17 August 2006 - CRINMAIL 807
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- SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan army warns children can be targets [news]
- LEBANON: Toxic air a major health hazard [news]
- INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY: Youth gather in New York for talks on poverty [news]
- EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES: Right to Education during Displacement [publication]
- PERU: President wants child rapist-killers executed [news]
- EMPLOYMENT: War Child - Child Workers in Asia [job postings]
** NEWS IN BRIEF **
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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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SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan army warns children can be targets [news]
[16 August 2006] - The Sri Lankan government has defied growing condemnation and declared that it considered children and young people killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets. "If the children are terrorists, what can we do?" said a military spokesman, Brigadier Athula Jayawardana.
The government claimed that children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday were child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The United Nations children's organisation, UNICEF, condemned the air strike as "shocking" in a statement issued in Geneva and New York. UNICEF's head, Ann Veneman, said: "These children are innocent victims of violence."
The Tamil Tigers are known to use conscripted child soldiers. But UNICEF said its information indicated that those killed in the air strike were schoolchildren attending a first aid course. And there was international concern yesterday at the government's statement that it was prepared to target and kill child soldiers.
The full details of what happened in Monday's air strike near Mullaitivu remain confused. The area where it took place is largely cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by the fighting. But what is clear is that a large number of children and young people were hit. UNICEF staff who were allowed to reach the site saw more than 100 people between the ages of 16 and 18 being treated in hospital, many of them critical.
It is also clear that there were deaths. Members of the European ceasefire monitoring mission were also allowed to visit the site, and they saw 19 bodies aged between 17 and 20, according to Thorfinnur Omarsson, the monitor's spokesman.
"Even if it is a 17-year-old child in terms of age, they are soldiers who are prepared to kill whoever comes in front of them," Keheliya Rambukwella, a Sri Lankan government defence spokesman, said yesterday. "Therefore the age or the gender is not what is important."
The Tamil Tigers said that 61 schoolgirls were killed in the air strike, but no one has been able to confirm that figure. The Tigers initially claimed that the air strike had targeted an orphanage, but it has emerged that all the orphans had earlier been moved to another site.
The Sri Lankan government yesterday said that what it hit was a Tiger military base, showing journalists what it said were aerial photographs of firing ranges and weapons stores at the site.
The European monitors said they saw "no evidence of a military installation" during their visit. UNICEFf says its information is that the compound was being used for a first aid course, and that children from schools nearby were staying overnight for the two-day course.
UNICEF estimates that the Tigers currently have 1,300 child soldiers in their ranks, with an average age of 16, a practice UNICEF has been working to make the Tigers end. "For us it's not a question of intention," says Dr Haque of UNICEF. "What matters is that children are being affected. A child soldier can be any child with a military, whether he or she is peeling potatoes for the soldiers to eat or carrying arms. The responsibility is with both sides to take measures to ensure children are not affected."
Schools were ordered to be closed in government-controlled areas for two weeks for fear of retaliatory attacks on children after a known Tiger front group threatened to target civilians in revenge for the air strike. Fighting continued around the Jaffna peninsula in the north yesterday.
Norwegian mediators have been working without success to persuade both sides to return to a 2002 ceasefire.
The current fighting began when the government launched a ground offensive near Trincomalee, saying it was intended to force the Tigers to reopen a vital water supply they had closed. But the Tigers have succeeded in spreading the fighting to the Jaffna area, scene of some of the worst battles of the civil war.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9818
[Source: The Independent]
Further information
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LEBANON: Toxic air a major health hazard [news]
[BEIRUT, 16 August 2006] - Chemicals and dust from the buildings hit during Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have badly polluted the air and land, local nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and government officials have warned.
“With all the dust and smoke in the air, it is unbearable walking around the southern suburbs of Beirut,” said Marie Claire Feghali, a journalist with An-Nahar newspaper. “Even while wearing face masks, my colleague and I struggled to breathe. In fact, she has not stopped coughing since our return to the office several hours ago.”
The Israeli military campaign in Lebanon followed the capture on 12 July of two Israeli soldiers by the armed wing of the Lebanese political party Hezbollah. After 34 days of conflict, a United Nations-brokered cessation of hostilities came into effect on Monday morning.
During the conflict, Israel’s air force carried out approximately 7,000 aerial attacks throughout Lebanon while its navy conducted more than 2,500 bombardments of the Lebanese coast, according to the Israeli military.
