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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Accountability and the United Nations

A group of 44 civil society organisations has called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to publish an accurate and credible list of parties to armed conflict, including States, which carry out grave violations of children’s rights. The group released an open letter addressed to Guterres after reports that he was planning to “freeze” new additions to the so-called “list of shame” attached to his annual report to the UN Security Council on children and armed conflict. The alleged move follows two years of much-criticised politicisation of the list, including high profile action from Saudi Arabia, which allegedly threatened to withdraw funding from key UN programmes if it was kept on the list over ongoing children’s rights violations in Yemen. The organisations which signed the letter, including CRIN, believe that “after fifteen years of annual lists, parties to armed conflict should be well aware that if they commit grave violations against children, they may be listed”. Allowing extra time for parties to make “commitments” to children’s rights will only make the process vulnerable to additional politicisation. The organisations call on the Secretary-General to commit to “an impartial list, based on evidence, not politics. Children whose lives are devastated by armed conflict deserve nothing less.”

Leaked UN documents suggest that a peacekeeping battalion in the Central African Republic has been repeatedly flagged as a potential source of adults who sexually abuse children, though little action has been taken to remove them. In an open letter, AIDS-Free World and the Code Blue Campaign claim to have come into possession of internal UN documents that call into question the Secretary-General’s commitment to adopting “structural, legal and operational measures to make zero tolerance a reality,” as he pledged earlier this year. The documents include a 66-page assessment report and single-page memo, concerning a peacekeeping battalion in Berbérati. The campaigners claim that by failing to act on information about sexual abuse by peacekeepers, the UN is setting the stage for future abuse and placing women and children in harm's way. The 66-page report records how 120 of the 750 peacekeepers in the battalion were repatriated to the Republic of Congo “on SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] cases,” representing 16 percent of the total force in Berbérati, with at least six reported child victims.
 

Privacy and digital rights

In Germany, the parents of a girl who died in 2012 after being hit by an underground train have no claim to access her Facebook chat history to find out if her death was a suicide, Berlin’s court of appeal has ruled. The decision goes against an initial judgment from 2015 and raises questions about "digital inheritance" between children and parents. Judges in the latest ruling based their decision on Germany’s telecommunications secrecy law, which precludes heirs from viewing the communications of a deceased relative with a third party. The child’s family have said they are desperate to find out whether the girl’s death in Berlin was a suicide and, if so, whether it was the consequence of online bullying, and may appeal the case further. The girl reportedly gave her mother the login details to her account when she was 14, but Facebook froze her account after being informed of the girl’s death by one of her friends. Photos and posts the girl had shared remain visible, and friends can pay tribute to her, but it is no longer possible to log in to the account.

Ethiopia has shut off internet access to its citizens in an attempt to stop exam papers for the nation’s secondary school students being leaked online. Last year, activists leaked the papers for the country’s 12th grade national exams, calling for the postponement of the papers due to a school shutdown in the Oromia region. This time the government appears to have taken the move to shut down internet access as a preventative measure, stifling access to information and freedom of expression across the country. A similar move was made in Algeria last year, while an internet shutdown in Cameroon this year attracted headlines in the region for months. Ethiopia’s communications minister, Negeri Lencho, claimed the move was aimed at protecting the government’s investment in education and issued assurances that access would be restored soon.

A former UN Special Rapporteur (SR) has called for an independent review of the United Kingdom’s “divisive” counter terrorism strategy, Prevent, often aimed at surveilling schoolchildren. Maina Kiai, previously the SR on freedom of assembly and association, made the recommendations in his final report to the Human Rights Council, following a visit to the UK in April 2016. Kiai pointed to the strategy failings, claiming it singled out certain groups, “dividing, stigmatising and alienating segments of the population, Prevent could end up promoting extremism, rather than countering it”. In the wake of two terrorist attacks in the run-up to the country’s latest election, the UK’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, has called for further internet regulation, a move campaigners have described as “intellectually lazy”, and potentially counterproductive.

Freedom of expression

Authorities in Thailand are keeping a teenage boy and three other youths in military detention for allegedly “insulting the monarchy”. Abhisit Chailee, 14, has been detained since 15 May, without any effective safeguards against abuse or mistreatment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. Thai soldiers and police arrested Abhisit and three other youths for allegedly setting fire to a portrait of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Military authorities then transferred them to a military detention facility for questioning without access to legal counsel or their families. Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, said: “None of the four youths arrested should have been denied access to a judge and placed in an incommunicado military detention, whatever the charge against them”. Insulting the monarchy is a serious national security offence in Thailand, resulting in punishment of between three and 15 years in prison. Since the May 2014 coup, the government has arrested at least 105 people on these charges.

