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In this issue:
Latest news and reports
- Death penalty
- Attacks on civilians
- Politics and violence
- Health, toxics and inequality
- Torture and deprivation of liberty
Case study: Exploitation case sees slavery criminalised at last
Upcoming events
Employment
LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Death penalty
The Puntland region of Somalia has carried out the first reported judicial executions of children in almost a decade and two more boys aged 15 and 17 may be at risk of imminent execution, according to Amnesty International. The executions of five boys aged 14 to 17 are reported to have taken place on 8 April, all sentenced for their alleged role in the killing of three senior officials by al-Shabaab. Civilian law in Puntland bans the death penalty for any offence committed while a child, but the trials were held before a military court not bound by this prohibition. Previous cases in which children have faced the death penalty in Somalia have also been heard before military or religious courts. Speaking out against the executions, Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's deputy regional director, said: “These five boys were executed following a fundamentally flawed process during which they were tortured to confess, denied access to a lawyer and additional protections accorded to juveniles, and tried in a military tribunal. The lives of the remaining two boys must be spared”.
Two young men are at imminent risk of execution in Iran for offences they allegedly committed while they were children. Mehdi Bohlouli was 17 years old when he was sentenced to death in 2001 for stabbing a man during a fight. His execution was originally scheduled for 19 April, but was suspended hours before the sentence was due to be carried out. Peyman Barandah was 15 when he was sentenced to death in 2012 and his execution has been scheduled for 10 May. UN human rights experts have issued a joint statement calling for the sentences to be quashed and for Iran to commute all death sentences imposed on children. The statement also highlights the conditions on death row, labelling them “torture and ill-treatment”. Since the beginning of 2017, six executions of child offenders have been scheduled in Iran, two of which were carried out. At least 90 people are reported to be on death row in the country for offences committed while they were children.
Attacks on civilians
Evidence collected after suspected nerve gas attacks on civilians in Syria suggests they were planned to inflict severe suffering on the non-combatants, potentially amounting to crimes against humanity, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Researchers documented several recent chemical attacks in the war-torn country, including an attack in April which killed at least 92 people, 30 of them children. The report indicates that “widespread and systematic” use of chemical weapons has been recorded, including against civilians, and argues that those two features mean the attacks could meet the legal standard required to characterise them as crimes against humanity. According to the report, some of the chemical attacks hit residential areas far from the frontlines without any obvious military target nearby. While the use of chemical weapons is abhorrent regardless of the target, children are particularly susceptible to the effects of weaponised gases, as their smaller and less developed bodies are affected more easily, and deal with the consequences of exposure for longer.
The UN Secretary-General (SG) has described significant progress in the protection of children in the Philippines, with more than 1,850 children recruited by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) identified and formally disengaged. The SG’s fourth report on the impact of armed conflict on children in the Philippines noted significant progress achieved by the MILF in preventing the use and recruitment of children despite ongoing violations, particularly in the Mindanao region. The region is autonomous, and while the MILF have historically fought for independence for the area from the Philippines, they have recently declared that they are “committed to peace”. The report, which covers the period from December 2012 to the end of 2016, saw a general decrease in large-scale armed engagements, but sporadic low-intensity clashes and a number of critical incidents continued to affect children, with some non-State armed groups continuing to recruit under-18s. Concerns were also raised about the number of children killed or injured in crossfire, as well as the high number of attacks on schools and teachers.
Dozens of teachers in Burkina Faso who went into hiding after receiving threats from Islamist militants have returned to their classrooms. Teachers in the country’s north, particularly near the border with Mali, began receiving threats in January and were told to change their secular curriculum to Koranic education and replace French with Arabic. Media reports have claimed that as many as 1,600 teachers fled after death threats and at least one killing, though government sources have said this number is an exaggeration. A teachers' union said militants had threatened or attacked teachers in at least four schools this year and some educators have claimed that their pupils received offers of money to join jihadist groups. Officials in Burkina Faso blame the deteriorating security climate in Mali for the threats, and explained that the country’s armed forces had carried out operations in the border areas in recent weeks to improve security.
Politics and violence
Security forces have responded with violence to ongoing protests in Venezuela, leaving at least two children and a number of adults dead. Brayan Principal, 14, and Carlos José Moreno, 17, are among more than 20 people killed so far as huge demonstrations continue to bring the country to a standstill. Principal was reportedly shot in the abdomen during anti-government protests, while Moreno was shot in the head near a demonstration as he went to play football. The country’s President, Nicolas Maduro, has claimed that protesters were responsible for a recent attack on a children’s hospital — though demonstrators claim security forces were to blame — and called for his supporters to rally against what he has labelled a United States-backed coup. Unrest started after an attempt to nullify the opposition controlled-congress, but the marches have become a vehicle for people to protest against widespread shortages of many basic goods, violence, and massive inflation. Maduro issued a decree on Monday for the writing of a new constitution, but opposition leaders immediately objected, claiming it was an excuse to put off regional elections scheduled for this year and a presidential election that was to be held in 2018.