This included the bombing of some 10,500 houses and 900 other private buildings in addition to roads, bridges, factories and other infrastructure with the stated intention of “dismantling terror infrastructure”.
This destruction has released large amounts of chemical and dust particles into the atmosphere. These chemicals cause long-term health issues such as respiratory problems and cancer.
“The combination of toxic fumes that has been spreading for the past five weeks, which people have inhaled and is already in their bodies, is a great source of contamination,” said Greenpeace campaigner Zeina al-Hajj.
Israel’s attacks of fuel tanks at the Jiyeh power station on 13 July and 15 July caused a 10,000-tonne oil spill into the Mediterranean Sea, which could not be cleaned up because of the ongoing fighting.
These bombings on the fuel tanks also resulted in a fire that burned for three weeks, releasing a cloud of smoke which hung over Beirut and central Lebanon and which could be seen from 60km away.
“The fuel tanks released a cloud of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and particulate matter, and all of these could cause cancer, respiratory problems and hormonal problems,” said Wael Hmaidan, a coordinator with the Beirut-based Greenline organisation.
The bombing of factories that made products such as glass, foodstuffs and plastics has also released these chemicals and chlorine into the atmosphere in central areas of Lebanon, potentially affecting as many as 2 million people.
“The oil spill is the most visible environmental damage of this disaster but of course there are many more, al-Hajj said. “The bombs themselves are a problem. With all the chemicals that are in them and the amount that have been dropped, there you have an environmental disaster in itself.”
The bombing of electricity transformers such as the one that was hit by Israeli air strikes in the town of Sidon on 12 August resulted in the release of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the atmosphere. Lebanon still uses transformers that contain parts that were made with PCBs, despite an international ban on the substance.
“These are chemicals that are bio-accumulative and persistent so when you inhale them they stay in your body, and they cause cancer,” said al-Hajj.
Environmental experts say the ongoing conflict has prevented them from carrying out a proper assessment of the situation. “Lebanon does not have the resources to deal with this,” said Omer Naiem, a communications officer with Greenpeace. “A lot of countries are willing to come and help but nobody was able to come in while bombs were being dropped. Nobody really knows the full scale of the damage on Lebanon.”
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9842
[Source: IRIN News]
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INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY: Youth gather in New York for talks on poverty [news]
Young people from the far reaches of the globe gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York last week to discuss measures they can take in tackling youth poverty at an event to commemorate International Youth Day, marked each year on 12 August.
“The world’s young people, now numbering more than 1 billion, are a major human resource for development and can be key agents of innovation and positive social change. Yet the scale of youth poverty robs the world of that potential,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a message on the occasion.
With almost half of the world’s population under 25 years old and surviving on less than $2 a day, the repercussions of youth poverty are immense. Problems include hunger and malnutrition, lack of access to education and basic services, unemployment, increased disease and illness, homelessness and lack of participation in decision-making, Director of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development Johan Schölvinck said at the opening of the event.
International youth studying human rights as well as volunteers from New York-area YMCAs assembled to discuss poverty issues from their perspectives.
“I came because I wanted to learn something more about how things work out in different countries. After my interaction with people from Nepal, people from Uzbekistan and all the different countries I think people are the same everywhere. The problems are the same everywhere,” Vikas Sharma from India told the UN News Service.
“I knew poverty existed in the US, but I wasn’t aware that it was so similar. In Costa Rica, for example, a big issue a part of poverty there is the lack of education – there’s a lack of schools, a lack of money to pay teachers and that’s the same thing that we’re dealing with here (in New York). Before I went abroad, I wasn’t aware of how similar our problems are,” Janai Smith told the crowd of young people about her homestay visit to Costa Rica in 2005.
Community service and education were the poverty solutions highlighted in discussions. “Our challenge is clear: we must pay more attention to education and in particular to the transition from education to employment. And the ability of youth to find full and productive employment must be a central objective of national development strategies, including poverty reduction policies,” Mr. Annan wrote.
Many youth agreed with the Secretary-General. Rakhmadjon Sobirov of Uzbekistan stressed the potential of young people to help foster a better future in their countries by improving themselves through learning. “We see the only way is through education and becoming a specialist in our own field,” he said. “Whether as a lawyer or economist, everyone has their own share to contribute.”
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9847
[Source: UN]
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EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES: Right to Education during Displacement [publication]
As part of a campaign to promote displaced children and youth’s uninterrupted access to quality and safe education, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children has produced a new resource entitled the Right to Education during Displacement: A Resource for Organisations Working with Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.
