3 August 2006 - CRINMAIL 803
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- LEBANON: Funds needed to help save the children, victims of war [news]
- CHILDREN AND VIOLENCE: Impact of Domestic Violence on Children [publication]
- ROMANIA: Failure to Protect Children and Youth Living with HIV [publication]
- CHILDREN AND HEALTH: Brain drain hits Africa child mortality fight [news]
- GIRL CHILD: Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence [discussion]
- CHILD PROTECTION: Welfare of children in the international context [call for papers]
- EMPLOYMENT: ChildHope, Programmes Assistant for Asia/Africa/Latin America [job]
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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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LEBANON: Funds needed to help save the children, victims of war [news]
[LONDON, 3 August 2006] - A huge number of the victims of this war - the dead, the maimed and the dispossessed - are children. The figures are stark. Of the 615 people so far confirmed dead, Save The Children says that almost half are children. They make up one third of the 3,225 injured, and about 45 per cent of the nearly one million Lebanese refugees are under the age of 18, according to UNICEF.
But despite the shocking images and the harrowing accounts of suffering, there is an acute shortfall of money raised for the children caught up in the conflict. They need help now. The Independent and Save the Children are launching an appeal for the children of Lebanon, for urgent food, medicine and clothing desperately needed as the violence continues to escalate.
The UN and aid agencies say it is unclear why so many casualties in this particular war are children. Some have been victims of mass killings, such as the 37 who died in the Israeli bombing raid in Qana at the weekend that claimed 60 lives.
The disproportionately high death toll among children may be due to the fact that Lebanese families in the south of the country, the scene of the fiercest fighting, are traditionally large. It is also perhaps because of demographics - 30 per cent of the population of Lebanon are under 18. The high rate of killings and injuries among the young are also said to be due to the fact that they tend to huddle together during the bombing and shelling.
Like the old, the children are the hardest hit by the lack of basic sustenance. They are also simply too young to make the long journey on foot to escape the combat zone. Children have been discovered left to look after younger brothers and sisters in place of dead or wounded parents.
Save the Children stresses that just £1 will buy candles and matches for a family; £10 will help provide adequate hygiene for a child and £50 will pay for food for a family in the short term. But international agencies say the public response has been surprisingly slow to appeals for funds.
Toby Porter, the emergencies director for Save the Children, said: "We have raised, for example, one eighth of the money raised for the second Java earthquake. One reason for this may be that the political anger over what is happening in Lebanon has overshadowed humanitarian concerns. The controversy over what has happened is hiding the human problems. Or it could be that people are rather weary of the Middle East problem because it seems so insurmountable. The fact remains, however, that we have a major crisis with children there at the moment."
There are other long-term problems. Even after hostilities cease, many families will have nowhere to go back to with their homes shattered. Schools have been destroyed or are being used to house the displaced. Thousands face the prospect of spending months - perhaps years - in refugee camps. Despite Israeli assurances of a safe passage, the UN and charities are finding it extremely difficult to deliver aid to the south, past Tyre.
As well as the dispossessed in Lebanon, 150,000 have crossed into Syria, a country which already shelters 300,000 Palestinian refugees and 450,000 Iraqis who fled the US-led invasion of that country.
With no prospect of an immediate ceasefire, aid organisations are resigned to the situation getting even worse. They fear the brunt of the suffering will continue to be borne by children.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9613
Further information
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CHILDREN AND VIOLENCE: Impact of Domestic Violence on Children [publication]
[NEW YORK/LONDON, 1 August 2006] – A global study published on Tuesday by UNICEF and The Body Shop International reveals the devastating and lasting impact on children of living with domestic violence. Defining domestic violence as the physical, sexual or mental abuse of a parent or caregiver, the report finds that the experience of watching, hearing or otherwise being aware of domestic violence can impact children’s physical, emotional and social development, both during childhood and later in life.
In the vast majority of cases, domestic violence is perpetrated against women. At least one in three women globally has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way-most often by someone she knows, including by her husband or another male family member. Globally, one woman in four has been abused during pregnancy. The report turns attention to the lesser-known facts: the impact on children who are exposed to this violence.
Based on global data from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, the report conservatively estimates that as many as 275 million children are currently exposed to domestic violence. The fact that domestic violence is chronically underreported and that some countries have no data at all makes it difficult to quantify how many children it affects.
