quarter of all villages are contaminated with explosive remnants of war. Other countries that are among the most contaminated include Colombia, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Russian Federation (Chechnya), Iraq, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Children suffer debilitating physical injuries from mine explosions, often losing fingers, toes and limbs. Some are left blind or deaf. An estimated 85 per cent of child victims die before they can get medical attention. Many disabled victims lose opportunities to go to school, and often cannot afford rehabilitative care. The persisting threat of mines takes its toll on entire societies, perpetuating poverty and underdevelopment.
Progress in the battle against mines
More than three-quarters of the world’s nations have ratified the Mine Ban Treaty since it came into force in 1999, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of antipersonnel landmines. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the number of countries thought to be producing, stockpiling and using landmines has dropped significantly over the last decade.
Antivehicle mines, unexploded ordnance and other types of explosive remnants of war are addressed in a new protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Approved three years ago, Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War is the first international agreement obligating parties to conflict to clear explosive munitions that threaten civilians after war has ended. The Protocol will enter into force once it has been ratified by four more countries.
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TURKEY: Children Killed in Increasingly Frequent Clashes [news]
[LONDON, 1 April 2006] - Turkey's prime minister has warned that the security forces will act against women and children who he said were being used as the "pawns of terrorism".
Three children are among eight people to have died in several days of clashes between Kurds and riot police. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parents they should not let their children become involved in street protests. Police fired tear gas to disperse Kurdish protesters on Saturday as more violence erupted in the south-east.
In the town of Kiziltepe, thousands of protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs set fire to at least one bank and the local headquarters of the prime minister's party. Police also clashed with demonstrators in Silopi, near the border with Iraq, and in nearby Yuksekova, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported.
The protests in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey began after the funerals of 14 suspected Kurdish rebels killed by the military last weekend. Children aged nine, seven and three are among those to have been killed in clashes around the provincial capital, Diyarbakir, two of them from gunshot wounds.
Mr Erdogan urged parents not to allow their children to be used by what he described as terrorist organisations. "If you cry tomorrow, it will be in vain," Anatolia quoted him as saying. "The security forces will intervene against the pawns of terrorism, no matter if they are children or women. Everybody should realise that." His government has praised the security forces for their handling of the situation, saying they have acted with restraint.
Ministers have accused Turkish separatist groups of deliberately using children in the protests in order to win sympathy.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and 13 hurt in a bomb attack in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, on Friday. The bombing was claimed by a Kurdish separatist group, the TAK, which said it was acting in response to the recent violence.
Both the European Union and the United Nations have expressed concern over rising tensions. The EU has urged the Turkish government to improve the cultural rights of Kurds and to develop the region's economy.
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JUVENILE JUSTICE: Master's Degree in Children's Rights Module [event]
Date: 16-21 May 2006
Location: Sion, Switzerland
In the framework of the Master of Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights (MCR), a two year post-graduate training programme on children’s rights, the 6th Module will study different models and practices of intervention towards children and young people accused of having committed an offence. Special attention will be paid to recent evolutions in the fields of international law, criminological research and social practices regarding the treatment of juvenile offenders.
This module will be held at the Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB), in May in Switzerland. The fees to participate as an auditor to this Module amount to 1.500 CHF (1.000 EUR / 1.000 USD).
Application deadline: 30 April 2006
For more information, contact:
Sarah Bruchez, Programme Secretary
Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB)
MAS in Children’s Rights
PO Box 4176, CH-1950 Sion 4, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (27) 205 73 00; Fax: +41 (27) 205 73 01
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.iukb.ch
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7865
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EMPLOYMENT: EveryChild - Save the Children - Swansea University [job postings]
EveryChild is an international development charity working to improve the lives of vulnerable children who are, or risk being, separated from their family or community.
In south east Europe and the former Soviet Union, EveryChild’s focus is on working with local partners (primarily state structures) to reduce the numbers of children being placed in residential care. This involves supporting the development of community-based social services for children and families who are at risk and also piloting and strengthening alternatives to residential care including national foster care and adoption. EveryChild focuses its attention on reform both at community level and at national/regional level.
EveryChild is looking for consultants with skills and experience in the following areas who are available for long and short-term assignments: social policy - legislative reform (e.g. harmonising national legislation with EU/UN rights/standards, child protection, fostering and adoption, children/family codes etc) - social work training (children and families) - public services management - social assistance/public finance.
For more information, contact:
Unnie Kajbrink, Everychild
4 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DR, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7749 3093; Fax: +44 (0)20 7729 8339
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.everychild.org.uk
Save the Children UK is seeking a Learning and Impact Assessment Adviser to work closely with Save the Children’s country programmes to achieve the lasting policy changes that will enable children to enjoy their rights to health. The role will require developing common frameworks and policies, strengthening the quality and impact of Save the Children UK’s health programmes around the world and its ability to generate evidence to support national and international advocacy.
Save the Children is investing in building a stronger global health programme in more than 20 countries worldwide, strengthening its international health advocacy. It aims to improve access to quality local health services by the poorest children and those whose healthcare is disrupted by conflict and natural disaster.
Application deadline: 19 April 2006
For more information, visit:
http://jobsearch.savethechildren.org.uk/viewvacancies.cfm?ID=144546
The development of the Centre for Child Research at Swansea University has created a new Chair in Children's Rights who will act as a Co-director of the Centre. The successful applicant will offer research leadership and strategic guidance for the development of the Centre.
Application deadline: 5 May 2006
For more information, contact:
Personnel Department, University of Wales Swansea
Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK
Tel: +44 1792 295136
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/vacancies
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