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Thousands of children in Armenia have been separated from their parents and placed in institutions because of disability or poverty, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. More than 90 percent of children held in these facilities have at least one living parent, but residential institutions are being used as the main distributor of social services to families dealing with poverty, unemployment, poor housing or health issues, according to the report. The government has set targets to move children out of 22 residential institutions by 2020, converting the facilities to community-based services, but three orphanages for children with disabilities will continue to operate. The report also details the government’s failure to ensure that children receive quality inclusive education, including support that children with disabilities need to engage with an academic curriculum. The lack of the tailored education for these children can result in children attending community schools for only a few hours a day or receiving no education at all. On a related note, CRIN will be launching an advocacy guide later this month on accessing justice for violations of children’s rights in care institutions in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Dozens of children have been held in solitary confinement in prisons in the United Kingdom, according to an investigation by The Independent. The allegations relate to children aged 15 to 18 who have been detained in young offenders institutions. Solitary confinement - defined as detention for 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact - is prohibited for children under international law and has been condemned by the UN special rapporteur on torture as a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment when imposed on a child. Speaking for the Howard League for Penal Reform, an organisation that has represented children subjected to the practice, Legal Director Laura Janes said: “Solitary confinement for children isn’t just cruel – it’s also unlawful. Because they’re locked up the whole time, these kids have no sense of time and space. They eat in their cells. There is no education and there is nothing for them to do”. Lawyers acting for a child identified during the investigation have launched legal action against the government over the detention.

Teenage demonstrators in France have been arrested after blockading more than a dozen high schools in and around Paris over the last two weeks. Protesters created makeshift barricades and some set fire to cars, scooters and rubbish bins in response to alleged racial prejudice by police. On Tuesday hundreds of students also walked out of classes to gather near Nation in eastern Paris amid a significant police presence. The students are speaking out in protest after a young black man, referred to only as Théo, was allegedly raped by police, in what many have deemed a racially motivated attack. Nine students were arrested in the suburb of Clichy after about 100 young people set two cars and a motorbike alight, threw stones and shattered a shop window earlier in the week. Police have taken students for questioning after clashes at schools throughout the city on several occasions detaining at least 22.

Health and environment experts say that toxic rubble dust, oil fire pollution and use of depleted uranium (DU) in Syria will lead to a long-term public health catastrophe. Years of bombing in built-up areas has led to the release of cancerous substances such as asbestos and heavy metals from rubble and dust, adding to the acrid pollution caused by the bombing of oil infrastructure. Exposure to rubble and oil pollution could cause serious health problems such as irritation of the skin, eyes, nose and mouth, lung diseases and cancers, as well as the contamination of water supplies and untold environmental damage. Last week, the United States admitted to firing armour-piercing DU against military and un-armoured civilian targets such as oil trucks in its war against the so-called Islamic State in Syria. Pointing to the health problems currently ravaging Iraq, where use of DU weapons by the US and allied forces are believed to have contributed to the huge rise in cancers and deformities among newborns, campaigners fear that Syrians will face similar problems as the environmental and health complications of the war remain under-studied and overlooked.

United Nations experts have called for urgent action to ensure that people around the world can enjoy their right to live in environments free from contamination. The World Health Organization estimates that three million deaths each year are linked to exposure to outdoor air pollution, which UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics Baskut Tuncak described as a major threat to human rights worldwide, particularly for children and people in vulnerable situations. According to UNICEF, 300 million children, one in seven of the world’s total, live in areas with the most toxic levels of outdoor air pollution. The experts drew attention to the rampant impunity of those responsible for air pollution, stressing the need for cross-border cooperation and preventive and regulatory measures in the energy, industrial and transportation sectors.

Tens of thousands of children at 802 schools, nurseries and colleges in London, United Kingdom are breathing toxic air that risks causing lifelong health problems. According to research commissioned by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, children as young as three are being exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide that breach EU legal limits, levels the UK government accepts are harmful to health. The research shows that almost double the number of educational institutions than previously highlighted are affected by illegal levels of toxic air, with a third of state nursery schools, a fifth of primary schools and 18 percent of secondary schools found to be in areas where toxic pollution risks harming children’s health. Government estimates show that air pollution costs the UK £27.5 billion and causes up to 50,000 early deaths each year. London breached its annual air pollution limits just five days into 2017, leading Khan to announce last week a £10 pollution tax on older, more polluting cars driving in central London.
 

Sex education

In India the Ministry of Health has launched a new LGBT-inclusive sex education manual to be used to train 160,000 educators across the country. The move represents a push towards greater equality for LGBT people, who have been impacted in recent years by a string of court decisions which decriminalised and later re-criminalised gay sex. In the material’s section on puberty it explains that it is natural to have feelings for another person, whether they are of the opposite sex or not. The resource kit also covers child marriage, the importance of consent in relationships and de-stigmatises menstruation, which for many is still considered taboo. Unfortunately accessing sex education remains a major challenge for many of India’s 253 million adolescents, as sex education is still banned in six states in India.

Sex education has today been made compulsory in all of England’s schools, after a written statement from Education Secretary Justine Greening. The new compulsory curriculum, which will have its range extended beyond local council-funded schools, will teach children from the age of four about safe and healthy relationships. Children will also be taught about sex at an appropriate age, but parents will continue to be able to withdraw their children from these classes. Lessons for older children will also focus on what constitutes a healthy relationship, and discuss sexting, online pornography and sexual harassment, issues campaigners feel should have been covered since the previous curriculum was implemented 17 years ago.

