CRINMAIL 52:

In this issue:

To view this CRINMAIL online, click here.

UPDATE: Inhuman Sentencing Campaign

Following the October launch of CRIN’s new campaign for the prohibition and elimination of inhuman sentencing of children, we have now begun publishing our country reports on States which authorise and hand down corporal punishment, life sentences and the death penalty to persons under 18. The purpose of these reports is to map the legality and application of such forms of inhuman sentencing around the world in order to expose those States that are not complying with the CRC. Governments and civil society organisations are invited to comment on and verify the content of the country reports. CRIN has currently published 15 reports, eight more will be available next week and more will follow.

Download the following country reports:
Barbados / Bangladesh / Saudi Arabia / India / Iran / Libya / Malaysia / Maldives / Dominica / Qatar / St. Kitts and Nevis / St. Vincent and the Grenadines / United States / Yemen / Zimbabwe 

Upcoming country reports:
Sudan / Pakistan / United Arab Emirates / Bahrain / Botswana / Brunei Darussalam / Singapore / Antigua and Barbuda

Contact us on [email protected] if you would like to comment on the country reports

CRIN needs your help!

Whilst international campaigning against inhuman sentencing of children is fundamental for pressuring governments towards instituting an outright prohibition, CRIN believes that this is not enough. For this reason, CRIN needs your help. We hope that with the coordination and solidarity of NGOs, CSOs and advocacy workers at all national, regional and international levels, we can strengthen the cause and accelerate the change. Please help us in the following two ways:

In order for CRIN to compile the most accurate and up-to-date information presented in its country reports, please complete the following questionnaire which addresses the legality of inhuman sentencing of persons under 18 to corporal punishment, life imprisonment and the death penalty. Access the questionnaire here.

To increase political pressure and ultimately achieve full prohibition of the inhuman sentencing of children around the world, please spread the word about our campaign by forwarding the questionnaire and country report to other relevant agencies, organisations and/or individuals. Access our country report page here.

Challenging corporal punishment

In 2010, four more countries have banned corporal punishment of children outright in all settings, including in school and the home. Liechtenstein, Tunisia, Poland and Kenya now include themselves within the group of 29 States to have taken such legal measures. Many others have yet to follow their example, however, as the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has reported, the following countries have taken initial steps towards lawfully committing themselves to instituting a full ban on the corporal punishment of children:

In Bangladesh, whilst such a prohibition has yet to be confirmed in law, the Ministry of Education has declared that corporal punishment is absolutely forbidden in all educational institutions. Persons found to be inflicting corporal punishment against children, will face legal action under the Bangladesh Penal Code 1860 and the Children Act 1974. Additionally, the Ministry will establish a set of policy guidelines on non-violent school discipline.

Meanwhile in Bhutan, a Child Care and Protection Bill that aims to ban corporal punishment of children is currently under discussion.

Similarly, the central government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is due to submit a bill to the National Assembly that prohibits corporal punishment in schools. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has already passed a students’ rights ordinance banning corporal punishment in all schools and kindergartens. Similar laws are expected to be approved in other provinces in the coming months. 

In the Philippines, advocates of child rights have urged legislators to take up two new bills, which would prohibit all corporal punishment of children, as a matter of urgency. A similar bill was approved by the House of Representatives during the previous Congress but was not taken further by the Senate. 

In Guyana, the Juvenile Offenders (Amendment) Act has been passed which revokes provisions for whipping juvenile offenders as a sentence. However, whilst whipping of all females is forbidden, male juveniles are defined in legislation as under 17, leaving boys from that age liable to whipping.

A ban of corporal punishment in schools in Uganda has been included in the Children (Amendment) Bill submitted to parliament by the country’s Law Reform Commission.

On a final positive note, a private members bill that sought to restore parents’ right to hit their children in New Zealand was rejected upon introduction in Parliament by a landslide 115 votes to 5.

To read the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children November newsletter for more information on corporal punishment of children around the world, Click here. 

