Lawmakers in France have banned physical violence against children, with the passing of the Equality and Citizenship bill. Thanks to an amendment agreed in December there is now a ban on "all cruel, degrading or humiliating treatment, including any recourse to corporal violence". While some campaigners and experts have welcomed the move, it remains to be seen whether the final wording of the law will prevent parents from physically punishing their children, as the law refers to “corporal violence”, rather than all forms of corporal punishment. What’s more, given that violence against children is already an offence under the French penal code, and judges in the country have been notoriously hesitant to treat corporal punishment as a form of violence against children, the amendment may have little or no effect on the legality of corporal punishment. The entry into force of the law has also been delayed by a constitutional challenge to unrelated provisions in the law.

The United Kingdom has been condemned for its treatment of British victims of forced marriage overseas after it was revealed that it confiscates victims’ passports until they pay off a loan for their own repatriation. The admission came after a British teenager was married against her will to a man in Pakistan in 2013 and, after temporarily escaping, requested help to return to the UK from the country’s embassy in Islamabad. Although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) helped her return home they made her agree to take a loan of £814, the cost of her repatriation, and told her that her passport would not be returned until she had repaid the full amount. The FCO has claimed that, as it is not funded to repatriate victims, the loan system is used because victims of forced marriage can rarely turn to their parents for financial assistance. Chair of the Muslim Women’s Network UK helpline, Shaista Gohir, claimed that ordering payment from victims was morally wrong and counterproductive. In a letter to the FCO she wrote: “Your policy is likely to put off victims from asking for help, and it is unacceptable that a victim should have no option but to remain in a forced marriage because he or she cannot afford to pay for their escape.”

Armed groups associated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are recruiting child soldiers in Iraq, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). The NGO documented 29 cases of children being recruited by armed wings of the PKK, some of which also have forces in Turkey and Syria. The report further claims that in at least two cases children were abducted, and seriously abused when they attempted to leave the armed groups. The organisation underscored that the recruitment or use of children under 15 as fighters is a war crime, adding that the armed group put children’s lives at risk by training them in areas that Turkey has attacked with airstrikes in its conflict with the PKK, even when they are being used in non-combat roles. It further added that the use of schools as temporary military barracks, as observed in Iraq, was likely to make them a target for future attacks. HRW called on the armed groups to investigate those responsible for abducting or abusing children, and insisted that the Iraqi government, which has paid salaries to some groups, ramp up pressure to demobilise all child soldiers.
 

Children are believed to be among the fatalities of a deadly Christmas day clash near a South Sudanese refugee camp. Celebrations in Maban County were disrupted by deadly clashes near the Doro refugee camp between local communities and Sudanese refugees. A local official claimed that at least 14 people from the host community were killed after the fatal beating of a refugee by a local prompted a violent retaliation. A missionary from the Sudan Interior Church at Doro claimed that more than 70 Blue Nile refugees were murdered by the White Army militia and members of the local community, alleging that children were among the dead scattered in the outskirts of town and in mass graves. With over 134,000 refugees living in four camps in Maban county, tensions have long been rising between host communities and Sudanese refugees, exacerbated by the heightened presence of armed groups in the camps as locals and refugees find themselves in the crossfire between two war zones.

A group of 36 teenage asylum seekers, who previously lived in the Calais refugee camps and currently reside in French reception centres, have taken legal action against the government of the United Kingdom. The children, 28 of whom have had their applications refused, have accused the home secretary, Amber Rudd, of acting unlawfully in dealing with their applications and reneging on the government’s commitment to welcome vulnerable unaccompanied child refugees under section 67 of the Immigration Act, known as the Dubs amendment. In the first legal action taken by children from the infamous camp against the UK government, the judicial review focuses in particular on the case of a boy from Afghanistan who travelled through eight countries to reach France after being shot in the neck by the Taliban. Lawyers for the 14-year-old raised concerns about the boy’s condition twice last year, after he tried to kill himself four times in Calais, but received no response. In its initial response to the legal challenge, the Home Office said they could not prioritise children with legal representatives, pointing out that the child should complain about his treatment by the French authorities in French courts.

A study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has found that the number of children and men falling prey to traffickers is increasing amid the global refugee crisis. The report notes however that women and girls still account for more than 70 percent of human trafficking victims. The report found that women and girls tend to be trafficked for marriage or sexual slavery, while men and boys tend to be trafficked for forced labour as miners, porters, soldiers and slaves. Almost one third of human trafficking victims are children, rising to almost two thirds in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Yury Fedotov, head of the UNODC, noted a “huge improvement” in the number of countries criminalising human trafficking, which has increased from 18 percent to 88 percent since 2003, but stressed that conviction rates remain far too low.
 

