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In this issue:
LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Oversight and accountability
The financial crisis affecting the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), has finally been resolved after months of uncertainty. The IACHR revealed in May this year that 40 percent of its staff’s contracts would expire in July without significant investment from member States and other partners, potentially resulting in a shutdown of many of the Commission’s functions. After a wave of support from governments, NGOs and human rights campaigners, the organisation’s budget was funded, and its previously organised meetings were rescheduled to be hosted and paid for by the government of Panama. To prevent the IACHR from facing a new crisis next year, the Commission and the Inter-American Court have formed a joint working group to present a proposal for sustainable financing of both organs of the Inter-American System of Human Rights to be decided at an Organization of American States Extraordinary General Assembly on 31 October. The Commission’s work has been held up as a model beyond the Americas for its progressive standards on many human rights issues, including its assertion that the only justification for the detention of a child should be that the child has been assessed as posing a serious risk to themselves or public safety.
For more on the IACHR work on children’s rights, read CRIN’s case studies on Colombia, Peru and Paraguay.
The United Nations has appointed its first ever Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, from Thailand, was given the role after a three hour voting session, in which the original proposal for his new post was watered down by a series of amendments led by Russia and several members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Announcing the appointment on Friday the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ South-East Asia Office stated that: “in all regions of the world, there are reports of pervasive, violent abuse, hatred, harassment and discrimination affecting LGBT and intersex persons. There is an increasing need to raise awareness about SOGI, and to support governments to develop rights-sensitive legislation that promotes and protects the rights of LGBTI”. Muntarbhorn has previously served in a series of UN roles, including as a Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As an Independent Expert, Muntarbhorn will serve the UN in a personal capacity, will not be a member of United Nations staff and will not receive financial remuneration.
Despite evidence of grave violations of children’s rights during the ongoing conflict, the Human Rights Council this week refused to establish an independent inquiry into rights abuses in Yemen. The Council instead called for a national inquiry, established by the ousted President Hadi in 2015, to investigate alleged violations on all sides of the conflict between Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting them for control of the country. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had previously called on the international community to establish an international, independent body to carry out comprehensive investigations in Yemen, including the alleged bombing of residential areas, schools and hospitals by the Saudi-led coalition, which the UN blames for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since March 2015. The High Commissioner previously stated that the national investigations undertaken so far lacked impartiality, focusing on allegations against Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh rather than on other parties to the conflict.
Armed conflict
In Syria, at least 96 children have been killed and 223 injured in recent days amid renewed violence in Eastern Aleppo. The health system in the east of the city is crumbling with only 30 doctors left and little in the way of equipment or emergency medicine to treat the injured. Children with low chances of survival are often left to die due to limited capacity and supplies. Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted that the continuing onslaught which is killing and maiming children is a “brutal abdication” of the international human rights obligations that both States have committed to respect. Mezmur stated: “Syria and Russia have both ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, they have ratified the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. This doesn’t solely mean not recruiting and/or using child soldiers. It means not targeting children in situations of armed conflict; it means not attacking places, such as schools and hospitals, which might amount to war crimes under international humanitarian law”. The battle for Aleppo has reignited recently, with intense shelling being followed by the advance of Syrian army and allied forces into areas formerly controlled by rebel groups.
Government forces in Sudan have used chemical weapons repeatedly against civilians and children in remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months, according to allegations levelled by Amnesty International. The alleged attacks are believed to have killed up to 250 people, mostly children. Using satellite images, undertaking more than 200 in-depth interviews, and conducting expert image analysis, the investigation claims that at least 30 chemical attacks have taken place in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur since January 2016. The report claims that hundreds of survivors suffered symptoms including bloody vomiting and diarrhoea, blistering and rashes on skin that was later lost, visual impairment up to and including blindness and respiratory problems – reportedly the most common cause of death. Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s director of crisis research, said: “The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one, a young child is screaming with pain before dying. Many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breathe and [were] vomiting blood.”
Armed groups in the Central African Republic have been told to leave the schools they are occupying or face forceful eviction by UN troops. The UN mission in the country, known as MINUSCA, said all armed groups should not come within 500m (1,650ft) of schools and warned them not to hinder educational activities. The UN claims that 10,000 children have been unable to resume their education this year because militiamen have set up camp in their schools. One third of all schools have either been struck by bullets, set on fire, looted or occupied by armed groups, it says. Children across the country returned to class last week, but insecurity in some areas outside the capital, Bangui, has disrupted the start of the school year. Displacement and a lack of teachers were also contributing to the problem.
