CRINMAIL 55:

In this issue:

To view this CRINMAIL online, click here. 
 

A call for information from the NGO Advisory Council

Following up on the UN Secretary General’s Study on violence against children, the International NGO Advisory Council is calling for any research since 2006 which demonstrates the scale and extent of all forms of violence against children around the world, in the settings identified by the Study: the home and family, schools, care and justice systems, places of work and the community. Of particular interest are studies that involve interviews with children themselves. 

With the research gathered, the NGO Advisory Council intends to prepare a report summarising the studies it receives, which will then be submitted to the General Assembly in autumn 2011, in the hope that it will underline the urgency of prohibiting and eliminating all forms of violence against children and support follow-up to the Study’s recommendations.

To contribute to this cause by identifying any relevant studies published since summer 2006, please send a copy via email or otherwise provide a web link to the report/article giving full references (if possible send reports in English, or if in other UN official languages, with an English summary) to: [email protected]

We would also appreciate if you could pass on this request to others, or to suggest other individuals or organisations we should send it to. 

DEADLINE: 31 March 2011 

For more details about the International NGO Advisory Council, click here. 

For more information about the UNSG’s Study on violence against children, visit: www.unviolencestudy.org 

CRIN reports on forms of violence against children

CRIN has developed a series of reports that provide insight into the various forms of violence that exist against children, including those found within the spheres of physical and psychological violence, neglect and exploitation.

Download the current list: Bullying / Death penalty / Domestic violence / Extra-judicial execution / Harmful traditional practices / Honour killings / Infanticide / Judicial use of physical punishment / Psychological abuse / Psychological punishment / Abandonment / Dangerous, harmful or hazardous work / Deprivation / State neglect / Sex tourism / Slavery / Trafficking / Violence at work

If your organisation has launched a campaign relevant to violence against children including in the forms listed above, then let us know by emailing us at: [email protected]

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News and report round up

State violence

The State clampdown on pro-democracy protesters in Libya has been by far the bloodiest in the region, with at least 3,000 people estimated to have been killed by government forces. Women and children are also among those killed. In February, for example, armed forces opened fire at a funeral ceremony for dead protesters, leaving 15 mourners dead, including women and children who also attempted to flee the firing by jumping off a bridge. Full story. 

More recently, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, has received unconfirmed reports of violations of children's rights, which include the killing, maiming and use of children as combatants and the denial of humanitarian access. Coomaraswamy reminded the government, pro-government forces and opposition groups of their obligation under international law to protect children during armed clashes and that the recruitment and use of children may constitute a war crime. Full story. 

In response to the violence in Libya and at the request of the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently investigating alleged crimes against humanity at the hands of the Gaddafi regime. The Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said that “There will be no impunity in Libya...no one has authority to attack and massacre civilians.” More on the story.

Meanwhile in Argentina, the fight against impunity is underway, as two former military dictators have been put on trial charged with the kidnapping of around 500 babies seized from “disappeared” political prisoners during the country’s Dirty War period. Full story.

Challenging this injustice have been the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentinean organisation set up by the grandmothers of the kidnapped children, which has been awarded the 2010 UNESCO peace prize. For over 30 years the Grandmothers have sought to locate missing grandchildren and help them rediscover their true identities. So far, 100 have done so. Of the organisation, Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, has said that it is an inspiring example of the defence of human rights for standing up to State oppression and injustice. Full story. 

Holding rights violators to account is also the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 11 members of the Congolese army have been charged with the rape of 24 women and the abduction of children. Full story. This follows another recent court ruling in which three members of the armed forces, including a high-ranking army commander, were sentenced to between 10-20 years imprisonment for their involvement in the mass rape of over 300 civilians, including children, from a single town. Margot Wallström, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, has welcomed the verdicts, saying they send a strong message to perpetrators that no member of the national army is beyond the law. Full story. 

View more resources on State violence.

Inhuman sentencing

In Syria, a teenage blogger has been sentenced to five years in jail accused of espionage for “revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country.” She had previously written articles on her blog expressing a desire to participate in shaping the future of Syria, and had asked the United States president, Barak Obama, to increase efforts to support the Palestinian cause. Full story.

However, there is good news from other countries on the inhuman sentencing front! First, Tunisia’s new transition government is on the way towards abolishing the death penalty, as well as announcing the ratification of major international agreements. Full story. While in the United States, Illinois has become the 16^th state to abolish the death penalty, after determining that the system is flawed and could lead the execution of innocent people. Full story.

Read CRIN’s information page on the death penalty. 

Child marriage 

In some of the worst cultural practices in Malawi, girls as young as 9-years-old are forced to marry men up to 40 year older by their own parents, a problem which often leads to premature pregnancy, maternal death, and jeopardises a girl's right to education. In one reported case, a girl of 13 was forced to marry a 78-year-old man. Equally alarming is the practice of Chithyola imvi, which entails young girls being forced to have sex with their father or grandfather, as it is believed the act will help boost a business venture or reap financial rewards. Full story. 

The problem of forced child marriage repeats itself in Saudi Arabia, where studies published suggest that around 3,000 girls in the Kingdom were under-13 when they got married, while their husbands were at least 25 years their senior. In 2009, the Minister of Justice Mohammad Al-Eissa expressed his intention to regulate child marriages in the country, which he said would prevent parents and guardians from forcing their daughters to marry; yet no effective action has been taken, say children’s rights activists. Full story.  

