13 April 2006 - CRINMAIL 771
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- NEPAL: Focusing on Children's Needs Amidst Violence on Baishak 6 and 7 [news]
- ZIMBABWE: Fees Hike Likely to Force More Children out of Schools [news]
- CRINMAIL: CRIN and the Arab Resource Collective Launch New Arabic List [news]
- INDIGENOUS CHILDREN: UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues [event]
- CHILDREN AND VIOLENCE: Minimum Standards on Consulting with Children [publication]
- COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD: DCI 41st Session Report [publication]
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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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NEPAL: Focusing on Children's Needs Amidst Violence on Baishak 6 and 7 [news]
[KATHMANDU, 12 April 2006] - UNICEF has urged all parties to the conflict to agree on one thing next week: children. “Two things happen next week that are of vital importance to the children of Nepal,” UNICEF’s Representative, Dr. Suomi Sakai, said today. “Baishak 3 (15 April), is the start of the new school year, and Baishak 6 and 7 (19 and 20 April) are the days scheduled for the national distribution of Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets."
Every six months in Nepal, Vitamin A capsules are distributed to some 3.3 million children aged between six months and five years. A further 3.1 million children aged between one and five years will be receiving deworming capsules that greatly reduce rates of anemia. Some 48,000 female community health volunteers will mobilise in each of the wards in all 75 districts for the distribution, one of the largest child-survival exercises in Nepal.
“The capsules and tablets have been transported to the District Health Offices in the districts already,” said Dr. Sakai. “What the children need now is for the Female Community Health Volunteers to be able to distribute the capsules and tablets. Half of Nepal’s children are malnourished. Many also do not have enough Vitamin A in their own bodies. This essential vitamin helps boost their immune systems."
Vitamin A distribution is estimated to save the lives of some 12,000 children each year. This number is about the same as the number of people estimated to have been killed since the conflict began in 1996. Vitamin A also prevents some 2,000 children each year from going blind. “Whatever the issues between adults, one thing that they have agreed on in the past is that the children of Nepal have the right to live and be protected from disease."
“Even during difficult times in past years, Vitamin A campaigns have still reached more than 90 per cent of Nepal’s children. We urge all adults to help ensure that children receive their Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets on Baishak 6 and 7, including children in urban areas affected by strikes, demonstrations and curfews."
“UNICEF is also deeply concerned that the current situation may impact the start of the school year in four days’ time, on Baishak 3. It understands that many schools are still uncertain about whether or not it will be possible to open. Furthermore, there has been a suggestion that teachers should strike and that schools should remain closed."
“Children have the right to go to school, and they have the right to go to school without fear of violence. UNICEF is increasingly concerned about the damage the conflict is doing to the education of Nepal’s children. “Adults fighting this conflict need to ask themselves what sort of Nepal they want to have once the conflict is over. Do they want a Nepal with healthy children who can read, write and count, or a Nepal with children and young adults who are weak, sick and illiterate?"
“Let all adults agree next week on one thing: put children first. Help the children of Nepal get their Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets, and help them get to school in peace."
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7969
Further information
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ZIMBABWE: Fees Hike Likely to Force More Children out of Schools [news]
[JOHANNESBURG, 11 April 2006] - Parents and educationists in Zimbabwe have warned that a rise of more than 1,000 per cent in school fees will force larger numbers of children to drop out and preclude others from all education. Inflation has hit a new high of 913 per cent, bringing a 12-fold rise in the cost of essentials. All schools, including those run by the government, said they would have to enforce the increases, effective from May.
This is the second time this year that school fees have been hiked. Parents had to fork out more money in January this year after private and missionary schools raised tuition by between 150 per cent and 500 per cent. From May, the fees in government-run primary schools will go up from US $4 a term to $18, while pupils in missionary schools will pay $564 instead of $221 per term. Pupils in private schools will have to lay out around $1,000, up from $440 they paid last term.
"To say the increase is too much is to understate this problem - it is simply unaffordable for everyone. This is no longer a matter of haves and have-nots; this increase is too much for everyone, poor and rich," a parent in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, remarked.
According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, an average family of five requires at least $350 every month for essential food and services, but average monthly incomes are often less than $100.
Leonard Nkala, former president of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, told IRIN that the new fee structure could only worsen the school dropout rate, and many children would miss the opportunity of ever going to school. "Inasmuch as people struggle to send their children to school, even in these difficult circumstances, we have come to a point where people just want to give up. Many people are now talking more about practical courses, which are cheaper and shorter, than the academic process, which has just become unaffordable," he commented.
According to UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) statistics for the period 1996 to 2004, only 44 per cent of boys and 42 per cent of girls enrolled in a secondary school attended classes. "Zimbabwean children are faced with some of the worst hardships confronting children anywhere in the world," said UNICEF spokesman James Elder.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing runaway price increases since 2000, causing living standards to plummet as salaries failed to match the rate of inflation. Many parents told IRIN that their children would have to drop out of school and look for work to help support the family.
The high cost of schooling has eroded the long-held notion that education was the right of every Zimbabwean, said Nkala. "Education is now for those with the money ... given the widespread retrenchments, soaring unemployment rates and a food crisis that refuses to go."