Police in Russia have arrested and detained a 10-year-old boy for publicly reading an excerpt from the Shakespeare play Hamlet. Officers were shown bundling the screaming boy into a police car in central Moscow as he shouted "Save me!" in distressing mobile phone footage aired on Russian television. Police claimed the boy had been "begging" on the street, while the boy's father told Russian media his son had been reading aloud while his stepmother sat on a bench nearby. The boy's detention came after riot police were criticised for heavy-handed tactics as they detained dozens of teenagers in March at a Moscow demonstration organised by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Influential lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who represents US fugitive Edward Snowden and chairs the interior ministry's public council, went to the police station and told Russian television that police had apologised to the boy's parents.
 

Discrimination

The Malaysian Government has launched a competition for 13 to 24-year-olds offering up to $1,000 US dollars for the "best videos" tackling “gender confusion”. The competition is divided into three main categories: sex, sex and the internet, and gender confusion. The competition’s guidelines cite gay and lesbian people, transgender people and tomboys as examples of people suffering from gender confusion and suggest that entries should explore prevention and control, consequences, and how to get help. The Malaysian health ministry defended the competition saying that its aim was not to discriminate against any group but to promote creativity, following outcry from LGBT activists in the country who argue it encourages hatred and even violence towards sexual and gender minorities. Homosexual activity is illegal in Malaysia under both secular and religious laws, and is punishable by a prison sentence or corporal punishment. Recently, the release of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was postponed in the country for containing a “gay moment”, although the Malaysian censorship board eventually conceded and released the film uncut. For more information on this subject, read CRIN’s new submission to the UN on rights violations affecting children who identify as LGBT or intersex.

Canada’s Justice Minister has revealed that the federal government spent $707,000 Canadian dollars in legal fees fighting a 2016 tribunal order insisting the government stop discriminating against First Nations children in the provision of health and social services. In January 2016 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government was breaking the law by not spending enough on health and social services for indigenous children living on reserves. The amount could have gone a long way for mental health services for children in need, said Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Family Caring Society. The legal fees represent nearly twice the $380,000 that was needed by the Wapekeka First Nation for emergency mental health care after the community uncovered a suicide pact among some of its members last year. After the funding was denied, two 12-year-old girls took their own lives, sparking concerns about a suicide crisis in First Nations communities. In response to the fourth and latest non-compliance ruling from the tribunal, the ministries of health and indigenous affairs issued a joint statement, saying that more than 4,900 requests for health, social or educational services have been approved for children.

Authorities in Xinjiang province in northwest China have extended a recent ban on “extreme” Islamic names for ethnic Uyghur babies, requiring all children under 16 to change their name if they are deemed to be “overly religious”. Islam, Saddam, Hajj, Arafat and Madina are among the list of banned names, and any children registered with those names will be barred from the hukou household registration system that gives access to health care and education. The order coincided with millions gathering at 50,000 rallies throughout the Xinjiang region to pledge allegiance to the Communist party. Xinjiang’s Muslims mostly come from the Uyghur ethnic group, who have faced a crackdown on their freedom of religion in recent years under the guise of a ‘war on terror’. While the region has seen sporadic violence over the years, international observers consider the vast majority of incidents to be the result of repressive domestic policies attempting to erase the Uyghur cultural identity. Uyghur activists fiercely denounced the name ban, which they argue demonstrates how far the Chinese government goes to violate the fundamental rights and privacy of the Uyghur people.
 

Armed conflict

In Iraq, children in Mosul are bearing the brunt of intensified fighting between US-backed government forces and fighters from so-called Islamic State (IS). As heavy fighting continues to drive large numbers of people from the city, the UN Refugee Agency has appealed for urgent support to meet the critical needs of vulnerable displaced people returning to the city. According to Iraqi authorities, more than 750,000 people have been forced to flee since military operations began to retake the city from IS. UNICEF has also received “alarming reports” of civilians being killed, including children, with some caught in the crossfire while trying to flee. As many as 100,000 girls and boys are still in the IS-held Old City neighborhood and other areas, living under extremely dangerous conditions. Children are reportedly being killed, injured and used as human shields in ongoing fighting, as well as witnessing and experiencing different forms of violence.

Meanwhile in Angola, more than 9,000 children have arrived at two temporary reception centres in a northern city of Dundo, having fled the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). UNICEF has reported that these children are in need of urgent support with nutrition, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as prevention of disease. To date, more than 25,000 people have arrived in Angola, having fled violence in the DRC's Kasai province. Around 200 children recently arrived in these centres unaccompanied by an adult and are in need of being placed in temporary accommodation while efforts are made to trace their biological families.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Environment: Seminar on Urban Planning and Children
Organisations: Child in the City Foundation & European Network for 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

EMPLOYMENT

Terre des Hommes: Secretary General
Application deadline: 9 June 2017
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Plan International: Human Rights and Gender Advocacy Intern
Application deadline: 14 June 2017
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Plan International: Human Rights Intern
Application deadline: 14 June 2017
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Defence for Children International: Project Officer - Advocacy and Outreach
Application deadline: 15 June 2017
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

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