Also on sex education, censors in Indonesia have banned a children’s book, which addresses the subject of masturbation, for being “too vulgar”. The publisher explained that the book aimed to help parents teach children how to protect themselves from sexual harassment, but apologised for causing offence. The country’s Education Ministry said the book contained pornographic content, citing a depiction of a cartoon boy's thoughts as he hugs a pillow and the new ‘game’ the boy devises of putting his hand inside his trousers. The ministry claimed that the publisher needed to recall the book or face "strict sanction", but it explained that the book had been withdrawn in December last year, though some online stores still carried it. The book also contained educational material on sexually transmitted diseases and the publishers insisted that they consulted with psychologists and pediatricians when compiling the book.
 

Refugees and asylum seekers

Women and children making the dangerous journey to Europe to flee poverty and conflicts in Africa are being beaten, raped and starved in “hellholes” in Libya, UNICEF has said. Children are being sexually abused and explouted and held for months in squalid, overcrowded detention centres, the agency warned in a new report. Three-quarters of migrant children interviewed in Libya by an NGO partner of UNICEF reported experiencing violence, harassment or aggression from adults during their journey. The survey of 122 women and child migrants also found girls being forced by smugglers to have contraceptive jabs, so they could be raped without becoming pregnant. Nearly half of the women and children reported sexual abuse during migration, while a third of the women and children interviewed said their assailants wore uniforms or appeared to be associated with the military.  The ordeal will not necessarily be over once refugees reach a safe country, as demonstrated by new guidelines for handling asylum applications seen in the UK. Under the new guidance LGBT Afghans can be deported back to Afghanistan, despite homosexuality being illegal, with human rights groups denouncing the rules as a violation of international law.

The United States’ President Donald Trump has laid the groundwork for the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, including child migrants, by issuing new guidance that drastically broadens government powers under federal immigration laws. One of the most controversial measures is an attempt to discourage unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Mexico and Central America by prosecuting parents found to have paid smugglers to bring their children across the border. Thousands of those children would also no longer be protected from deportation. As a result, parents may be reluctant about coming forward to sponsor their children out of immigration custody for fear of facing criminal charges and deportation, which may in turn see children detained for long periods of time or being returned to their home countries. Advocates warn that the new directives will create an atmosphere of fear, driving undocumented minors and other migrants away from law enforcement.

In Indonesia, the central Jakarta District Court will begin hearing a class action alleging that Indonesian boys jailed for people smuggling were held in adult prisons in Australia. The case concerns 115 Indonesians, who were allegedly jailed or held in immigration detention as juveniles. The lawyer bringing the case, Ms Lisa Hiariej claims that 31 of the boys aged between 13 and 17 years old were jailed in adult prisons in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth between 2008 and 2012 for crewing boats carrying asylum seekers. Hiariej said lawyers acting for the boys had found their clients were underage after going to their villages and seeing their birth certificates. Hiariej said a further 84 boys spent more than three months in immigration detention, which she believes was against the law. The court will also hear that the children were themselves victims of people smuggling and are seeking compensation from the Australian Government.

 

Health and best interests

A court in Canada has ruled that the government is liable for removing thousands of First Nations Ontario residents from their communities as children during the 1960s and 1980s. The children were adopted into non-indigenous families, in what became known as the Sixties Scoop. “Great harm was done. … The ‘scooped’ children lost contact with their families. They lost their aboriginal language, culture and identity. Neither the children nor their foster or adoptive parents were given information about the children’s aboriginal heritage or about the various educational and other benefits that they were entitled to receive,” Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba said in his decision. Carolyn Bennett, the federal Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, said she had “absolutely” no intention of appealing the ruling, despite federal lawyers having previously tried eight times under two different governments to have the case thrown out. Damages have yet to be awarded, but the claimants are asking for roughly $85,000 for each of the expected 16,000 class members. Some estimates suggest that as many as 200,000 indigenous children were removed from their homes across Canada during the Sixties Scoop.

Children living in state care in Queensland, Australia, are allegedly being given strong medication to control their behaviour, according to the Office of the Public Guardian. The Public Guardian, a state body responsible for protecting children in out-of-home care, raised the concerns as part of a review of child protection legislation, in which she highlighted that drugs, such as Ritalin, were being used to chemically restrain children without appropriate diagnosis and parental consent. In her submission, public guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown recommended that specialist diagnoses be required before administering medication, and proposed an amendment to the Child Protection Act to restrict particular drugs on children and young people in care. The drugs currently used “are not soft drugs,” said Youth Affairs Network Queensland director Siyavash Doostkhah, claiming they are equivalent to speed and cocaine. "These are things in my view that are not only child abuse, but should be classed as criminal," he added.

Children in the Philippines should be able to get tested for HIV without parental consent from the age of 15, according to comments made by the chair of the National Youth Commission last week. Aiza Seguerra highlighted that nearly nine out of ten Filipinos who contract the HIV virus are aged between 15 to 30. Under current law, under-18s must get permission from their parents before they can be tested and receive treatment for HIV and AIDS. Lowering the minimum age for testing to 15 could help to stem the rise of the infection, said Seguerra. “It’s already difficult asking permission from our parents to have a night out. [And more so] if you tell your parents: ‘I’m sexually active. I might have HIV,” she explained. Advocates say existing laws limit children’s access to potentially life-saving treatment. Nonetheless, the Department of Education announced last month that it would scrap a sex education plan following opposition by a coalition of parents, the Catholic church and conservative politicians. Back to top