In this issue:
Latest news and reports
- Education
- Sexual abuse
- Violence and armed conflict
- Minimum ages
- Migrants and refugees
Upcoming events
Employment
LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Education
A total of 174 civil society organisations have signed a statement calling on investors to cease support for Bridge International Academies (BIA), a company running more than 500 commercial private schools, mostly in African countries. The statement claims that the academies do not give the poorest and most marginalised children access to education, as BIA reports, with one study suggesting that the total costs to attend are much higher than the monthly US$6 the company estimates. In another study, 58 percent of BIA students interviewed in Kenya had missed school due to non-payment of fees. The statement draws attention to transparency concerns regarding BIA’s relationship with governments and resistance to assessment, as well as breaches of labour conditions and educational standards. BIA has been accused of silencing critics by taking action against the Kenya National Union of Teachers, while an independent researcher was arrested at the request of BIA in Uganda while collecting evidence about BIA schools in the country. Teachers work up to 65 hours per week for a salary barely above the poverty line, while in Uganda BIA reportedly hired unlicensed and unregistered teachers to keep costs down. In both Uganda and Kenya, courts have ordered for the closure of Bridge schools for operating illegally and failing to meet national education standards.
Authorities in China’s northwest Xinjiang region have banned the use of the Uyghur language at all education levels up to and including secondary school. Uyghur is an official language in the region and is spoken by tens of millions of people. However, the new directive, issued by the regional education department, now prohibits using the Uyghur language, writing, signs and pictures in the educational system, on campus, in collective and public activities, and in educational management. Any school or individual that fails to implement the new policy will be designated “two-faced” and “severely punished”. A Uyghur official commented that regional government had repeatedly tried over the past decade to implement a bilingual education policy, but that Mandarin Chinese was never “popularised”. Many Uyghurs have rejected the new policy as an attempt to eliminate their mother tongue and increase their assimilation into Han Chinese culture. Ethnic Uyghurs face pervasive discrimination, religious repression and cultural suppression by the ruling Communist Party, and the new education policy is one of the strongest assimilationist measures yet. Both China’s Constitution and regional ethnic autonomy laws provide for the freedom to use and develop minority languages, as well as for their use and to teach in these languages in schools.
A group of doctors, school principals and educational specialists from the United Arab Emirates has called for sex education to be taught at all schools in the country. Taboo surrounding the subject of sex has led to a woeful level of ignorance, they say. At home parents rarely speak about the subject with their children, leaving many unaware of personal boundaries and potentially vulnerable to exploitation. Meanwhile in schools, children are not permitted to ask about their sex organs, and girls might not know anything about reproductive health or rights until they get married, according to one headteacher. Hiba Mohammed, an education control specialist at the Ministry of Education, stressed the need for awareness programmes targeting not only children, but also preparing parents to provide answers suitable for the ages of their children. At present there is no mandatory sex education programme in the UAE, though some schools offer irregular classes on an opt-out basis.
Sexual abuse
Both Jordan and Tunisia have made an important step in ensuring the rights of women and girls by abolishing laws which allow a rapist to escape punishment if they marry their victim. Jordan’s infamous Article 308 permitted the pardoning of rapists if they married their victims and stayed with them for at least three years. Its removal must still be approved by the Jordanian parliament's upper house, and then be signed by the King, but if approved it will help survivors, many of whom are under 18 years old, get justice. Other countries in the region have already abolished similar laws. Egypt repealed a similar provision in 1999, and Morocco overhauled its law in 2014 following the suicide of a 16-year-old girl and the attempted suicide of a 15-year-old who were forced to marry their rapists. Bahrain and Lebanon are also reportedly discussing amending or abolishing similar provisions, though new legislation or amendments have not yet been suggested.
India's Supreme Court has refused to allow an abortion for a 10-year-old girl, allegedly raped by her uncle, on the grounds that she is too far into her pregnancy. A medical panel told the court that, at 32 weeks, termination of the pregnancy would be "too risky". India’s law on abortion does not allow terminations after 20 weeks unless doctors confirm the mother's life is in danger. Her pregnancy was discovered several weeks ago, after she complained of a stomach ache and her parents took her to hospital. A lower court had earlier turned down her plea on similar grounds. Without disclosing the details of the medical report, the Supreme Court judges ruled that termination was "not good for the girl" and that the Indian government should set up a permanent medical board in each state to take prompt decisions in such cases in the future. The court order came after a lawyer filed a public interest petition saying that their doctors had examined the girl and found that the life of both mother and baby were at "very serious risk" if the pregnancy went ahead.