Mysterious disappearances and deaths of children are increasing in the run up to Liberia’s presidential and legislative elections, according to the speaker of the National Children Representative Forum. Ritualistic killings of children have a long running history in the country, increasing in pre-election periods where they are reported to be carried out to benefit political candidates. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection released a report indicating that at least six children went missing and three were found dead in the first two weeks of April alone. The bodies of some of the children found were mutilated and had body parts removed, a practice common in ritualistic murders in the country.
Health, toxics and inequality
The UN has been promised half the amount requested for its humanitarian appeal for Yemen, money it says is needed to stem the spread of disease and lessen the impact of a devastating famine sweeping the country. At a funding conference in Geneva Secretary-General António Guterres noted that: “On average, a child under the age of five dies of preventable causes in Yemen every 10 minutes,” adding, “This means 50 children in Yemen will die during today’s conference, and all of those deaths could have been prevented”. Donors at the event pledged $1.1bn (£860m), well short of what was requested, while a previous Yemen appeal was only 15 percent funded. The UN said more than 18 million people were in need of humanitarian or protection assistance, and that severe food insecurity was affecting more than 6 million. According to the World Food Programme, nearly 2.2 million children are malnourished, of whom half a million need urgent care to prevent imminent risk of death. The food crisis has been made worse by the ongoing conflict between Iranian backed Houthi rebels and forces loyal to ousted president Hadi, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States.
A panel of UN human rights advisers has called for the UN to publicly apologise and compensate hundreds of ethnic Roma, poisoned by lead-contaminated waste, soil and dust in decrepit camps run by the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. As many as 500 people in three camps were affected, including expectant mothers and children. The advisory panel found that the UN mission had failed to protect Roma families uprooted from their homes and moved into camps in northern Kosovo, after war broke out in 1998. The three camps were within 200 yards of industrial waste from a lead-smelting factory, and although the UN knew the families were living on toxic land, and health specialists urged their relocation, nothing was done to move the residents for years.
Millions of people in Bihar, India, are showing symptoms of cancerous arsenic poisoning due to consuming contaminated drinking water. Dr Ashok Ghosh, a professor at the Mahavir Cancer Institute and Research Center, has been studying groundwater pollution in the state since 2004 and says arsenic concentration has shot up in the groundwater supply in Bihar. In 2016 the Mahavir Cancer Institute registered as many as 23,000 new cancer patients, and Ghosh found that many, though not all, of these cases were linked to exposure to arsenic. "I saw six and seven-year-old children coming with cancer. These children don't chew tobacco or smoke. It was very disturbing, and I could not sleep". Of Bihar's 38 districts, 17 have groundwater with arsenic concentrations above the permissible limit. Since 2004, 44,000 tubewells in Bihar have been tested and 30 percent have water with arsenic concentration higher than the limit set by the World Health Organization, with hand pumps often having severe arsenic poisoning.
Inequalities between rich and poor are hampering the success of immunisation efforts, UNICEF has said. Even though billions of doses of vaccines for children across 100 countries were supplied in 2016, 19.4 million children are still missing out on full vaccinations every year. Around two thirds of all unvaccinated children live in conflict-affected countries. Weak health systems, poverty and social inequities also mean that one in five children under the age of five is still not reached with life-saving vaccines. In countries where 80 percent of the world’s under-five child deaths occur, more than half of the poorest children are not fully vaccinated. Furthermore, UNICEF representatives warned that, given predictions that one in four people could be living in urban poor communities, mainly in Africa and Asia by 2030, the focus and investment of immunisation services will also need be tailored to the specific needs of those communities and children.
