CRINMAIL 62:
In this issue:
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NEWS AND REPORT ROUND-UP
Inhuman sentencing
On 18 January Yemeni authorities executed Fuad Ahmed Ali Abdullah Alsayed in Taiz central prison for allegedly committing murder in June 2004, when his family claim he was still a minor. Fuad’s family was not informed of his imminent execution until the same day it was performed, allegedly so they would be unable to lobby against the sentence. Full story.
On a positive note, the Dominican Republic has ratified the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to abolish the death penalty. Full story.
But back to the negative, homophobic Ugandan legislators are once again proposing a mandatory death sentence for gay “repeated offenders”. Full story.
Amnesty International is urging authorities in the US state of Louisiana to grant clemency to a woman serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for a crime committed when she was a minor. Full story.
Read about CRIN's campaign to end the inhuman sentencing of children here.
Doctors slam corporal punishment
The head of Australia's top paediatric body, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatric & Child Health Division, is pushing for the body to officially support a ban on parents smacking their children. Dr Gervase Chaney said it was no longer acceptable for parents to argue "it never did us any harm" and is urging his colleagues to stand up for children’s rights. Full story.
The United Kingdom’s Royal College of Paediatrics previously made a similar move, warning that parents should be banned from smacking their children because of the risk that “today’s smack will become tomorrow’s punch”, and on the basis that “[c]hildren should be provided with the same protection against physical assault as adults”. Full story.
The Canadian Children's Rights Council is also pushing for a ban on smacking, condemning that Canada's criminal code "allows assaults on children". Full story.
Meanwhile Amazon, the world's biggest bookseller, has still not responded to a petition urging it to stop selling "parenting manuals" that advocate using physical punishment to "discipline" children.
On the same issue, there is good news from the Republic of Congo, as it has become the latest African country to ban corporal punishment of children in all settings, following in the footsteps of Tunisia, Kenya, South Sudan and Togo.
For more on the issue, read the latest e-newsletter from the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children here.
New study on effects of abuse and neglect
Adolescents who were abused and neglected have less grey matter – the tissue that contains brain cells – in some areas of the brain than young people who have not been maltreated, which "could
help to explain their trouble with school performance or [could] increase their vulnerability to depression and behavioural difficulties,” a study by the Yale School of Medicine has shown. Full story.
Also read CRIN’s Forms of Violence pages on physical abuse and neglect.
Denouncing, combating and redefining sexual abuse
Around 20,000 children have been sexually abused by 800 Roman Catholic priests or lay workers in the Netherlands since 1945, an independent inquiry has determined. But "[t]o prevent scandals, nothing was done: it was not acknowledged, there was no help, compensation or aftercare for the victims," said Wim Deetman, a former Dutch minister, who conducted the inquiry. At least 105 of the alleged abusers are still alive. Full story.
Further Information:
Recently in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which according to a 2007 UN report had the third-highest rate of reported rapes in the world, the country’s Minister of Education Girlyn Miguel controversially urged the female population “to dress themselves properly” so that they “do not give temptation to our men.” But one journalist challenged Miguel’s statement asserting the need to “eras[e] the mentality that domestic violence is something that women bring upon themselves for not dressing right or doing ‘the right things’”. Full story.
On Haiti, a new report entitled ‘Achieving Justice for Victims of Rape and Advancing Women’s Rights’ is the first of two prepared at the request of MADRE, the international women’s human rights organisation. The report comparatively looks at the rape laws and
procedures in five other jurisdictions with the underlying aim of strengthening rape law in Haiti, which has experienced a dramatic increase in sexual violence after the January 2010 earthquake. Download the report.
Meanwhile in the United States, where previously only females could be legally defined as victims of rape, the government recently decided to expand the definition to also include men and boys, who were previously unaccounted for in crime reports. Full story.
Also read CRIN’s Forms of Violence pages on physical abuse.
State violence continues unabated
In response the failure of UN Security Council to agree on a resolution to resolve the crisis in Syria, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed the “extreme urgency for the international community to cut through the politics" and take effective action. Well over 5,000 have been killed in the past 11 months of state repression, including more than 400 children, some from severe torture while held in detention.
The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group released a report exposing how over 150 hospitals in China are known to systematically use psychiatric torture against mentally and physically healthy Falun Gong practitioners in a State-sponsored effort to break their will. According to the report, methods of torture include the forced ingestion or injection with psychiatric drugs or toxic substances, electroshock procedures, or the use of electric needles at the temples to shock the brain and produce seizures. Download the report.
Also read CRIN’s Forms of Violence page on state violence and torture.
New revelation on baby abductions
A former United States State Department official has revealed that the US government in the 1970 and 80s was aware that Argentina’s military junta at the time was abducting babies from leftist political prisoners who were jailed or killed in torture centres. Full story.
Meanwhile in Spain, victims of the Franco-era network that stole newborn babies from political dissidents are demanding an investigative commission be set up to probe all reports, amid anger against prosecutors that 20 per cent of cases have been shelved. Full story.
Also read CRIN’s Forms of Violence page on abduction.
New reports
Child Helpline International has produced its fifth follow up report on the implementation of the 12 recommendations of the UN Study on Violence against Children, which recognised the role of child helplines in addressing and preventing the problem. The report contains information on physical, sexual and emotional abuse; neglect; corporal punishment; bullying; online abuse; and national child protection systems. Download the report.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children has submitted her third annual report ahead of the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The report reviews key developments and initiatives that have been promoted, and identifies priority areas to which the Special Representative will devote special attention. Download it here.
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EVENTS
Exploitation: Child and Adolescent Heath and Well-being – Working in Partnership to Tackle the Sexual Exploitation of Children
Dates: 23 February 2012
Organiser: Public Policy Exchange
Location: London, United Kingdom
More details here.
Domestic violence: Raising Awareness of Children as Hidden Victims of Domestic Violence and Abuse in Europe
Dates: 28 February 2012
Organiser: Public Polic Exchange
Location: Brussels, Belgium
More details here.
Africa: The 2nd International Conference in Africa on Child Sexual Abuse
Dates: 12 – 14 March 2012
Organiser: African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect – Ghana Chapter
Location: Accra, Ghana
More details here.
Trafficking: Enhancing Human Security – Developing Capacities to Protect and Assist Victims of Human Trafficking
Dates: 28 – 30 March 2012
Organiser: Cifal Jeju / Jeju International Training Centre
Location: Seogwipo City, Jeju, Republic of Korea
More details here.
The Last Word
"If the numbers we see in domestic violence were applied to terrorism or gang violence, the entire country would be up in arms, and it would be the lead story on the news every night."
-- US politician Mark Green
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