Discrimination
Children’s rights groups have called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compensate the child victims of police violence at Rio 2016 in Brazil. According to a new report from Terre des Hommes, the lead-up to the Olympic Games saw a 103 percent increase in the number of police killings in Rio, while 92 shootouts took place in the city during the games in August. A total of 85,000 police staff were employed around the city as streets were cleared of homeless children and bus routes between poorer areas and tourist spots were closed. The report also details the long-term consequences of the eviction of 22,000 families between 2009 and 2015, with many children moved to dangerous areas and missing out on school places as a result. The organisations called on the IOC to investigate individual cases and to ensure that victims have access to legal advice, as well as to impose contractual obligations on future host cities to comply with international children’s rights standards.
The children’s ombudsperson in the Netherlands, Margriet Kalverboer, has published a report arguing that the “Zwarte Piet” Christmas tradition violates children’s rights. Kalverboer called for the popular blackface character to be stripped of its discriminatory and stereotypical characteristics so that children of all backgrounds can enjoy the tradition. The report describes how the discrimination that children of colour experience on a daily basis heightens around Christmas as a result of the tradition, and highlights concerns from children that adults are “dominating the discussion in an unpleasant way". Debate over the character has grown increasingly fierce in recent years, with some taking their struggle to defend the deeply-rooted cultural tradition to the extreme: soon after publishing the controversial report, the children’s ombudswoman reported that she had received several death threats.
Legislation has been introduced in Ontario in Canada to ensure that all families are treated equally by bringing an end to the legal uncertainty faced by LGBT couples who conceive their children using assisted reproduction. The law, if passed, would secure the legal status of the non-biological parent, who will no longer need to take extra steps, such as adoption, to be legally recognised as a parent. The law would also allow for the legal recognition without a court order of parents who use a surrogate, as long as the surrogate agrees before conception and after birth. Also in Ontario, the Mohawk band council of Akwesasne has recently introduced the country’s first indigenous civil court independent of the federal framework. The court is underpinned by Mohawk values of restorative justice, and represents a historic assertion of self-determination.
Norway has refused to adopt the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that allows children to submit complaints directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Foreign Minister raised concerns that the Committee would not properly balance child welfare considerations against other public interests such as immigration control, and claimed that human rights are well protected in the country. Norway has also refused to ratify protocols establishing individual complaint mechanisms for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Optional Protocol to the UNCRC has been ratified by 29 countries, including Denmark and Finland.
Food security
School meals programmes in Mali may be suspended unless the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) receives $3 million in urgent funding, potentially affecting the education of 180,000 children. Since 2010, Mali has faced successive food security crises, brought on by irregular rainfall and prolonged insecurity in the north of the country. A military coup d'état, renewed fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, and the seizure of its northern territory by extremists have all contributed to the suffering of displaced civilians. According to a 2014 national survey, the prevalence of global acute malnutrition in Malian children under five years old stands at 13 percent, with the World Health Organisation rating an acute malnutrition prevalence above 15 percent as a critical emergency. The school meals provided by the WFP are the only nutritious meal many of the children receive each day and can help to motivate parents to send their children to school. The WFP has also claimed that school meals were instrumental in the 2015 back-to-school campaign of the Government of Mali and that failure to fund its programme will jeopardise the efforts to bring children back to education in war torn regions.
More than one in seven children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria according to reports from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Describing the situation as a “catastrophic” humanitarian emergency, the group called for food and medical supplies to be delivered to affected areas in the country’s Borno state urgently. The lack of food or medical supplies in the region is a result of the ongoing conflict between the Nigerian military and Boko Haram which has effectively cut off areas of the country from the outside world and left them entirely dependent on aid deliveries to survive. MSF declared the situation an emergency several months ago, but has decried the lack of response from the government and the international community, especially considering the scale of the death, displacement and the huge problems that the region’s lack of food security will cause as time goes on.