On the same issue, studies have shown that adolescent marriage in India appears to be directly linked with increased violence at home: emotional, physical and sexual, practiced both by the husband and the in-laws, and even continues unabated during pregnancy and motherhood. Full story.

In one of the largest states in India, Uttar Pradesh, where 40 per cent of girls are married before the age of 18, one community development worker who was once a child bride herself now works as a peer educator for a programme called Youth for Change, which teaches schoolgirls about the causes and consequences of child marriage, citing poverty, gender discrimination and patriarchal mentalities as being at the root of the problem. Full story. 

Meanwhile in Pakistan, the Child Rights Legal Centre has urged the government to increase the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18 years in order to eliminate gender discrimination in legislation which currently sets the minimum age of marriage for boys at the higher age of 18 years. The organisation has also expressed its concern about how Sharia law uses puberty to determine if a child is of marriageable age, which means that the issue of child marriage persists across Pakistan. Full story.

Meanwhile Kenya marked the International Women’s Day by calling on the government to pass bills that would prohibit harmful traditional practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. The bills in question include the Family Protection Bill 2009 and the Marriage Bill 2009, which are still pending approval. Full story.

Read CRIN’s information page on harmful traditional practices and slavery. 

Sexual exploitation

In Afghanistan, after the signing of a pact between the government and the UN to prevent the sexual abuse of children by the armed forces, locally known as bacha bazi, the UN and human rights organisations are now pressing the government to comply with the signed agreement. Full story. On the issue, Ban Ki-moon has also presented a new report which highlights that the sexual abuse of children in Afghanistan often goes unreported due to social stigma, and unpunished because the crime itself is not clearly defined as such in Afghan law. Full story.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, child rights activists say the country is a haven for child prostitution, evidenced by an increased average of 150 children being forced into the industry every year. Prostitution is illegal in Malaysia but rights groups say that the child sex industry is a lucrative market where clients pay double the amount paid for an adult. Full story. 

Read CRIN’s information page on sex tourism.

Meanwhile in South Africa, the Film and Publication board is calling on schools to educate school children on the dangers of Internet child pornography, as part of its Back to School campaign against the problem. Full story. 

For more resources on child pornography, click here. 

Physical abuse 

It is usually at the beginning of a new year when the true scale of reported child abuse becomes evident. In Pakistan, for example, 5,120 children were abused and violated in 2010, according to the Madadgaar Helpline database. Its findings reveal that 288 children were raped, 149 sodomised and 211 faced sexual assaults. Similarly, 648 children were molested, 572 tortured, 200 trafficked and 364 went missing. Full story. Meanwhile in Japan, child abuse cases reached a record high in 2010 with a total of 4,788 reported incidents, including domestic and sexual violence against children. Full story.

Read CRIN’s information pages on domestic violence.

In the past month, there have been two reported incidents of violent and abusive treatment received by children in Indian shelters. A group of NGOs revealed cases of abuse in a children’s home in Bangalore, where child residents were reported to be suffering from beatings and physical torture at the hands of their caregivers. Full story. In another children's home, this time in Chingmeirong Lei-Ingkhol, three children ran away after being mistreated by the secretary of the management committee, who forced them to undertake manual labour and whipped them as punishment. Full story.

Read CRIN’s information page on slavery and  physical punishment.

Reports of violence in children's homes also reach us from Malaysia, where one case of sexual abuse in Penang has prompted Prema Devaraj, Programme Director of the Penang-based organisation Women’s Centre for Change, to identify steps that should be implemented in order to prevent child abuse in shelters. Devaraj emphasises the importance of reporting such cases, given that sexual abuse is a problem that is not often spoken about in Malaysia. She also highlights that children should be taught the differences between good and bad touching, and to speak up if they are victims of the latter. Full story. 

On a related note, the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has made a call for information on corporal punishment in alternative care for children. In particular, the organisation is interested in all kinds of institutional and residential care for children, foster care, day care and early childhood care, in any country. To participate in the study, click here. 

Domestic violence

Women’s advocates say that rules being drafted by the government of Afghanistan to bring women's shelters under State control will deter the most vulnerable women and girls, including those in violent domestic situations, from seeking refuge. The new guidelines propose requiring a woman in shelter to justify her decision to seek refuge to an eight-member government panel, which would hold the power to determine if she needs to be in a shelter or should be sent to jail or back home, where she would be at risk of further violence and even death. Full story.

Sign Women for Afghan Women's petition to save women's shelters in Afghanistan here.

A study in Sweden has found that children with chronic health conditions are 88 per cent more likely to suffer physical abuse than healthy children. Researchers from Karlstad University analysed 2,510 questionnaires completed anonymously by children from 44 schools, which revealed that forms of physical abuse range from severe shaking, ear boxing and hair pulling by an adult, to being severely beaten with a hand or device. Full story.

Meanewhile another study by the NSPCC has found that one in five 11-17-year-olds in the United Kingdom have been severely abused by an adult or neglected at home during childhood, with parents or guardians responsible for over half of the cases. Andrew Flanagan, chief executive of the NSPCC, emphasises the importance of early intervention in cases of abuse and neglect, identifying teachers as playing a critical role in helping these children. Full story. 

Read CRIN’s information page on children and domestic violence.

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