21 December 2005 - Update: Civil Society and the UN Study on Violence Against Children
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- A Special Representative on Violence Against Children
- NGO Advisory Panel: Update on Recent Meeting
- Editorial Board Meeting: Update
- NGO Group Subgroup on Violence Against Children: Update from Strategy Meeting
- Pinheiro Addresses British Parliament on Corporal Punishment
- RESOURCES: Latest on the CRIN Violence Website
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This list is the primary means of communication for NGOs interested in the UN Study on Violence Against Children and for the Subgroup on Children and Violence. Updates are sent approximately once a month. Please feel free to forward these updates to others who may be interested.
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A Special Representative on Violence Against Children
During a meeting of the NGO Advisory Panel for the UNSG's Study on Violence against Children that took place in London in December 2005, a recommendation was made for a Special Representative to be appointed to act as high profile focal point for follow-up to the Study. Paulo Pinheiro also expressed that he supports the idea of installing a Special Representative.
The proposal would include a Special Representative, an Interagency task group with UN agencies, an NGO Advisory group and a Youth Council.
Read the full proposal
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NGO Advisory Panel: Update on Recent Meeting
As part of the meeting held recently, the NGO Advisory Panel has been discussing its plans for the future:
- the current NGO advisory panel (youth and adults) will continue in its current form until the Study is presented to the General Assembly in late 2006;
- Jo and Mel are welcoming suggestions by the end of January for a discussion paper on the future of the NGO Advisory Panel which would address issues including the criteria and process for re-forming the group, and its new mandate once the study is completed.
More information
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Editorial Board Meeting - Update
The majority of the editorial board meeting was spent reviewing the latest drafts of the study chapters. The chapter on institutions has gone out for limited peer review already, and another draft will probably go out to a broader group of reviewers early in the new year. The other chapters, on home and family, school, workplace, and community will probably not be circulated for peer review until either immediately before or after the next Editorial Board meeting, scheduled for March 23-24. All text will be finalised by the end of June.
Verbal input was presented from the NGO Advisory Panel's small groups on the recommendations for the various settings chapters, and will provide each group's detailed written suggestions to the relevant chapter author/coordinator, secretariat, and the overall writer/editor. Pinheiro and the secretariat are likely to produce a new draft, taking into account the Ad Panel's proposals, by March, when we will circulate it again.
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Subgroup on violence against children: Update from Strategy Meeting
The main purpose of the meeting was to produce a concrete action plan for the year 2006 based on the NGO Subgroup's Plans of Activities for year 2006. (The action plan be available on the website shortly).
Recommendations from the UN Study
The meeting started with short updates from the various member agencies. Melanie Gow (World Vision, convener of the Ad Panel) presented the outcomes from the Advisory Panel meeting that took place earlier in the week in London. She presented the Advisory Panel's draft "Overarching Recommendations for the Study", including a recommendation for having a Special Representative for violence against children.
A discussion took place on the advantages and disadvantages of having a Special Representative. It was agreed that members of the subgroup should endorse this recommendation as soon as possible, strategise and search for "the best possible person", and advocate for sufficient resources to be allocated by governments and others for appropriate follow up mechanisms.
The proposal to recommend a Special Representative will be circulated to all subgroup members before a final decision is made.
Sensitisation of key agencies/individuals on children and violence
The group decided to intensify its lobbying with UN agencies and special rapporteurs on the issue of children and violence. It was also decided to call for a meeting with all the heads of the NGO subgroups to sensitise them on children and violence. The subgroup on children and violence will also work on drafting guidelines for NGO coalitions on how to include violence issues in alternative reports.
There was a discussion about whether the subgroup should be pushing for a General Comment on Violence against Children. However, as Paulo Pinheiro explained that there will be General Comment on corporal punishment, the group decided to postpone the discussion untill to next meeting.
Updates from UN Agencies
UNCHR is planning a workshop with the Division on the Advancement of Women (DAW) in April on mechanisms to address violence against children and violence against women. The child friendliness of UN mechanisms will also be discussed.
UNICEF will have their child protection tools and mechanisms for governments ready by end of February. UNICEF's work will focus more on preventive measures and services (prevention, early identification, referral and response) as well as develop indicators for measuring progress of systematic efforts to improve child protection systems.
Professor Paulo Pinheiro informed that his presentation before the Commission on Human Rights (Human Rights Council) would be an analysis of government's questionnaires.
Detailed minutes will be made available shortly on the Subgroup's website
For more information, contact:
Subgroup convenor, Roberta Cecchetti
Save the Children
1, Rue Varembé, CH - 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 919 2000; Fax: +41 22 919 2001
Email: [email protected]
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Pinheiro at British Parliament on Corporal Punishment
As part of a panel discussion organised by the Children are Unbeatable Campaign, the Independent Expert leading the UN Study on Violence against children addressed the British Parliament and explained why corporal punishment had to be banned. Pinheiro was speaking as part of a panel, which included Mary Marsh, Chief Executive of the NSPCC (UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), Annette Brooke Member of Parliament for the Liberal Democrats, and Peter Newell, Global Initiative to End all forms of corporal punishment.
In his introduction about the Study, Professor Pinheiro related how children and young people's involvement in the regional consultations for the Study had been "fundamental and highly influential". He explained that from his discussions with children and young people, the concern of corporal punishment was a common element in every regional consultation. Therefore, "the study report will certainly recommend a universal ban on all corporal punishment. Surely, it would be strange indeed if the 'expert' leading a study on violence against children would suggest that it is OK to hit children?", Pinheiro said.
"My study is human rights based, and again it would be strange if I should contradict the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has been telling states consistently for more than a decade that the Convention requires prohibition of all corporal punishment" he continued.
Pinheiro then talked about corporal punishment in the UK and said that he had been "particularly puzzled by this concept of 'reasonable' chastisement or punishment, which I understand has its origins in ancient English law, but has found its way into the legislation of at least 70 countries worldwide. There is nothing reasonable about hitting children".
Mary Marsh explained that in the UK, animals had protection from violence 50 years before there was any legislation to protect children, and today there is zero tolerance about violence against women, and there should be zero tolerance about violence against children. "We constantly hear statements by the government about criminalising parents, which is not the intent of this law", she continued, "it sets the expectations and boundaries, as it does in many other ways, prosecuting parents would only be where it is in the best interest of the child".
Read Pinheiro's speech
Find out more about the NSPCC
Find out more about corporal punishment in the UK
Read the UK's Early Day Motion on children and human rights
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RESOURCES: Latest on the CRIN Violence Website
A new calendar of events was recently developed on the CRIN violence website.
The Right Not to Lose Hope - children in conflict with the law, Save the Children UK
Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
Landmark study on domestic violence, World Health Organisation
Family Matters: a study of institutional childcare in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, EveryChild
Strongim pikinini, strongim laef b'long famili: enabling children to reach their full potential, World Vision USA
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For more information about CRIN's work on children and violence or to submit information, contact:
Veronica Yates
Child Rights Information Network
c/o Save the Children, 1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: +44 20 7012 6865; Fax: +44 20 7012 6899
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.childrenandviolence.org or www.crin.org
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