The Body Shop International is helping to take action against domestic violence by launching its 2006 Stop Violence in the Home Campaign, which focuses on children as the forgotten victims. Dame Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop, added, "Our report shows that some of the biggest victims of domestic violence are the smallest. Protecting children should be the absolute concern of everybody who is working to see an end to domestic violence. We urge everyone to rally behind this global campaign.”
The report finds that children who live with domestic violence not only endure the distress of being surrounded by violence, but are more likely to become victims of abuse themselves. An estimated 40 per cent of child-abuse victims also have reported domestic violence in the home.
Even when children are not physically abused themselves, their exposure to domestic violence can have severe and lasting effects. The impact begins early: studies show that younger children are more likely to be exposed to domestic violence than older children, which can impair their mental and emotional growth in a critical stage of development.
As they grow up, children who are exposed to domestic violence continue to face a range of possible effects including trouble with school work, limited social skills, depression, anxiety and other psychological problems. They are at greater risk for substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and delinquent behaviour, according to the report.
The report also finds that the single best predictor of children continuing the cycle of domestic violence – either as perpetrators or as victims – depends on whether or not they grow up in a home with domestic violence. Research shows that rates of abuse are higher among women whose husbands were abused as children or who saw their mothers being abused. Many studies have also found that children from violent homes show signs of more aggressive behaviour, such as bullying, and are up to three times more likely to be involved in fighting.
The report urges governments and societies to pay more attention to the specific needs of children who live in homes impacted by domestic violence. It also identifies the need for better monitoring and reporting on the prevalence of domestic violence in order to shed light on this hidden issue. Governments have a vital role to play in breaking the cycle of domestic violence and protecting the youngest victims of domestic violence, and are urged to:
- Raise awareness of the impact of domestic violence on children through public education campaigns and efforts to challenge beliefs and customs that condone violence.
- Create public policies and laws that protect children. Governments must enact and enforce laws and policies that criminalise domestic violence and protect all its victims.
- Improve social services that address the impact of violence in the home on children. Interventions that support children who are exposed to domestic violence help minimize the long-term risks to these children and must be adequately funded and scaled-up.
The Body Shop’s Stop Violence in the Home campaign aims to raise awareness and to encourage governments to better protect and support children who are exposed to domestic violence.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9587
For more information, contact:
UNICEF
H-9, 3 United Nations, Plaza, New York, NY 10017, US
Tel: +1 212 824 6127; Fax: +1 212 326 7731
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unicef.org
Further information
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ROMANIA: Failure to Protect Children and Youth Living with HIV [publication]
[BUCHAREST, 2 August 2006] – Thousands of Romanian children and youth living with HIV face widespread discrimination that keeps many of them from attending school, obtaining necessary medical care, working, or even learning about their medical condition, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The government’s failure to combat discrimination and promote integration has left many of these children vulnerable to abuse and neglect, ill-informed about sexuality, and unprepared for adult life, Human Rights Watch has found.
More than 7,200 Romanian children and youth aged 15 to 19 are living with HIV. The vast majority were infected with HIV between 1986 and 1991 as a direct result of government policies that exposed them to contaminated needles and “microtransfusions” in which small children were injected with unscreened blood in the mistaken belief that this would improve their immunological status.
The 104-page report, Life Doesn’t Wait: Romania’s Failure to Protect and Support Children and Youth Living with HIV, documents violations of the rights of these children and youth to education, health, privacy and information. It also shows how the authorities fail to protect these children and youth from discrimination, abuse and neglect.
“The Romanian government has known about these children for more than 15 years, but it still doesn’t have a plan for what will happen when they turn 18,” said Clarisa Bencomo, children’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Unless the authorities take urgent measures now, unchecked discrimination will push far too many of these children to the margins of society.”
Fewer than 60 per cent of children living with HIV attend any form of schooling, and those who do risk ostracism and abuse by teachers and other students, and even expulsion if their HIV status becomes known. Some are inappropriately relegated to special schools with inferior resources, or barred from attending vocational programs in fields such as food service and hairdressing, for which Romanian law requires mandatory HIV testing.
Human Rights Watch found that doctors frequently refuse to treat children and youth living with HIV, or harass them to discourage them from seeking care. The problem is especially acute for children needing emergency medical care. It is a critical issue for those with serious mental illnesses who lack access to outpatient treatment, but whose health would be endangered by the substandard conditions in many Romanian psychiatric facilities.