Torture and deprivation of liberty
Rohingya children as young as 10 are being detained on charges of consorting with insurgents in Rakhine state, Myanmar. More than 400 people, among them 13 children, have been arrested since insurgents attacked police border posts last October, prompting an army crackdown and the flight of more than 75,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh. Following a recent visit to the country, the deputy executive director of UNICEF, Justin Forsyth, indicated that he had given de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi details of the thirteen children being held in Buthidaung prison, which the Nobel laureate acknowledged to be an “issue” but made no firm commitment to their release. Earlier this year, the UN issued a report alleging that the mass killings and gang rapes committed by security forces against the Rohingya could amount to crimes against humanity, and the UN agreed last month to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations, a plan Myanmar’s government has now rejected.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has released a damning report on the treatment of conflict-related detainees, including children, finding in 2015-16 the highest levels of torture in police and security force custody since it began monitoring detention in 2010. Based on interviews with 469 detainees conducted from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016 in 62 detention facilities, the report highlights the widespread use of abusive interrogation tactics and a lack of accountability for such acts. UNAMA reported that 38 of the 85 child detainees interviewed gave “credible” accounts of torture and ill-treatment, with the majority of torture cases linked to forced confessions. Despite commitment by the Afghan government to eliminating torture and ill-treatment in national detention facilities, the report mentions only one prosecution for alleged torture during the period of 2015-16. In one recent case, two Afghan National Police (ANP) staff members were acquitted of allegations of physically assaulting two boys in a juvenile facility and the prosecutor did not appeal the verdict. In April, the Afghan government provided UNAMA with a list of four pending cases relating to beatings in ANP custody which took place between July 2015 and January 2017, agreeing to provide information on the outcome of proceedings.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has released a report on the United Kingdom’s compliance with a key anti-torture treaty, claiming that none of the prisons visited by the delegation last year “could be considered safe for prisoners or staff”. One of the sites inspected was the child prison Cookham Wood in Kent, where high levels of violence were found to be primarily managed by locking children up for as long as 23.5 hours per day. Children in Cookham Wood who were punished by “cellular confinement” were found to be held in “dark, dirty, poorly lit and inadequately ventilated” cells, and the Committee examined data from various child prisons, finding periods of segregation lasting more than 80 days. The Committee expressed concern about the placement of children with mental health problems far from home, the lack of privacy in the dispensation of medication to children in their cells and the lack of a dedicated consultation room for children receiving mental health care. The Committee recommended an urgent review of young offender institutions and secure training centres to ensure that such facilities are “truly juvenile-centred and based on the concept of small well-staffed living units”.
Lawmakers in Texas, United States, have advanced a bill that would lower standards for obtaining child care facility licences so that family detention centres can be licenced to hold immigrant families for an extended period of time. Under federal law, children may not be held in family detention centres for longer than 20 days unless they are housed in “non-secure” facilities with child care licences, and a state judge ruled last year that family detention centres do not qualify for child care licences. The bill, written by a lobbyist for the country’s second biggest private prison company, GEO Group, eases the requirements for child care facilities, though the senator proposing it maintains that the licensing process will allow the state to provide oversight and ensure the safety of children. Opponents say the facilities harm development in children and cause mental health problems, describing the bill as an attempt to expand for-profit family detention by issuing permits without improving conditions. The bill will now move to the full Senate.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Disability: Ensuring rights of children with mental disabilities through capacity building and monitoring
Organisation: Mental Disability Advocacy Centre
Date: 10 May 2017
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Juvenile justice: Youth Justice Summit
Organisation: Youth Justice Legal Centre
Date: 12 May 2017
Location: London, United Kingdom
Course: Implementing the UN Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children
Organisation: CELCIS
Date: 15 May 2017
Location: Online
Conference: Children on the move in southeast Asia
Organisations: Save the Children, Terre de Hommes, the International Detention Coalition & the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network
Dates: 24-25 May 2017
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Best interests: International Conference on Shared Parenting
Organisations: National Parents Organization & the International Council on Shared Parenting
Dates: 29-31 May 2017
Location: Boston, United States
Course: Online course on Child Rights Governance
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 31 May-11 July 2017
Location: Online
Seminar: Urban Planning and Children
Organisations: Child in the City Foundation & European Network Child Friendly Cities
Dates: 19-20 June 2017
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Child abuse: ISPCAN European conference on child abuse & neglect
Organisation: International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Dates: 1-4 October 2017
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
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EMPLOYMENT
Child Rights International Network: Executive Assistant
Application deadline: Rolling
Location: London
Just For Kids Law: Trainee Youth Advocate
Application deadline: 2 May 2017
Location: London, United Kingdom
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children: Coordinator
Application deadline: 23 May 2017
Location: London, United Kingdom
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LEAK OF THE WEEK
“Our society won’t find solutions for many of its problems if it doesn’t listen to its children.”
These are the words of Bernice, a 15-year-old journalist working in downtown Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Bernice is one of 800 young reporters-in-training in the country, smashing stereotypes about children’s role in the media, and of girls’ role in the DRC’s deeply patriarchal society.
Today, on World Press Freedom Day, her words should offer a reminder that young people view and experience the world differently, and that their views and ideas can be a powerful force for change. |
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