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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Discrimination
A group of UN experts has responded to Donald Trump’s ‘travel ban’, a set of restrictions on people from seven Muslim-majority countries attempting to enter the United States. The UN Special Rapporteurs on migrants, racism, counter-terrorism, torture and freedom of religion issued a joint statement to say that the move, enacted by Executive Order, “breaches the country’s international human rights obligations, which protect the principles of non-refoulement and non-discrimination based on race, nationality or religion”. The Executive Order stops the entire US refugee programme for 120 days, indefinitely bans Syrian refugees, and halts the planned entry of more than 50,000 others fleeing conflict or persecution. Since the order there have been numerous accounts of children being detained, with the President’s press secretary Sean Spicer claiming that children could pose a security threat regardless of their age when answering questions about a handcuffed five-year-old. The UN experts added that the policy could see people from the affected States travelling to the US returned without proper individual assessments and asylum procedures, potentially resulting in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The High Court of Justice in Israel has ordered the state to prove that a law which strips social benefits from families whose children are convicted of stone throwing does not discriminate against Palestinians. The law, which was passed in November 2015, states that payments to families of minors convicted and jailed for “politically motivated” offences will be suspended while the minor is incarcerated. Hundreds of Palestinians are detained for stone throwing every year, and a crackdown by Israeli authorities in recent years has meant that those who throw stones could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if intent to harm can be proved, and up to ten years without proof of intent. Several rights organisations argue that the law is discriminatory because it targets Palestinian minors, who commonly throw stones during protests or clashes with Israeli forces, while Jewish minors convicted of more serious offences will not have their families’ social benefits revoked. The Court gave the state 45 days to show that the law does not violate the principle of equality, imposing a temporary injunction in the meantime.
A local education authority in the United Kingdom has admitted to racially discriminating against two brothers, aged seven and five, after one of them told their teacher that he had been given a toy gun as a present. Although it was never doubted that the weapon was a toy, the school raised concerns that the children might be at risk of radicalisation and called the police, who quickly concluded that there was no cause for concern and returned the children to their mother. Governors for the school found that teachers were unsure about their duties to report concerns under Prevent, the government’s controversial anti-radicalisation strategy, and had resorted to “a degree of racial stereotyping” in implementing the strategy. The local education authority has now changed its guidance to schools on Prevent, removing the requirement that they refer any radicalisation concerns to the police and instructing teachers to exercise their professional judgment and consider other options instead. Many opponents of Prevent view the incident as an inevitable consequence of the strategy, which essentially requires teachers to be suspicious of their young pupils.
Advocates claim that First Nations children in Canada continue to face discrimination in accessing services, and may be losing their lives as a result, one year on from a landmark ruling on the subject. Last year the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the government to justify its inadequate budget for child welfare and implement a policy designed to ensure that First Nations children can access services without getting caught in red tape. Despite this, First Nations advocates allege that, as a direct result of government inaction and underfunding, children are being taken from their families and, in severe cases, taking their lives. The government has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks after two 12-year-old girls in Wapekeka killed themselves, with community leaders calling for a national suicide prevention strategy and increased mental health funding to address the growing suicide crisis across the country.
Violence against children
Russia’s parliament has voted to decriminalise domestic violence in cases that do not cause “substantial bodily harm” and where the violence does not occur more than once a year. The Duma, the lower chamber of the parliament, voted 380-3 to introduce the law which eliminates criminal liability, but allows domestic violence not reaching this threshold to be punishable by a fine, or arrest for up to 15 days. The reform overturns legislation enacted last year, which was the first to specifically define violence against relatives as a criminal offence. Russian lawmakers at the time criticised the law as “anti-family”, in that it created greater protections against violence committed within the family than among the public at large. Women’s rights lawyer, Mari Davtyan, told Russian press that the reform is dangerous and “sends a message that the state doesn’t consider familial battery fundamentally wrong anymore”. The law must now be approved by the upper chamber of parliament and be signed by President Putin to enter into force, but this is expected to be a formality. Russia is one of three countries in Europe and Central Asia that does not have a law specifically targeting domestic violence.
