11 April 2006 - CRINMAIL 770

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- VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: Building a Europe for and with Children [news]

- ETHIOPIA: Funding Shortfalls Could Worsen Humanitarian Situation [news]

- TOGO: Suffering to Succeed? Violence and Abuse in Schools [publication]

- CHILD PORNOGRAPHY: Most Countries Lack Adequate Laws [publication]

- ASYLUM SEEKING AND REFUGEE CHILDREN: Local and Global Perspectives [call for papers]

- STREET CHILDREN: EU Fundraising and Project Management Seminar [event]

- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: International Grants Programme [call for application]

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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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VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: Building a Europe for and with Children [news]

A European programme to end violence against children was launched last week at a conference organised by the Council of Europe and the Principality of Monaco. The event was attended by some 250 participants, including children and young people from across Europe and Central Asia.

The first aim of the conference was to look at children’s rights from a legal standpoint, including existing structures, instruments, tools and training programmes needed to support member States. The second was to look at violence against children, with the outcome of the Europe and Central Asia Regional Consultation for the UN Study on Violence Against Children as basis for action.  The conference was opened by Ms Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe who said that states in the region had taken measures and made headway in the protection of children’s rights, however law was not an end in itself but a tool for achieving children’s rights. 

"In our building work, law is a very important raw material, but it alone cannot bear the full weight of our home… We must establish institutions, devise policies, invest in research, education, training and awareness-raising, and develop new tools with which to meet new challenges - and that is also the role of the Council of Europe!", she said. 

This project being launched, she explained, was Europe’s response to building a Europe for and with children. Europe had some very good human rights standards, but as was seen at the European Regional Consultation for the UN Study on Violence Against Children that took place in Lubljana in July 2005, violence persists in every member State of the Council of Europe.

This project is the operational phase: “we have a precise idea of what needs to be done: promoting children’s rights and eradicating violence”.  It is a campaign to help States abide by their commitments, in all sectoral policies with integrated strategies to help protect children. Addressing the young participants, she said: “This is a subject on which I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we genuinely want to build a Europe with children. The bad news is that we don't know how to go about it." 

The children and violence project is based on four pillars: protection, prevention, prosecution and participation:

• Protection: children who are in extreme distress or in danger requires both emergency measures and long-term policies capable of tackling the roots of the problem. The protection of children at risk because of difficult economic, political and social situations should be enhanced through policies in the fields of social cohesion, education, youth and culture.
• Prevention: in the context of the programme Responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society (2002-2004) twelve principles were identified that should serve as guidelines for national and local policies aimed at preventing and reducing violence. Over the coming three years, application of these principles and assessment of the outcome will be tested. The aim is to propose model violence prevention strategies to national authorities.
• Prosecution of those responsible for violence: an end to impunity, with development of penal law, provision of compensations for victims. The drafting of an international legal instrument against sexual exploitation is a major step.
• Participation: By 2008, the Council hopes to have developed methodologies, tools and networks capable of guaranteeing effective participation by children, including those who do not attend school or who are socially excluded. 

[More about day 1]

On the second day, Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, who just took up his post on 3 April, gave a closing statement for the conference where he confirmed his strong commitment to children’s rights.

Hammarberg was most recently the Secretary General of the Olof Palme International Centre in Sweden, a former Secretary General of Save the Children Sweden and member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and a former Secretary General of Amnesty International.

In opening he said : "The time has come to move from rhetoric to enforcement. Violence against children must be stopped. It just is not acceptable that children are beaten and battered by adults, very often by those whom they trust most. Neither can we tolerate that children are exploited in pornography or subjected to physical sexual abuse."

Mr. Hammarberg, who is also joint coordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, said that corporal punishment was clearly a sensitive and personal issue, as most adults were hit as children, and unpopular for politicians to talk about, and much easier to focus only on extreme forms of violence to children and on violence by children. 

"However, we cannot hide behind the right to privacy to justify corporal punishments", he said, "Concerns for the child welfare cannot stop at the front door of the child’s home or school. All children have the right to be educated in an environment free of violence."

