Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, where UN agencies warned that war and a collapsing economy have left 100,000 people facing starvation. A further one million people are classified as being on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Programme (WFP) and other UN bodies. The famine is the first to be declared since 2011 in Somalia, when more than a quarter of a million people are estimated to have died between October 2010 and April 2012. Nearly five million people – more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population – are in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance, according to the government and UN agencies. "This famine is man-made," said Joyce Luma, head of the WFP in South Sudan. "There is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security", she added. The country is also experiencing severe inflation of around 800 percent, which has made food unaffordable for many families.

As the conflict in eastern Ukraine continues, UNICEF has reported that nearly one million children are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance – nearly double the number this time last year. People in eastern Ukraine have been living under the constant threat of unpredictable fighting and shelling for the past three years. Schools have been destroyed, families have been forced from their homes and access to basic commodities like heat and water have reportedly been cut off for many. The situation is particularly grave for the approximately 200,000 children living within 15 kilometres of the conflict's front line. In this zone, 19,000 children face constant danger from landmines and unexploded ordinance, while 12,000 children live in communities shelled at least once a month. More than 740 schools have been damaged or destroyed and teachers, psychologists and parents have reported signs of severe mental distress among children including nightmares, aggression, social withdrawal and panic triggered by loud noises.

In the Philippines, 31 children have been killed by police and vigilantes since President Duterte launched his ‘war on drugs’, according to the Children's Legal Rights and Development Centre. In an interview with Al Jazeera in October, Duterte referred to the death of innocent children as "collateral damage" of his efforts to stamp out drug use. In June, the president's allies in Congress also filed a bill that would lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine, arguing that this would deter adults from using children for criminal activity. Though the war on drugs began nearly eight months ago, its roots can be traced back to when Duterte was mayor of Davao, where he waged a similar "war against crime". Death squads allegedly connected to Duterte were responsible for as many as 1,400 extrajudicial killings, including 132 children. Duterte's tenure as mayor also featured a strict curfew for minors, and police used the curfew to discriminate against street children already suffering from abuse and neglect. Duterte vowed last May to impose a nationwide curfew similar to the one in Davao.

Interviews with former prison officials and intelligence officers from Syria have revealed stories of children being raped, imprisoned and beaten before and during the country’s civil war. In conversations with Zero Impunity, an organisation working to get accountability for sexual violence in armed conflict, several former employees of the Assad regime explained how children were routinely abused by jailers and fellow inmates, and often detained simply for being related to someone perceived as an enemy of the State. One prison official said that during his tenure there had been at least 1,000 children detained in a civil prison in Aleppo, with the youngest believed to be 13 years old, while children were often targeted at checkpoints and raids on homes. This kind of violence has previously been investigated by the UN, with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic both reporting on such violations during the last five years. Violence against children in Syria has also been highlighted in Amnesty International’s recent report on Saydnaya prison, labelled a “human slaughterhouse”, and by Human Rights Watch’s investigation into the use of chlorine gas attacks, which killed children and other civilians in Aleppo.

Afghanistan is expected to approve penalties for "bacha bazi" - sexual slavery and abuse of boys - for the first time, officials say, in a landmark move against the deeply entrenched practice. Translating literally to “boy play”, bacha bazi, is practiced in police and army ranks, and sees young boys kidnapped to be abused. Warlords, politicians and other members of the elite also often keep "bachas" as a symbol of authority and affluence. Previously, Afghanistan's criminal law only prohibited pederasty and sex outside of marriage, with rights campaigners complaining these provisions did not sufficiently address the problem of bacha bazi. However, the revised penal code clearly defines the practice as a crime, and imposes punishments from up to seven years imprisonment for sexual assault to capital punishment for abusing more than one boy. A draft of the chapter also states that bacha bazi victims cannot be prosecuted, a significant caveat in a nation where sexual assault victims often face punishment. Activists have welcomed the criminalisation of bacha bazi, but they fear its implementation will be questionable, as the country has a poor record of enforcing similar laws, including a ban on gender-based violence.

Even though sexual abuse allegations against Catholic priests in the Philippines are on the rise senior church investigators have revealed that prosecutions of abusive priests are extremely rare. In a new Al Jazeera documentary, shot in Asia's largest Catholic nation, alleged victims say they have been pressured not to file charges and were paid money in exchange for their silence. Others from devout families face violence and segregation if they report the abuse. Al Jazeera says the Vatican did not respond to its request for comment about how it handles allegations of clergy sexual misconduct and abuse in the Philippines. But when asked if Filipino bishops are obliged to report sexual assault allegations to civil authorities, one local priest said all investigations should be left to the Church.
 

Refugees, migrants and family connections

Refugee and asylum-seeking children face extreme harassment and bullying in Nauru’s schools, causing many to drop out. The children have endured attacks, name-calling and sexual harassment by local students, and are repeatedly ignored by teachers when they report abuse, according to Human Rights Watch. Estimates suggest that half of primary school-age children and 75 percent of secondary school-age refugees in Nauru are out of school. Most of these children also live in limbo on the island, where hundreds are forcibly transferred from Australia for offshore processing, for nearly three years, facing other rights violations which significantly affect their well-being and ability to learn. Last week the Global Legal Action Network and the Stanford International Human Rights Clinic lodged a petition with the International Criminal Court alleging that Australia’s offshore immigration detention regime on Nauru and Manus Island could constitute a crime against humanity. Citing the inhumane conditions of detention facilities and widespread physical and sexual abuse, the petitioners urged the Court to open an investigation into possible crimes committed by Australian government officials and their corporate contractors.