Two young men have been executed in Iran for offences committed when they were children. They were sentenced to death for separate murders committed when they were 15 and 16. One of the boys was also sentenced to 74 lashes for consuming alcohol. Iran reformed its criminal law in 2013 introducing new limits on the death penalty for offences committed by children, but these changes have not slowed executions in the State. Iran is estimated to have executed more than 60 people for offences committed as children over the last 10 years. The news comes as prisoners in Iranian jails are undergoing hunger strikes to protest the ill-treatment of people in detention. At least seven prisoners have been on hunger strike in recent months, including children’s rights campaigner, Saaed Shirzad. Shirzad ended his hunger strike after 39 days, this month, after meeting with judiciary and prison officials who gave assurances that they would end abuses of prisoners.
The Constitutional Council of France has annulled the ban on “corporal violence” passed in December as part of the Equality and Citizenship Law. The ban was found unconstitutional on the basis that it was not connected to the content of the original text of the bill, a formal requirement necessary for provisions within French laws. The government defended the ban, arguing that the original bill included several provisions related to children, but the Council rejected this position. The French Minister for Family had expressed deep disappointment upon hearing of the Council’s decision, criticising the opposition’s decision to challenge the article as a misguided attempt to preserve the “right” of parents to hit their children. The Council’s decision is final and cannot be appealed.
Health
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics, Mr. Baskut Tuncak, highlighted how children and other vulnerable groups continue to be threatened by toxic air at the end of his official visit to the United Kingdom. Tuncak said that there was “an urgent need for political will by the UK government to make timely, measurable and meaningful interventions” in reducing toxic pollutants in the interest of children being able to achieve the highest attainable standard of health. He also noted that some UK businesses are failing to conduct adequate due diligence on the impact of their activities abroad when it comes to toxic chemicals, pollution and waste. He noted that some British companies have been linked to the sale of untested consumer products that have killed children and young women in South Korea as well as a highly hazardous pesticide, Paraquat, which is prohibited in the UK and approximately 40 other countries. Lastly, Tuncak called on the UK to ensure that its leaving the EU does not impact the protection of human rights, stating that Brexit should not be seen as an opportunity for deregulation, and that it could pose “a threat of regression from existing standards of protection.”
Children who are younger than their school peers are much more likely to be prescribed medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than their older classmates, a new study has found. Researchers who analysed data from more than 300,000 Australian school children aged between six and ten found those born in the last month of the school year intake were twice as likely to receive ADHD medication as those born in the first intake month. The findings raised concerns that some of the younger children have been misdiagnosed, may not have ADHD and that teachers are mistaking age-related immaturity for a psychiatric disorder. Similar findings in Canada also indicate that developmental immaturity is also often being mislabelled as a mental disorder and unnecessarily treated with stimulant medication. Scientists from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences worry that many young Canadians with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are taking anti-psychotic drugs despite not having other mental health diagnoses.
Mexican authorities are to investigate allegations that children with cancer were given "distilled water" instead of chemotherapy. It will look into claims made by Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares, who alleged fake medicine had been bought and used in state hospitals and given to children by his predecessor Javier Duarte, who is on the run from the authorities since stepping down amid corruption allegations. He has been charged with organised crime and money laundering, and there are now calls for the Attorney General's office to file criminal charges relating to these latest accusations. "This really seems to us a brutal crime, an attempt against the lives of the children. We're finishing our analysis and, at the appropriate time, we'll be filing legal complaints," Linares stated. He also alleged there had been inadequate tests for HIV detection and the existence of outdated medicines. Mexico's Secretary of Health, José Narro Robles, has promised to act on "the persons or companies involved" if irregularities or responsibility is found, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
In the United States, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed new legislation on Thursday banning the most common abortion procedure employed in the second trimester of pregnancy—dilation and evacuation. The law states that civil damages can be brought against any individual found in violation of this act. Opponents stated that the procedure in discussion is the safest method of terminating a pregnancy. A violation of this law is also considered a "Class D" felony and this is now among the most restrictive abortion legislation enacted in the US, although Mississippi and Louisiana have enacted almost identical laws. However, this law does not restrict abortions performed using "any other method for any reason, including rape or incest." According to the Arkansas health department, dilation and extraction was used in 683 of the 3,771 abortions performed in Arkansas in 2015. There has been a recent slew of state laws and suits dealing with abortion with US President Donald Trump vowing to fight abortion rights.