He continued to say that this new programme was of paramount importance if there was to be a world where people respect each other, "where there is tolerance and where conflicts are resolved by peaceful means, we should take strong action. That is what the present generation of children is expecting for from us. We should not disappoint them."

Finally, he ended by saying that "Participation should take place in the family and other living arrangements, in schools, in the community but also in larger fora, within the Council of Europe, for instance. We must create opportunities for children and young people to play an active role in shaping policies. If we are serious about working for children, we should work with them. "

Visit: http://www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=7931 and
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7941&flag=report

More information

• Day 1 / Day 2
• Full conference report
• Conference speeches
• Read Thomas Hammarberg's ull statement
• Details about the CoE's Programme of Action on Children and Violence
• CRIN's website on Violence against Children

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ETHIOPIA: Funding Shortfalls Could Worsen Humanitarian Situation [news]

[ADDIS ABABA, 10 April 2006] - The Ethiopian government and humanitarian organisations have expressed concern about the slow donor response to the drought crisis in the Horn of Africa nation, where nutrition and water needs are severely underfunded. "On the non-food items, around 82 per cent is still missing," said Wodayehu Belew, fundraising team leader for the Ethiopian government's Department of Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA). "This is worrying - even more so considering it is now four months since we made our appeal to the donors."

In January, the government, the United Nations and other aid agencies appealed for US $166 million in emergency food and non-food assistance to help 2.6 million Ethiopians. However, only $19 million of the $111 million earmarked for health and nutrition and water and sanitation has been received so far.

According to the UN, at least 1.7 million Ethiopians are struggling to survive, with limited access to water in the eastern Somali region and in the southern Borena zone. About one in five children in southeastern Ethiopia is malnourished, and two out of every 10,000 die every day, making the need for therapeutic feeding and water access extremely urgent, according to Paul Hebert, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ethiopia.

"We have already identified critical malnutrition rates in the Somali region, with 20 per cent of malnourished children. If resources are not made available quickly, we will be unable to feed them and we fear that children might start to die," Hebert said. "If we don't receive new funding quickly, it might jeopardise the whole crisis in the region."

Measles and diarrhoea - which infect weakened children who have no access to clean water - are the main killers during a drought. In the last major drought in 2000, one-fifth of all deaths of children under the age of five were measles-related, according to the UN. At least 34 people have died of measles in eastern Ethiopia over the last six months.

The food-relief situation does not look good, according to the DPPA and OCHA. Food pipelines will be full only until the end of May, and no new contributions have been announced. "The available stock of food has already been nearly totally distributed. Unless we get new funding, we don't know," said Wodayehu from the DPPA. "We need more support from the donor community if we want to keep the current crisis under control."

"It is worrying that you never get anything [funding] until kids start dying in huge numbers," said Bjorn Ljunqvist, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia. UNICEF lacks nearly 50 per cent of the $10 million urgently needed for additional emergency water tankers and the vaccination of some 1.5 million children against measles. "If the rain doesn't come in adequate amounts, there are a lot of signs that the crisis will spill to the north, that the 1.7 million will jump to 2.5 or three million." "We don't have precise figures yet, but we expect the needs to increase a lot," OCHA's Hebert said. 

An estimated 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing severe food shortages as a result of several failed rainy seasons.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=7939

More information

• CRIN's information page on Ethiopia

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TOGO: Suffering to Succeed? Violence and Abuse in Schools [publication]

[LONDON, 11 April 2006] - For millions of children in Africa, education is their only chance of escaping a lifetime of poverty. But for many this dream turns into a nightmare at school. In the West African republic of Togo for instance school children are learning first-hand about sex, violence, humiliation and child labour.

According to a new report, published today by the leading children’s charity Plan, more than 8 out of every 10 children surveyed suffer regular beatings from their teachers at schools in Togo. The 50-page publication, Suffering to Succeed? details the many forms of violence against children in schools, some as young as five years old, including forced labour, psychological intimidation and sexual abuse, even rape.