The ministry of education was unable to comment on whether the government, which reimposed price controls on basic commodities last week, would move to act against the tuition fee increases.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7945&flag=news
Further information
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CRINMAIL: CRIN and the Arab Resource Collective Launch New Arabic List [news]
As part of CRIN's effort to offer more information services in different languages, CRIN and the Arab Resource Collective (ARC) have just sent out the first edition of an Arabic version of CRINMAIL. In the first instance, this CRINMAIL will be sent out approximately once a month.
ARC's mission is to build on people's assets through knowledge and communication. The general aim of ARC is to co-operate with community-based organisations, working throughout the Arab world, in identifying the needs and challenges they face, and in developing their human resources.
This new service complements the initial version of the new CRIN website in Arabic
To download the CRINMAIL in pdf format, go to: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/Arabic/CRINMAIL_Arabic_1.pdf. Please note that you need Arabic script installed on your computer to be able to read the document.
Otherwise, the CRINMAIL is also available on ARC's website at: http://www.mawared.org/arabic/?q=node/284
To subscribe, contact:
Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
c/o Save the Children, 1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: +44 20 7012 6865; Fax: +44 20 7012 6899
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.crin.org
or email: [email protected]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=7972
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INDIGENOUS CHILDREN: UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues [event]
Date: 15-26 May 2006
Location: New York, US
The fifth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) will take place in May. It will discuss the Millennium Development Goals and its impact on indigenous peoples. Young people are encouraged to participate and make their voices heard. The Secretariat of the UNPFII has released an information brochure on indigenous children, and youth, which highlights issues of concern to them.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. The Forum meets annually for 10 day sessions, drawing wide participation each year.
States, UN bodies and NGOs in consultative status with the Council may participate in the work of the Forum as observers. ECOSOC also decided that organisations of indigenous people may equally participate as observers in the work of the Permanent Forum in accordance with the procedures which have been applied in the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion of Human Rights.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7961
For more information, contact:
Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
United Nations, 2 UN Plaza, Room DC2-1772, New York, NY, 10017, US
Tel: +1 917 367 5100; Fax: +1 917 367 5102
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en
Further information
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CHILDREN AND VIOLENCE: Minimum Standards on Consulting with Children [publication]
Save the Children Sweden - South East Asia Pacific Regional Office has developed a series of Minimum Standards on Consulting with Children as a multi-agency tool to support the participation of children at the East Asia Pacific Regional Consultation on Violence Against Children, in June 2005.
Multi-agency collaboration to facilitate meaningful participation of children from the East Asia Pacific region at international and regional events started in 2000 with the UN Special Session on Children. Subsequent research evaluation focusing on the participation of children and young people from this region concluded that although children are being seen and heard at conferences, they are not involved in the decision making process. Analysis pointed to the need for a more systematic approach to the selection, participation and follow-up of children. The Minimum Standards on Consulting with Children mark the first step in the process of developing this systematic approach.
In August 2004 a one year project was initiated to develop minimum standards and an accompanying set of guidelines; and to implement an evaluation of their use. Documents from this project are included in this package:
Minimum Standards: this document consists of 27 policy statements on children’s participation. The standards are based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as principles of participation. They outline what is meant by meaningful, good quality children’s participation in order that children have a genuine opportunity to express their views and to be involved in the UN Study on Violence Against Children and in particular the East Asia Pacific Regional Consultation for the Study.
Protocol: a package known as the ‘Protocol’ is annexed to the Standards that includes guidelines, forms and briefing papers that help to implement the Standards. The Protocol acts as procedure for the policy and is designed to be a practical tool for those facilitating the participation of children (particularly at the national level). Documents in the Protocol are specific in nature and are relevant to the regional context.
Evaluation Project: evaluation of the Minimum Standards concluded that although use of the Standards significantly affected the participation of children at the Regional Consultation, Standards were not sufficiently monitored or enforced. Informed by the evaluation process, the Standards and the Protocol have been revised into the present form – where, in particular, mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation have been strengthened.
The revised Minimum Standards are a step in the process towards developing generic structures to facilitate meaningful consultation with children. The next stage is to widen the scope of the Standards and develop a broader tool, useful for policy formation and practical application in the many different settings where children are currently being consulted.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7932&flag=report
For more information, contact:
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
Further information
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD: DCI 41st Session Report [publication]
As on previous occasions, the International Secretariat of Defence for Children International attended the 41st session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in order to follow the presentation of country reports from Peru, Ghana, Liechtenstein, Trinidad & Tobago, Hungary, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Mauritius, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
This report, available in English, French and Spanish, pays particular attention to the areas of refugee children, child labour and juvenile justice.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the UN body responsible for monitoring the implementation, by States Parties, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as its two Optional Protocols, namely: the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
Every year, the Committee on the Rights of the Child holds three sessions in January, May-June and September. The 41st session was held in Geneva from 9-27 January 2006.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7975
For more information, contact:
Defence for Children International
1, rue de Varembé, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 734 0558; Fax: + 41 22 749 1145
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.dci-is.org
Further information
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