Digital rights and access to information
A 14-month campaign to “clean up” internet service providers has been announced in China, with the government promising to tightly regulate technology which can circumvent State censorship. Virtual private networks (VPNs) used to evade strict censorship are a particular target, as many Chinese internet users access blocked or restricted western websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, using them. Under the new restrictions telecom and internet service providers will no longer be allowed to set up or rent special lines such as VPNs without official approval, leaving China’s 731 million internet users blocked off from much of the web. While China has publicly committed to ‘opening up’ the new rules will only stifle debate and dissent, potentially blocking children from important information and services in the name of protection.
Internet connections appear to have been cut in two English-speaking regions of Cameroon amid ongoing strikes by teachers and lawyers. Demonstrators have been protesting the increased usage of French by the government, claiming that English, the country’s other official language, is being effectively sidelined. Violence has led to waves of arrests and now seems to have prompted the government to block online communication in regions where unrest persists. Mobile phone companies have not issued official statements about the internet shutdown but there are unconfirmed reports that the government is threatening to revoke the licenses of providers if they do not suspend internet services in English-speaking regions. Libom Li Likeng, Cameroon's minister of post and telecommunications, said that social media was being used to create panic and spread false information, adding that “irresponsible use of social media” is punishable by sentences of up to two years in prison and fines of up to $4,000 under Cameroon's penal code.
The government of Turkmenistan has cracked down on human rights defenders leaking information about the use of child labour in the country’s cotton industry. The country’s annual cotton harvest is known for employing forced labour, and children have been taken out of school to work in the fields frequently in recent years. Activists documenting the use of child labour have been targeted this season, as police and members of the Ministry of National Security (MNS) were mobilised to the fields. There are reports of children’s phones being confiscated to prevent photos being taken, and even claims that security services are being sent to the fields in plain clothes “with the task of preventing the spread of negative information” about the use of forced labour, especially involving children. Some have even reported that members of the MNS are studying photos, working out where they were taken, and then interrogating those who might have been involved. Those forced to work in the fields continue to complain of a lack of food, clean water and bedding, all of which they have to pay for by themselves during the first few days of the harvest.
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Employment
Consortium for Street Children: Advocacy Officer
Application deadline: 5 February 2017
Location: London, United Kingdom
Terre des Hommes: Campaign Coordinator
Application deadline: 13 February 2017
Location: Brussels, Belgium
UNFPA-UNICEF: Child Marriage Evaluability Assessment Consultants
Application deadline: 17 February 2017
Location: Negotiable
European Roma Rights Centre: Community Legal Work Consultant
Application deadline: 17 February 2017
Location: Budapest, Hungary
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LEAK OF THE WEEK
Starting them while they’re young seems to be the way of cooking up patriots in Russia, as one of the largest defence companies in the country has published a children’s book, which it hopes will instil patriotism and national pride in pre-school readers.
The illustrated story, Adventures of the Little Tank, follows a toy tank that’s left behind overnight in the museum of defence manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, and spends the night meeting the facility's full-size machines and hearing about their "adventures" in foreign lands.
As much as an arsenal of war machines might not seem like the best material for children’s literature, this is the second time Uralvagonzavod has targeted children as its new readership after previously publishing another military-themed book for teenagers.
But no doubt the Little Tank, with its cute smile and pointed nose/large-calibre cannon, will be a [direct] hit with children.
If a sequel to the book were developed, it would probably tell the story of a not-so-little tank which goes on an adventure to Ukraine and Syria with a lunchbox packed with 9M119 Svir and 9K35 Strela-10 missiles -- Russian-made, of course, let’s not forget national pride.
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