9 November 2006 - Rights CRINMAIL 29
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- General Comment No. 9: Children with Disabilities
- NGOs Release First Open Budget Index
- Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Five Years On
- Children's Rights Impact Assessment: Model of Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People
- Children’s Rights and Active Participation Training: Making Children’s and Young People’s Participation a Reality
- Course: Rights-Based Approaches to Development
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Rights CRINMAIL is a component of a project of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). It is published monthly with the purpose of informing and building the community of practitioners in rights-based programming. Your submissions are welcome. To contribute, email us at[email protected].
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General Comment No. 9: Children with Disabilities
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its General Comment number 9 on "The Rights of Children with Disabilities". The Committee regularly adopts "general comments" based on specific articles, provisions and themes of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to assist the States parties in fulfilling their obligations under the Convention and to stimulate international organisations and specialised agencies in achieving the full realisation of the rights recognised in the Convention.
It is estimated that there are 500-650 million persons with disabilities in the world, approximately 10 per cent of the world population, 150 million of whom are children. More than 80 per cent live in developing countries with little or no access to services. The majority of children with disabilities in developing countries remains out of school and is completely illiterate. It is recognised that the majority of causes for disabilities such as war, illness and poverty are preventable along with preventing and/or reducing the secondary impacts of disabilities, often caused by the lack of early/timely intervention. Therefore, more is needed to create the necessary political will and a real commitment to investigate and put into practice the most effective actions to prevent disabilities with the participation of all levels of society.
The past few decades have witnessed positive focus on persons with disabilities in general and children in particular. The reason for this is partly because of the increasingly heard voice of individuals with disabilities and their advocates, because of the growing attention paid to persons with disabilities in the framework of the human rights treaties and the UN human rights treaty bodies. However, although these treaty bodies have considerable potential in this field, they have generally been underused in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. A Special Rapporteur on Disability of the UN Commission for Social Development was also appointed in 1994. Finally, a new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has recently been adopted.
In 1997 the Committee devoted its Day of General Discussion to children with disabilities. It resulted in an elaborated set of recommendations (see CRC/C/66, paragraphs 310-339), including that the Committee should consider the possibility of drafting a General Comment on children with disabilities.
The Committee, in reviewing State party reports, has accumulated a wealth of information on the status of children with disabilities worldwide and found that in the overwhelming majority of countries some recommendations had to be made specifically for children with disabilities.
The problems identified and addressed have varied from exclusion from decision making to the severe discrimination and actual killing of children with disabilities. Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability. Children with disabilities and their families have the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The question of children with disabilities living in poverty should be addressed by allocating adequate budgetary resources as well as by ensuring access by children with disabilities to social protection and poverty reduction programmes.
Children with disabilities are still experiencing serious difficulties and barriers in the full enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention. The barrier is not the disability itself but it is a combination of social, cultural, attitudinal and physical barriers which children with disabilities encounter in their daily lives.
This General Comment is meant to provide guidance and assistance to States parties in their efforts to implement the rights of children with disabilities, in a comprehensive manner which covers all the provisions of the Convention.
Further information
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NGOs Release First Open Budget Index
On 18 October, civil society organisations from 59 countries around the world unveiled the Open Budget Index. This is the first index to rate countries on how open their budget books are to their citizens. It is intended to provide citizens, legislators, and civil society advocates with the comprehensive and practical information needed to gauge a government’s commitment to budget transparency and accountability. Armed with this kind of information, lenders, development advocates, and aid organisations can identify meaningful budget reforms needed in specific countries to combat corruption and strengthen basic services to improve people's lives.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=11127
For more information, contact:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
820 First Street
NE, Suite 510, Washington, D.C., United States of America
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.openbudgetindex.org
Further information
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Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Five Years On
[31 October 2006] - Women and girls in Afghanistan have been woefully let down and left to face ever increasing levels of violence. This is the central message of a new report, Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Five Years On produced by WOMANKIND Worldwide launched on 31st October, the sixth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
WOMANKIND Worldwide marked the anniversary with a special event at the UK House of Commons showing exclusive footage filmed only three weeks ago in Afghanistan of women speaking about their lives five years after the fall of the Taliban.
‘The International Community needs to do much more to protect and empower the women and girls of Afghanistan. Unless the rights that women and girls in Afghanistan have on paper are made reality it cannot be said that the status of Afghan women has changed significantly in the last five years’, says Maggie Baxter, Chief Executive of WOMANKIND Worldwide.