The government of the Australian state of Victoria has redesignated part of a maximum security adult prison as a youth detention unit 24 hours after the Court of Appeal of Victoria found that transferring children to the adult jail was unlawful. Child detainees were moved to a unit at Barwon prison in November 2016 following a riot at a Melbourne Youth Justice Centre which left part of the facility unusable. During the case, the court heard evidence that the adult prison was poorly designed for children, resulting in extended solitary confinement in small cells, limited time outside, inappropriate use of handcuffing, limited family contact and no access to proper schooling. Executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, Hugh de Kretser, who represented the children during the case, said “[t]he government can try to change the name but it cannot change the facts. Barwon adult prison remains unfit for children.” Currently, 12 children remain at Barwon prison and human rights groups have indicated that they will discuss possible legal responses to challenge the government’s decision.

Students and schoolchildren were detained in the Shivpuri district of India for staging a protest calling for proper roads and playgrounds during a government function. According to reports of the event, around 40 protesters, including 35 children, were held within the walls of a jail and threatened with violence. A senior civil servant in the district who was the target of the protest, claimed that the children were detained “because they were raising slogans in a government function which could have disturbed the law and order situation.” The students are planning to write to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights as well as the National Human Rights Commission and the Minister for Women and Child Development to complain about their treatment.

The United Kingdom’s government is considering measures to ensure children convicted of criminal offences remain anonymous for life. The announcement follows the publication of an independent review of the youth justice system in England and Wales, which recommended that children in conflict with the law should be given lifelong anonymity. Currently, anonymity orders expire when a child reaches 18. According to the report, the naming of former child offenders when they grow up “risks undermining their rehabilitation as their identity could be established on the internet even though a conviction may have become spent for criminal records purposes.” Children’s rights groups and youth justice experts have welcomed the proposal. Speaking for the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, Penelope Gibbs said: “There’s good evidence that the kind of vilification that is associated with a child that has committed a very serious crime being identified, destroys those chances of rehabilitation.”

Sexuality, gender and education

Also in the United Kingdom, the country’s education watchdog has downgraded a number of Christian fundamentalist schools from “good” or “outstanding” to “inadequate” or “requires improvement” following reports of historic child abuse and that children are taught sexist and homophobic ideologies. Ofsted inspectors visited some schools after an investigation by The Independent revealed allegations of corporal punishment, exorcisms, and schoolgirls being “groomed” for marriage. It also found that schools which follow the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum - which follows a strictly fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity developed in southern US Baptist states - taught children that LGBT people are “unnatural” and inferior, and that girls must submit to men’s leadership of the family. Ofsted concluded that “children are at risk” in some schools after raising concerns about child protection failures, including a failure to meet official safeguarding regulations and not performing background checks on staff. But critics say the Ofsted review does not go far enough, arguing that the government has turned a blind eye to miseducation and abuse at religious schools.

Children in the Philippines who identify as LGBT are statistically more likely to suffer physical and psychological abuse and sexual assault than their heterosexual peers, according to the country’s first survey on violence against children. Of the 3,866 children who took part in the study, 75 percent of LGBT respondents reported physical abuse, compared to 66 percent and 62 percent for heterosexual males and females, respectively. In addition, LGBT children reported three times higher rates of sexual abuse than heterosexual children, according to the study by the Council for the Welfare of Children and UNICEF, which also reveals that boys, regardless of sexuality, suffer higher rates of sexual violence. The authors say the most alarming finding is that most violence against children happens in the places where they should be most safe, including at home and in school, with the most common perpetrators being parents, cousins, and siblings.

In the United States a local branch of Boy Scouts of America has asked a transgender boy to leave because he was born biologically female, in what appears to be the first time the organisation has rejected a member based on their gender identity. In 2013 Boy Scouts passed a resolution saying “no youth may be denied membership” based on “sexual preference alone.” This was extended to gay scout leaders in 2015. But in relation to the latest case, the communications director of the organisation, Effie Delimarkos said: “No youth may be removed from any of our programmes on the basis of his or her sexual orientation. Gender identity isn’t related to sexual orientation.” Conversely, Girl Scouts of the USA, which has no relationship to the Boy Scouts, has accepted transgender girls for years. Justin Wilson, the executive director of Scouts for Equality, said the organisation is at a pivotal point, asking: “Are they going to exclude a transgender boy for the first time or welcome transgender boys?”