Over half the children interviewed reported threatening behaviour or the threat of physical violence by teachers, and one girl in 25 said that she had suffered sexual violence at school.

Tom Miller, Plan’s CEO says: “Children who get regular beatings often exhibit very dysfunctional behaviour, and may become violent themselves. If they are terrified of physical punishment, or suffering from psychological trauma, they focus on pleasing the teacher instead of acquiring the skills and knowledge they need.”

The study says that crumbling educational infrastructure, poorly trained and poorly paid teachers, as well as a culture that tolerates violence against children all conspire to make school a dangerous place for children in Togo.

Even worse, the sexual violence against girls in Togolese schools often goes unpunished, breeding a feeling of impunity among the male teachers and fellow students involved. Indeed the on-going cycle of violence in schools undermines the very fabric of school life, with children increasingly aware that success depends not on hard work but on a series of trade offs between themselves and their teacher.

Plan has discovered that the expression “notes sexuellement transmissibles” (sexually transmitted marks) is in widespread use in secondary schools. This play on words reveals a sad truth about how youngsters see the sexual favours many male teachers expect in exchange for the grades they give teenage girls.

“Sexual abuse is a powerful barrier against girls’ education because it can force girls to stop going to school,” says Tom Miller.  “And as well as the physical and emotional trauma that goes with unwanted relationships, many girls also have to suffer the consequences of teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.”

But children are trying to fight back, forming self-help groups to counter the prevailing culture of intimidation. And children have also been involved in the drafting of a new proposed Children’s Code that makes corporal punishment illegal in schools.

Plan is supporting these efforts, working with children and their parents to help them stand up to their abusers. It is also working with the government and teachers at all levels to address the problem.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7937 

For more information, contact:
Stefanie Conrad, Plan Togo Country Director
Angle Bd. Jean Paul II, Rue 159 Tokoin-Wuiti
BP 3485, Lome, Togo
Tel: +228 2611245
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.plan-international.org 

More information

• CRIN's information page on Togo
• CRIN's website on the UN Study on Violence against Children
• Website of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children

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CHILD PORNOGRAPHY: Most Countries Lack Adequate Laws [publication]

[WASHINGTON, DC 6 April 2006] - A new study of child pornography laws in 184 Interpol member countries around the world has produced alarming results: more than half of these countries (95) have no laws addressing child pornography and in many other countries, the existing laws are inadequate.

The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) in collaboration with Interpol, the world's preeminent law enforcement organisation, released the study last week in Washington, DC. The study found that in 138 countries, the possession of child pornography is not a crime. In 122 countries, there is no law which specifically addresses the distribution of child pornography via computer and the Internet.

"People need to understand that each and every time an image of a child being sexually assaulted is traded, printed, or downloaded, the child depicted in the photo is re-victimised," said Ernie Allen, ICMEC president and CEO. "The physical and psychological harm to these children is incalculable. Those who possess and distribute these images are as complicit as those who manufacture them."

Surprisingly, just 5 of the countries reviewed have laws considered comprehensive enough to make a significant impact on the crime. They are: Australia, Belgium, France, South Africa, and the United States.

The laws of each country were examined based on five criteria: Are there existing laws criminalising child pornography? Does existing law include a legal definition of child pornography? Is the possession of child pornography a crime? Is the distribution of child pornography via computer and the Internet a crime? Are Internet Service Providers (ISPs) required to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement?

Only 22 countries reviewed were in substantial compliance with the recommended criteria set by ICMEC. They include, by region: Hong Kong, New Zealand and Tonga (Asia and the Pacific); Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovak Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (Europe and Eurasia); Canada (North America); Honduras, Panama and Peru (Latin America and the Caribbean); and Israel (Middle East  and North Africa).

Allen noted, "We shared advance copies of this research with every country in order to ensure that our analysis was accurate. Our next step is to share model legislation with countries that have not yet enacted laws. We know that many world leaders do not yet recognize that child pornography has become a multi-billion dollar industry and that the world's children are paying the price."