Unaccompanied migrant children facing hunger, destitution and freezing temperatures in Serbia are being targeted by men looking for sex, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Preying on the desperation and vulnerability of unaccompanied minors, who are unable to continue into Western Europe because of snow and closed borders, local men have allegedly offered up to 2,000 euros to have sex with migrant boys. Around 7,700 migrants are believed to be currently living in Serbia, with around 1,100 taking up residence in abandoned warehouses in Belgrade, fearing the prospect of deportation if they were to approach a state-run migrant centre. It is estimated that ten percent of migrants in Serbia are unaccompanied children, pushed through a lack of options into the hands of smugglers and human traffickers who profit significantly by exploiting their precarious situation.

The government of the United Kingdom has agreed to reconsider the asylum applications of child refugees currently stranded in France. The Home Office will review any new information from children formerly resident in the notorious Calais refugee camp to assess whether changes could be made to previous determinations of eligibility under the Dublin regulation, which allows unaccompanied refugee children with direct family links to enter the UK to join their relatives. The agreement comes after the government’s sudden decision to end its commitment to provide a safe haven to thousands of unaccompanied child refugees under a separate scheme, known as the “Dubs amendment”, after only 350 were brought into the country - out of 3,000 pledged to be taken in. An increasing number of child refugees in French reception centres have been returning to the site of the dismantled Calais camp in a renewed effort to make the crossing into the UK.

Also in the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court has found that minimum income rules requiring that a person earn more than £18,600 for their spouse or partner to be able to immigrate and join them in the country are legal. The rules are designed so that any partner entering the UK from a non-European country will not be eligible for income based benefits and so the minimum income requirement is higher for couples with children. The court recognised that the rules will have “a particularly harsh effect” on many families beyond those involved in the case, but that this did not mean that the policy was illegal or violated the European Convention of Human Rights. The court did find, however, that the rules and guidance covering decisions on whether to allow a partner to enter the UK do not take account of the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The decision does not undermine the minimum income requirement as a whole, but the government must now amend its immigration rules and guidance to ensure that the best interests of children are taken into account in these immigration decisions. It remains to be seen how these changes will affect children.

 

Digital rights, privacy and surveillance 

A children’s doll has been banned in Germany over fears that it could be used to covertly record or speak to children. The country’s Federal Network Agency, a body which oversees the country’s telecommunications, issued a statement to say that the My Friend Cayla doll contained concealed recording devices which “can transmit data without detection [and] compromise people's privacy”. The regulator added that the toy could potentially be used to advertise to children or parents, or record and transmit records of a child’s conversations to third parties, noting that an unsecured Bluetooth connection could potentially be accessed by anyone nearby. While the product has now been removed from German shelves, the agency has said it will not take action to directly contact those who bought the toy, suggesting that it would rely on parents to make a decision on whether or not to remove the dolls. A vulnerability in Cayla's software was first revealed in January 2015 and complaints have been filed by US and EU consumer groups.

Speculation about several teenage suicides across Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have sparked a moral panic over interactive games played by children via social media. Media outlets across Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been reporting on so-called "death groups", in which administrators give participants increasingly elaborate tasks to perform in real life, with a final ‘task’ being suicide. In Kyrgyzstan, children have reportedly been subjected to unauthorised physical inspections by police to ensure they are not self-harming and officers are said to be checking children’s phones for evidence of involvement in the groups. Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have even called for a ban on social networks allowing the games and suggested banning smartphones in schools, raising concerns about children’s rights to freedom of expression and association in the country.

The United Kingdom’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC, has called for the government to increase transparency in its flagship counter-extremism programme, Prevent. In an opinion piece written for the Evening Standard newspaper, Anderson said that despite the successes achieved in diverting some young people away from violent extremism “Significant reform” was necessary. Anderson specifically called for independent oversight of the system, publication and debate of intervention criteria and moves towards greater openness to dispel claims that the scheme was an attack on civil liberties or the Muslim faith. Despite previous attempts to improve Prevent it has repeatedly been attacked by human rights experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for its collection and retention of data on individuals, including children, without their consent.

 

Education

Sexual abuse and corporal punishment are rife in Tanzania’s education system according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. The report documents compulsory pregnancy tests in schools, girls being refused re-enrollment after giving birth, and “brutal and humiliating forms” of corporal punishment being frequently meted out to students. The report’s author, Elin Martínez, said that while international support for education in Tanzania was commendable, “Effective investment is about more than just pumping money into the system and getting children to physically attend school. It’s about making sure children are treated right once they get there too”. The report also notes that despite the abolition of school fees, other costs including the price of uniforms, learning material or food keeps many of the poorest students from accessing secondary education, while a ‘make or break’ test sees many denied a place in secondary education entirely. Back to top