In 2001, a window of opportunity opened for the international community to turn Afghanistan around and enable foundations to be laid for lasting peace in this country which had endured nearly a quarter century of violent conflict. Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Five Years On draws together a wide range of research and anecdotal evidence collected from national and international sources. The film brings alive the disturbing facts and figures in the report. This groundbreaking documentary provides a voice to women from all walks of life, as they tell their stories of discrimination, violence and fear.
“It is imperative that the media, donor governments, international organisations and the Afghan government acknowledge the lack of progress in the domain of women’s rights and immediately take action in key areas of education, the legal system, security services, healthcare, and livelihoods to transform paper rights to rights in practice. Let us not forget the women of Afghanistan.” continues Maggie Baxter.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10977&flag=report
For more information, contact:
Womankind Worldwide
2nd Floor, Development House,
56-64 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4JX, United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 (0)207 549 0360
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.womankind.org.uk
Further information
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Children's Rights Impact Assessment: Model of Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People [publication]
Over the last year, SCCYP has been developing a model for carrying out children’s rights impact assessment to facilitate the review of law, policy and practice. It has published a step-by-step guide, Children’s Rights Impact Assessment: The SCCYP Model, which contains information on what assessments are, why they are necessary and how they should be carried out. The guide also contains a set of template forms for conducting assessments.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10983
For more information, contact:
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People
85 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 7AU, Scotland
Tel: +44 (0)131 558 3733; Fax: +44 (0)131 556 3378
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.sccyp.org.uk
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Children’s Rights and Active Participation Training: Making children’s and young people’s participation a reality [news]
North South Projects provides ad hoc training to raise awareness of children’s rights and active participation. It is available as either a two-hour introductory taster session, or as a stand-alone one- or two-day training workshop.
The 'Children’s rights and active participation training' offers the following learning outcomes:
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Knowledge of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and child rights programming as a framework from which to work
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An understanding of the values, ethos and principles of involving all children and young people
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An understanding of the importance of participation as a process and tool for empowerment
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Development of simple plans of action that can be integrated into participants' ongoing programmes and projects
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Identifying and experiencing fun activities that participants can use with their own clients.
'Children’s rights and active participation training' explores the legislative and theoretical frameworks for the importance of children and young people’s participation. It also explores in more detail children’s participation within particular settings and ways in which the participation agenda can be best moved forward.
The training makes use of a number of interactive exercises and case studies as well as information input sessions. It is constructed around the topics highlighted above, but also aims to cover organisations’ individual training needs.
The training has been developed from working with a number of different audiences, including local authorities and national organisations working with children and young people. It is primarily focused at youth workers, teachers or policy/strategy makers, but can be adapted to meet particular client needs.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10865
For more information, contact:
Duncan Little: [email protected]
Elana Friedman: [email protected]
Website: http://www.northsouthprojects.co.uk
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Course: Rights-based approaches to development
Date: 6 - 12 December 2006
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
The aim of the course is to familiarise participants with principles, approaches and practices, which define a rights-based approach to development. The course provides an opportunity to reflect on the implications of applying rights-based approaches in the context of programmes and organisational development and to assess if and how an organisation might take these ideas forward.
The method of working uses participatory and inter-active processes to explore a series of topics and issues relating to the application of rights-based approaches to programming and to organisational development. Inputs will be provided by the facilitators: these will include presentations, handouts, details of further resources and useful websites and addresses. Plenary sessions will provide opportunities for participants to share and advance their learning.
The course is designed for NGO and other staff members - managers and practitioners - who are looking for an introduction to rights-based approaches. Please note that this course is not designed to train participants how to apply rights-based approaches in their work.
Objectives:
By the end of the course, participants will have knowledge of:
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The different meanings of a rights-based approach to development
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The key legal instruments underpinning the rights-based approach
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The major debates around taking a rights-based approach
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Different ways that NGOs have incorporated a rights-based approach into their strategy and programming
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The implications for NGOs moving towards a rights-based approach
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How to analyse the appropriate position for their organisation towards the rights-based approach
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10576&flag=event
For more information, contact:
INTRAC
PO Box 563, Oxford, 0X2 6RZ, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (10)1865 201851
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.intrac.org
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