The exact scope of the problem of child pornography is difficult to determine. Yet, it is clear that the problem has exploded with the advent of the Internet. A 2002 report by ECPAT International and the Bangkok Post estimated that 100,000 child pornography websites existed in 2001. In 2003, the National Criminal Intelligence Service in the UK estimated that child pornography web sites had doubled worldwide. The US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received an increase of reports to its CyberTipline from more than 24,400 in 2001 to more than 340,000 by the beginning of 2006.

In an effort to address the insidious threat of sex crimes against children, ICMEC and Interpol are also working together to create an Internet-based International Resource Centre (IRC) on child pornography which will be launched in the Fall of 2006. The site will provide both public information and private investigative resources for law enforcement. Since 2003, the two organisations have been conducting training to build knowledge and expertise for law enforcement worldwide. Through generous funding from Microsoft, 1,322 law enforcement officials from 89 countries have been trained in seminars held around the world.

This global study is part of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children's worldwide campaign to combat child pornography. The campaign was devised in Dublin, Ireland in October 2002 during the Global Forum on Child Pornography. From that conference emerged five main action items dubbed the "The Dublin Plan".

The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is nonprofit NGO. It is the leading agency working on a global basis to combat child abduction and exploitation. It is the sister organisation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7901

For more information, contact:
International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children
Charles B. Wang International Children's Building
699 Prince Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3175, US
Tel: +1 703 837 6218; Fax: +1 703 549 4504
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.icmec.org

More information

• ECPAT International website
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website
• Violence againsy Children in Cyberspace, ECPAT report

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ASYLUM SEEKING AND REFUGEE CHILDREN: Local and Global Perspectives [call for papers]

The editors of the journal Children and Society are planning a Special Issue in Spring 2007 on the theme of displacement and asylum. The guest editors for this Special Issue will include Jason Hart (from the Children and Armed Conflict Programme, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford) and Jo Boyden (Senior Research Officer, Refugees Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford).

The editors are seeking contributions from various disciplinary perspectives that include, but are not limited to: anthropology, sociology, human geography, social policy and social work, educational studies, social psychology, and development studies. The aim is to produce a collection of essays that between them cover a wide age range of perspectives; embrace experience in the global South as well as the UK and Europe; address both policy and practice; and offer critical reflection of a more theoretical nature.

Submission deadline for proposals (max 500 words): 31st May 2006
Submission deadline for final papers (max 6000 words): 15th December 2006

For more information, contact:
Jason Hart: [email protected]
or Jo Boyden: [email protected]

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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 children and youth at risk.

The learning objectives of the seminar will be:

• 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.
• 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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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: International Grants Programme [call for application]

In line with its commitment to social responsibility, Panda Software is launching a new solidarity initiative that aims to promote better and safer access to the Information Technologies (IT). To do this, it has set up the ‘Panda IT Aid’ programme with a fund of 500,000 Euros to support the execution of 15 not-for-profit projects that contribute to the secure use of new technologies and promote universal and egalitarian access to the Information Society.

Panda IT Aid has been set up with a fund of 500,000 Euros in aid: 100,000 euros to finance the four winning projects (25,000 each) and 400,000 Euros in Panda Software security solutions, to be shared among the 15 finalist projects. The aid will be awarded in an official ceremony that will be held during the second half of June 2006, coinciding with the end of the 15th anniversary of the company.

Panda Software is a leading developer and provider of integrated security solutions to combat viruses, hackers, Trojans, spyware, phishing, spam and other Internet-borne threats, keeping clients protected even against new threats that have yet to be identified. Panda Software also develops programmes aiming at making the internet a safer place for children and to reinforce children’s rights in information technologies.

Application deadline: 24 April 2006

For more information, contact:
Email to: [email protected]
Website: http://www.pandasoftware.com
Website: http://www.pandaITaid.com  

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