News round-up

Violence at the hands of the State

Despite its government claiming that no juvenile is executed in practice, Sudan remains one of only three States to have executed a minor since 2009, and has recently sentenced four youths to death for a car-jacking. Read the full story here.

More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked across Kenya for sexually abusing girl students over the past two years. This report follows Kenya’s move to eliminate violence against children through its prohibition of all corporal punishment in all settings, including in school. Read the full story here.

Video footage has been released capturing the Deputy officer of the Paraguayan national police force beating a handcuffed 15-year-old youth in an underground prison basement in Bañado Sur de Asunción. Two other officers are being investigated for collaborating in the crime, including the one who filmed the assault. Read the full story here.

Curbing child sex tourism

A nationwide campaign to combat the exploitation of children in sex tourism overseas has been put into force in Canada. It centres on raising travellers’ awareness about the sexual exploitation of children in tourist destinations, yet also seeks to remind nationals that they are not immune to Canadian laws even if wrongful acts against children are committed abroad. Read more here.

Similarly in Europe, Europol has launched Project HAVEN to deter European travellers from engaging in sex tourism in low-income destination countries where children as young as six years old are sexually exploited. Designed by Europol’s Child Sexual Exploitation Group, Project HAVEN coordinates the international operations of EU law enforcement bodies to monitor and track existing and potential sex offenders abroad. Read more here. 

A human rights regression?

Six UN experts have voiced their outrage at the “brutal summary execution” of two teenage girls by firing squad in the town of Beledweyne in central Somalia. The girls had reportedly been taken from their homes by Al-Shabaab insurgents and killed in front of hundreds of local residents. The UN experts have declared the execution as a manifestation of the human rights crisis plaguing Somalia which is taking the country back to the Stone Age. Read the full story here.

“Reasonable chastisement”?

A child abuse case in Tasmania in which a three-year-old girl was hit with a stick, made to keep her nose on a dot on the wall, and left in wet and soiled bed sheets as punishment by her parents, has raised legal questions about what constitutes "reasonable" discipline in the home. In light of this case, Tasmania’s new Commissioner for Children wants to get the law governing the physical chastisement of children amended to prohibit outright corporal punishment in the home. Read the full story here.

Moving towards child-friendly justice

Children in the Union – Rights and Empowerment (CURE) has released its much anticipated report on improving the situation of child victims in the European Union. Its study concludes that EU criminal justice policies do not acknowledge or cater to the specific needs of child victims, and accordingly calls for the improvement of existing legislation and justice mechanisms. Read more here.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted new guidelines on child-friendly justice aimed at European governments to improve children’s access to and treatment in all spheres of justice. Yet the guidelines seek to be more than a mere declaration of principles, and can be used more practically by steering the implementation of existing international treaties. Read more here.

November: a month against violence

November is host to two important days condemning violence around around the world. The first, the World Day for the Prevention of Abuse and Violence against Children was celebrated on 19 November, originally launched in 2000 by the Women's World Summit Foundation, which has as its main objective to be a rallying point around the issue of child abuse and the urgency for effective prevention programmes. Access the page here.

Click here to read the statement by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children on the occasion of the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the initiative on World Day for the Prevention of Abuse and Violence against Children.   

The 25 November celebrated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, first celebrated in 1981, which invites governments, international organisations and NGOs to raise public awareness about the issue. Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic scale. It constitutes one of the main causes of premature death in females, and at least one of every three women around the world are beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise physically abused in her lifetime, with the abuser usually someone known to her. Access more information here.

A call to action from the Street Child World Cup

The recent release of the Durban Declaration, which reflects the main issues raised by street children around the world, highlights the importance of their right to be heard. If we are to understand why street children leave their homes, what abuse they experience, and what barriers prevent them from accessing public services such as education and health care, it is imperative that we listen to their experiences.

Please spread the word by forwarding the Durban Declaration to your MPs to send to the Department for International Development.

To read the Durban Declaration and implications for government and civil society, click here.

To view a video from street children in the Philippines, voicing the Durban Declaration, click here.

{THE LAST WORD}

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