Bureaucratic delays and discrimination bar many children and youth living with HIV from obtaining necessary medications for opportunistic diseases. Despite the government’s stated commitment to providing universal access to antiretroviral therapy, interruptions in antiretroviral supplies are common in some of Romania’s counties. Doctors told Human Rights Watch that government policies prevented hospitals from creating buffer supplies to compensate for anticipated delivery delays or shortages.
Breaches of confidentiality by medical personnel, school officials and government workers are common and rarely punished, despite the often severe consequences such breaches have for children and their families. At the same time, harsh punishments for knowingly transmitting HIV exacerbate discrimination and encourage government officials, police, doctors and even private individuals to engage in ad hoc “monitoring” of children and youth living with HIV. The risk of prosecution or monitoring appears to fall disproportionately on girls and women living with HIV. It may make HIV-positive youth less likely to seek assistance and support in a whole range of areas – from police protection to healthcare.
Doctors cannot inform children of their HIV status without parental consent, which prevents many children from making informed decisions on medical treatments, educational and employment plans, and their sexual lives. An optional class on reproductive health, offered once during the seventh grade, is inaccessible to the 40 per cent of children living with HIV who do not attend school, as well as to those children and youth who are sexually active but who have not yet reached the seventh grade.
HIV-positive youth may be denied jobs arbitrarily because Romanian law provides for mandatory medical testing for a wide variety of jobs where the risk of HIV transmission is minimal, and fails to protect individuals from HIV tests performed without informed consent by public and private employers. Employment discrimination cases are difficult to litigate and may draw further attention to plaintiffs’ HIV status because court documents are not private.
The Romanian authorities rarely enforce laws prohibiting discrimination against people living with HIV, and the law provides few real sanctions for those who practice discrimination. The agencies charged with protecting children from discrimination and abuse lack skilled staff to monitor, investigate and intervene on the behalf of children. Children and youth living with HIV who report instances of serious abuse rarely receive meaningful assistance.
More than 700 children living with HIV remain in extended family placements, foster care placements, group homes operated by nongovernmental organizations, and state-run group homes and orphanages. They face an uncertain fate when they turn 18. While some might be eligible for extended protection measures, no procedures exist to help them apply. Many will be unable to support themselves after turning 18 without significant assistance.
“Romania has come a long way toward fulfilling its commitment to provide antiretroviral medications to those who need them,” Bencomo said. “But children living with HIV need more than just medications. Even more than adults, they need protection and support.”
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9590
For more information, contact:
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel: 00 1 212 216 1837; Fax: 00 1 212 736-1300
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.hrw.org
Further information
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CHILDREN AND HEALTH: Brain drain hits Africa child mortality fight [news]
[TAMALE, Ghana, 29 July 2006] - The flood of nurses and doctors to developed countries in search of better-paid work is hurting Africa's ability to reduce child mortality, the head of the UN Children's Fund said. Under-five child mortality is high across sub-Saharan Africa and at its worst in West and Central Africa, with as many as 250 deaths per 1,000 live births registered in some countries.
The brain drain, which has led some African officials to accuse rich nations of robbing the world's poorest continent of its most needed talent, was undermining efforts to tackle the problem, UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman said. "I have travelled around Africa and it is a key issue. Not just to Europe and the United States, people are going to South Africa, to where the salaries are better," she told Reuters late on Friday during a visit to northern Ghana. "It forces the countries to continue to train more at a faster rate. I don't know how you can stop them leaving."
It is estimated that some 20,000 skilled professionals are leaving Africa every year, depriving the continent of the doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers it needs to tackle poverty and under-development and deal with killer diseases. In some countries the rate of skilled migration exceeds 50 per cent, the World Bank says.
The health sector is often the biggest casualty as doctors and nurses leave to developed countries which are growing increasingly dependent on migrants to tackle staff shortages in hospitals and cope with ageing populations.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says sub-Saharan Africa bears almost a quarter of the global burden of diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria, yet to face the challenge has just three percent of the world's health workers. With just 10 per cent of the global population of under-five children, West and Central Africa accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the world's under-five mortality, UNICEF says.
But Veneman said some progress was being made, pointing to the success of a pilot scheme in northern Ghana where the UN fund distributes subsidised drugs and anti-malaria bed nets, offering training and immunisation through Red Cross groups. The initiative, which started in 2001, had contributed to a drop in child mortality rates in Ghana's Upper East Region from 155 per 1,000 live births in 1998 to 79 in 2003. "We are seeing improvement in certain areas, we have seen some dramatic falls in parts of Ghana, we shouldn't just tell a grim story," Veneman said.