In India, the High Court of Delhi is set to rule on whether or not the region’s government has failed to properly maintain storage facilities containing food for children’s midday meals. The court is to respond to public interest litigation which alleges that the government has not kept up with the creation of storage facilities required by the country’s Targeted Public Distribution System. The system aims to reduce malnutrition in children by providing lunches at designated ‘anganwadis’, a phrase meaning courtyard shelter in Hindi. The complaint also alleges that some of the food supplied may be “harmful to the health of both pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children” resulting in a violation of the right to health of women and children visiting the centres. The complainants also argue that there is a lack of monitoring and coordination on issues relating to nutrition and food security in Delhi, in violation of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Family separation: Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Children Separated From Their Families Across International Borders
Organisation: International Social Service
Date: 13 October 2016
Location: Maryland, US
Education: The Children's Rights Moot Court 2017
Organisation: Leiden University
Application deadline: 14 October 2016
Dates: 29-31 March 2017
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Street children: Consortium for Street Children annual Research Conference
Registration deadline: 21 October 2016
Organisation: Consortium for Street Children
Date: 3 November 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom
Access to justice: National Conference on Child Wellbeing
Organisation: The President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society
Dates: 21-22 October 2016
Location: Valletta, Malta
Separated children: Separated children in judicial proceedings - exploring the use and application of European and international mechanisms for the protection of vulnerable and separated children’s rights
Organisation: Child Circle; AIRE Centre; University College Cork; and ROSA
Dates: 27-28 October 2016
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Violence: 19 Days of Activism For the Prevention of Violence Against Children and Youth
Organisation: Women's World Summit Foundation
Dates: 1-19 November 2016
Location: Global
Education: Master of Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights
Application deadline: 1 November 2016
Dates: February 2017-November 2018
Location: Sion, Switzerland
Education in Emergencies
Organisation: HREA
Dates: 2 November-13 December 2016
Location: online (e-learning course)
Children in War and Armed Conflicts
Organisation: HREA
Dates: 2 November-13 December 2016
Location: online (e-learning course)
Child in the City Conference
Organisation: Child in the City Foundation
Dates: 7-9 November
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Child care: Children's Rights in Alternative Care - Walk the Talk!
Organisation: SOS Children’s Villages
Dates: 8-9 November 2016
Location: Paris, France
Right to work: Eliminating child labour and promoting decent work in agriculture
Organisation: The International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO)
Dates: 14-18 November 2016
Location: Turin, Italy
Child labour: Developing skills and livelihood training programmes for older children
Organisation: ITCILO
Dates: 21-25 November 2016
Location: Turin, Italy
Education: International Children’s Rights
Organisation: Leiden University
Application deadline: 1 April 2017 (non-EU) / 15 June 2017 (EU students)
Dates: September 2017 - Summer 2018
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands International Conference on Shared Parenting
Organisations: The National Parents Organization & the International Council on Shared Parenting
Dates: 29-31 May 2017
Location: Boston, United States
EMPLOYMENT
Orchid Project: Chief Operating Officer
Application deadline: Rolling
Location: London, United Kingdom
Center for Reproductive Rights: Global Advocacy Adviser
Application deadline: Rolling
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
HURIDOCS: Executive Director
Application deadline: 15 October 2016
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict: Partnerships Officer
Application deadline: 15 October 2016
Location: New York, United States
Keeping children safe: Senior Child Safeguarding Advisor
Application deadline: 23 October 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom
Oak Institute: Fellowship in film/photography and human rights
Application deadline: 2 December 2016
Location: Maine, United States
THE LAST WORD
In the United States, the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by police in North Carolina has ignited debate, protests and calls for a boycott of white-owned businesses amid an ongoing national struggle against racism in law enforcement. The killing prompted a huge turnout at the next City Council meeting, and an unplanned speech delivered by nine-year-old Zianna Oliphant showed the world how deep the problem of discrimination goes in the US.
Oliphant took the podium for just two minutes but cut to the heart of the issue, opening her speech by saying: “I’ve come here today to talk about how I feel, and I feel like that we are treated differently than other people”. After breaking into tears the crowd called for her to speak up, and she continued: “We shouldn’t have to protest because y’all are treating us wrong. We do this because we need to have rights.”
In exercising her right to be heard Oliphant caught the attention of the world, with her speech quickly appearing in news media across the globe. Her brave words are a reminder that children’s right to participate and to be heard should not be a mere formality, as gaining insight into discriminatory treatment, as well as a host of other issues, has no age limit.
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