Police in Pakistan have arrested 26 members of a village council for allegedly ordering the rape of a teenager as punishment for a sexual assault committed by her brother. The girl, 17, was raped at the direction of the council as revenge for a sexual assault allegedly committed two days earlier against a child in the same village. The man who was ordered to rape the teenager was the brother of the first victim, local police said. The incident, which occurred in a village in the southern province of Punjab, came to light after the girl’s mother complained to police. The mother alleged that members of the council were present at the time of the punitive rape. Medical examinations have reportedly confirmed sexual assaults took place in both cases. Village councils are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan’s rural areas where the legal system is often mistrusted or out of reach. The councils are illegal but such “honour” punishments are still common, especially in rural areas.
Violence and armed conflict
Iraqi soldiers fighting in the city of Mosul were reportedly given the order to “kill anything or anyone that moved", including children, in the final days of the battle against the so-called Islamic State (IS). An officer in the Iraqi army reported that many of the group’s fighters had surrendered, but soldiers were told to execute them, with children suffering the same fates as adults in many cases. He added: “Every day, I see that we are doing the same thing as Daesh. People went down to the river to get water because they were dying of thirst and we killed them”. The same report from Middle East Eye also detailed how tunnels housing those who refused to surrender were being filled with rubble by bulldozers, burying alive both fighters and their human shields alike. Some of Mosul’s surviving children are also reportedly being targeted for revenge attacks on the basis that one or more of their parents were IS fighters. Children indoctrinated into the group’s hateful ideology are also victimised by the courts, treated almost as if they were adult criminals. Human Rights Watch researcher Belkis Wille noted: “The only difference is that a kid in Iraq cannot get the death penalty”.
Two more children have been killed in Venezuela as security forces continue to use excessive force against anti-government demonstrators. A 13-year-old was shot dead in the town of Capacho Viejo and a 17-year-old was killed in Tucape, both in the Western state of Tachira. Teenagers wearing face masks and throwing rocks are a common sight at anti-government protests, which have been ongoing across the country since April. At least eight of the 67 people killed in the protests so far were under 18. Venezuelan soldiers have been recorded firing rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters blocking highways and the country's national guard has reportedly been patrolling main roads on bikes carrying shotguns. The protests follow claims President Nicolas Maduro plans to use the result of the National Constituent Assembly elections to rewrite the country’s constitution, tightening his grip on power. Maduro claims eight million Venezuelans cast ballots on Sunday, but experts say the voting was rife with irregularities and opposition leaders are crying foul.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shocked his country by threatening to destroy schools in an area of the country currently under martial law, in order to flush out communist fighters. Duterte singled out schools of the Lumad indigenous people, claiming that many were operating illegally and “teaching the children to rebel against government”. The president clarified that he only wished to destroy structures, not children or teachers, when he was warned that calling for attacks on schools was effectively endorsing a war crime. Human rights group Karapatan stated that “bombing their schools and communities is a war crime, one of the gravest violations under international humanitarian law”. Attacks on schools in the country’s south were highlighted in the most recent report of the UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, noting that violence threatened access to education for more than 17,000 children.
Minimum ages
Ireland has set the minimum age at which children should be able to use online services without needing parental consent at 13, the lowest possible under upcoming European Union legislation. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation sets out rules on the processing of children’s personal data on the internet, including gaming and social media, and requires online services to obtain parental consent where a child interested in signing up is under 16 years old. The move reflects the de facto age of digital consent currently in place. The United States, where many top tech companies were founded, also sets the minimum at at 13. With both the US and Ireland, where many have registered their European headquarters, agreed on 13, other countries are expected to follow suit when setting the age of so-called ‘digital consent’. Other EU member states may adopt a minimum age between 13 and 16 and the decision must be made by 25 May 2019.
Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council has asked for an end to the marriage of children under 15, and for certain conditions to be set for children married between age 15 and 18. The council, a consultative body which makes recommendations on laws in the country, suggested four conditions for allowing the marriage of girls aged 15 or older and for marriages before 15 to be totally banned. The conditions included the approval of the girl and her mother; a medical report testifying the girl is physically, psychologically and socially “fit for marriage”; that the age of the groom should not be more than double the age of the bride; and that the marriage contract should only be drafted by expert judges. The council noted that the recommendations were based on past experiences of underage marriages, which are recognised internationally as curtailing opportunities in education, employment and which may restrict many of the freedoms of the children involved. While the Shura Council can propose new laws and amendments of the current system it has no legislative power, as this remains solely with the King.
Migrants and refugees
Mechanisms for the protection of migrant children are failing, leaving many at risk of trafficking, sale and other forms of exploitation, according to two UN human rights experts. Special Rapporteurs (SR) Maria Grazia Giammarinaro and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio warned that current efforts to protect children are being hampered by the failure to identify trafficked, sold or otherwise exploited children, often due to insufficiently trained frontline workers. The SRs also noted the limited capacity in camps to host children in specialised and separated facilities, and the lack of coordination between different actors working with them. Current mechanisms do not systematically consider the specific needs and the best interests of children, frequently placing separated or unaccompanied children with adults in areas or camps that lack basic amenities. The experts stressed the need to provide family-based or family-like assistance to those at risk of exploitation in all circumstances. The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) also warned of the high prevalence of child trafficking in Europe, highlighting serious shortcomings in state responses to the protection of children at risk of being trafficked.
On the island of Lesbos in Greece, unaccompanied migrant children are being incorrectly identified as adults and housed with unrelated adults, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that flawed age assessment procedures mean unaccompanied children are sometimes denied the special care and protection due to them under Greek and international law. Some claim to be adults in the belief that it might allow them to avoid detention, and then spend months trying to correct their official status, often reaching adulthood in the meantime. HRW found that some were arbitrarily recorded by officials as older than the ages given by children themselves. Cursory dental examinations at a local hospital were also found to be required as a form of age assessment, despite a 2013 ministerial decision establishing a multidisciplinary approach to age assessment, with medical examinations being used only as a last resort. As of 20 June, 1,149 unaccompanied migrant children were on the waiting list for shelter, including 296 detained in places such as police stations, immigration detention facilities, and EU-managed asylum processing centres.
Police are routinely harassing migrants in Calais, France, destroying shelters and using pepper spray on an almost daily basis, according to a new report. Less than a year after French authorities closed the large migrant camp known as the “Jungle”, up to 500 asylum seekers and other migrants continue to live on the streets and in wooded areas around the city. The report found that police, and particularly riot police, use pepper spray on child and adult migrants while they are sleeping or in other circumstances in which they pose no threat. Police also disrupt the delivery of humanitarian assistance; regularly spray or confiscate sleeping bags, blankets, and clothing; and sometimes use pepper spray on migrants’ food and water. Local authorities appear to have turned a blind eye to widespread reports of police abuse against asylum seekers and other migrants. Responding to the allegations, Vincent Berton, the deputy prefect for Calais, told HRW “These are allegations, individuals’ declarations, that are not based on fact.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
Education: Child Safeguarding
Organisation: HREA
Dates: 30 August-10 October 2017
Location: Online
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
Date: 9-11 October 2017
EMPLOYMENT
War Child: Middle East Regional Education Advisor
Application deadline: 5 August 2017
Location: Jordan, Lebanon or Palestine
LEAK OF THE WEEK
When Human Rights Watch researcher Jessica Evans got a voicemail from staff at a global financial institution allegedly involved in financing projects linked to child and forced labour, she wasn’t banking on hearing a full confession. Evans listened with interest to the message, only to realise that staff at the World Bank were discussing how they could save face and pass the buck after concerns were made public about rights abuses in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvests.
Evans’ joint research with the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights found that the Uzbek government is still forcing children as young as 10 to work in four regions, including in a World Bank project area and one region where the financial institution has a new project. |
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