Many malnourished children died from preventable diseases, with their parents' poor education often an obstacle to getting better healthcare. "The nutrition aspect is key. We estimate there are about 10.5 million under-five deaths around the world every year. In about 50 per cent, malnutrition is a factor," she said.
But replicating the scheme across the rest of Ghana would not be easy, largely because of the emigration of trained staff and a lack of funds, Ghana Health Service's director general, Professor Agyeman Akosa, told Reuters. "There is nothing here that has not been piloted before but to scale it up to care for the total population ... that is a significant amount of money."
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9542&flag=news
Further information
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GIRL CHILD: Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence [discussion]
An online discussion on the theme of “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child” is being organised by the Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. The discussion will run for four weeks from 14 August to 8 September 2006.
The purpose of the online discussion is to contribute to a further understanding of the causes and consequences of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child and to identify good practices and further strategies required to accelerate the elimination of these violations of the human rights of girls.
Contributions to the online discussion will provide the background information to a meeting of experts convened by the Division for the Advancement of Women in collaboration with UNICEF at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy from 25 to 28 September 2006, to discuss this theme.
The online discussion and the expert group meeting are part of the preparatory process for the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2007, which will consider “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child” as its priority theme.
The issue of discrimination and violence against the girl child has drawn increasing attention from the international community during the past decade. The 1990 World Summit on Children, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly have all addressed the issue.
There is recognition that discrimination and violence against girls begins at the earliest stages of life and continues unabated throughout their lives. Girls often have less access to nutrition, physical and mental health care and education and enjoy fewer rights, opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than boys. They are often subjected to various forms of exploitation, including sexual exploitation, violence and harmful practices such as female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, incest, female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriage and forced marriage.
The ten-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, undertaken in 2005, acknowledged significant progress in the advancement of the girl child, especially in the recognition of her rights. However, it noted that discrimination against girls in everyday life remains pervasive and there is an urgent need for concerted action.
The online discussion is scheduled to begin on 14 August and to continue for four weeks. Each of the first three weeks of the discussion will be devoted to one theme, while the last week will provide the opportunity to raise additional issues and wrap up.
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Week One: August 14 – Protection of the girl child; girls in vulnerable situations
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Week Two: 21 August – Empowerment of the girl child
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Week Three: 28 August – Monitoring progress - data and statistics on the girl child
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Week Four: 4 September – Other issues and wrap up
To register, go to: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/forum/forum-daw-disc_viol_girlchild.htm. Interested individuals are encouraged to register before 7 August 2006. They will receive an email with a username and password before the start of the online discussion. Any questions should be sent to Mr. Rajkumar Cheney Krishnan ([email protected]) at the Division for the Advancement for Women.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9615
Further information
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CHILD PROTECTION: Welfare of children in the international context [call for papers]
The Child Abuse Review is a journal of the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect on international child rights and child protection. The journal provides a forum for all professionals working in the field of child protection, giving them access to the latest research findings, practice developments, training initiatives and policy issues.
A special edition on international issues in child protection is being prepared. It aims to explore key issues of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the international context, emphasising a child rights perspective. Editors are calling for papers (research or case studies) that describe work in progress as well as project evaluations. They welcome examples of research, policy and practice from a range of international settings, and papers that seek to challenge or refine the values and assumptions of child protection systems and topics of interest include: child labour; monitoring children’s rights; child migration, trafficking and asylum seeking; protecting children from violence and sexual exploitation; and gaining and representing children’s views. Case studies describing interventions and the promotion of children’s rights - what works and does not work - or on particular aspects, for example, partnerships with children, advocacy, policy and practice reform, will be welcome.
This special issue will bring together accounts from a range of countries as well as programmes and research which cross national boundaries.
For more information, contact:
Andy Bilson, editor
Email: [email protected]
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EMPLOYMENT: ChildHope, Programmes Assistant for Asia/Africa/Latin America [job posting]
ChildHope is looking for a full-time Programmes Assistant to support the work of the Programmes team. The work will involve assisting three Programme Managers and the Head of Programmes in working with partners in 12 countries, focusing on programme development, monitoring and evaluation, and raising resources from key donors.
Application deadline: 15 September 2006
For more information, contact:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7065 0950
Website: http://www.childhope.org.uk/vacancies.php
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