This tool identifies the right to education and actions that individuals and organisations can take to fulfill these rights, with a focus on refugees, returnees and internally displaced people. It has been developed for local, regional and international organisations that work with displaced communities. The publication serves as:
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a training and capacity-building resource on the right to education for practitioners working with displaced populations and others;
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an awareness-raising tool to encourage humanitarian assistance agencies to implement education programmes - and donors to fund them;
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a call to action for organisations and individuals to promote access to and completion of quality education for all persons affected by crises.
Education is an internationally guaranteed human right, enshrined in treaties, conventions and resolutions. Children and youth have the right to education no matter where they live, including if they are displaced and cannot access education services in their home area.
The Women's Commission intends to revise this version based on feedback from around the world, translate it into other languages and develop an accompanying training module.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9671&flag=report
For more information, contact:
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
122 East 42nd Street, 12th Floor
New York NY 10168 - 1289, US
Tel: +1 212 551-3140
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.womenscommission.org
Further information
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PERU: President wants child rapist-killers executed [news]
[LIMA, Peru, 8 August 2006] - Peru's president said on Tuesday he wants to change the Constitution to allow the execution of people convicted of raping and killing children. "I believe that these people simply do not have a right to live and that society should defend itself by reinstalling the death penalty," President Alan Garcia told reporters.
Garcia, who took office for the second time in two decades on July 28, said he would propose making the crime punishable by death through a congressional bill or a referendum.
Under Peru's Constitution, only wartime treason or terrorism merits capital punishment. Child rapist-killers receive life in prison.
According to police statistics, 526 children age 14 years or younger were raped during the first three months of this year in Peru, although most such crimes go unreported. Figures for cases in which rape victims were killed were unavailable.
Garcia had raised the possibility of executing rapists who killed their child victims during his election campaign, drawing protests from human rights groups worried about wrongful prosecutions.
In the country's best-known case of an execution for child murder and rape, a man later thought by some to be mentally disturbed was sent before a firing squad in the late 1950s. Doubts over his guilt later emerged.
Garcia is infamous for causing Peru's economic collapse in the 1980s but won a second presidency after claims he had ditched leftist tendencies won him a second round run-off against a nationalist candidate popular with the poor.
Garcia was elected on a promise to create jobs and end growing inequality, but violent crime was a major concern for voters, especially in crime-ridden coastal capital Lima.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9682&flag=news
[Source: AlertNet]
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EMPLOYMENT: War Child - Child Workers in Asia [job postings]
Job Location: Kuwait City
Duration: 5 month contract initially (October – February)
War Child has been working in Southern Iraq since April 2003. Work has been concentrated in the Thi Qar Governorate and Basra environs. As a result of the deteriorating security situation, in 2004 War Child withdrew its expatriate team to Kuwait. War Child's Iraq programme currently comprises: a child supportive livelihoods programme with rural Marsh Arab communities, a Child Protection Fund programme, capacity building CSOs and providing small grants for child protection projects, and a child participatory research activities with groups of acutely marginalised children including street children and children in conflict with the law. The research will facilitate War Child's transition to a country programme tackling the rights deficit experienced by a hard core of acutely vulnerable and marginalised children by providing inclusive, pragmatic and innovative practical action and building local learning and advocacy networks among local civil society organisations and institutions to scale up impact and shape national policy. War Child is looking to recruit a Field Director who can oversee the timely and effective implementation of the existing programme, prepare the organisation for this transition to a new country programme and, subject to funding, lead the new country programme.
Application deadline: 25th August 2006
For more information, contact:
Matthew Wilson
Email: [email protected]
- CHILD WORKERS IN ASIA: Administrative Officer, Programme Coordinator for South Asia
Child Workers in Asia, a network of 78 non-government organisations working to end the labour exploitation of children, is looking for an Administrative Officer and a Programme Coordinator for South Asia. The primary role of the Administrative Officer will be to provide administrative support to the programme, communications, and information staff of the Secretariat in the pursuit of these objectives. This position is based in Bangkok, Thailand. The primary role of the Programme Coordinator for South Asia will be to provide coordination and technical support to network Task Forces in South Asia in the pursuit of these objectives. The position is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Application deadline: 22nd September 2006
For more information, contact:
[email protected]
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** NEWS IN BRIEF **
UNITED KINGDOM: Child Protection Training Course with ChildHope
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9850
WEBSITE: Human Rights Impact Resource Centre
http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=9840
NETHERLANDS: Campaign against child abuse [web log]
http://www.nokiddingklaagtaan.org/en/
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