The week in children's rights - 1544

As many as 40,000 Rohingya Muslims, including those registered with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), could be deported by India according to a government minister. Around 16,500 Rohingya have received identity cards from UNHCR in India, with many having fled Myanmar after government-sanctioned attacks on the minority group. The reprisals against the Rohingya came after several Burmese border guard posts were attacked in October 2016, with the government’s response reportedly involving murders, arsons and gang rapes. The UN noted in February 2017 that the actions of security forces likely involved crimes against humanity. The Burmese government’s own report flatly denied allegations of ethnic cleansing and gang rapes, but has been criticised for its lack of transparency, leading most international observers to question its credibility. The UN set up an independent commission to investigate the violence, but so far the Burmese government has not allowed them access to the area. Around 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, but are denied citizenship and face restrictions on their movements and access to basic services.

People smugglers intentionally drowned at least 29 teenagers in Yemen, the UN's migration agency reports. Smugglers allegedly forced more than 120 people, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, off the boat into the sea after sighting “authority types” near the coast. The average age of the dead is believed to be around 16 years old, while a second deliberate drowning off the coast only a day later resulted in the deaths of as many as 19 more young people. A spokeswoman for the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said the incidents "may be the start of a new trend". About 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa to come to Yemen so far in 2017, and the IOM estimates that more than half of them are under the age of 18. Although Yemen is currently in the midst of the worst outbreak of cholera in recorded history, many refugees see the country as a gateway to other Gulf States.

More than 100 children fleeing areas controlled by al-Shabaab militants in central Somalia have arrived in the coastal town of Adale, seeking government protection. The children, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years old, are among around 500 under-18s believed to have fled villages and towns in central Somalia. In an interview, Adale's district commissioner, Muse Mohamed Ahmed, said the children were fleeing from new al-Shabaab recruitment campaigns. The group has reportedly begun a drive to recruit children, in an effort to bolster its ageing members, and has recently initiated a campaign of abductions from schools in areas outside of government control. The children are temporarily being housed by families from the town, though it is not yet clear where the government will house or educate them. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who made an emergency visit to Somalia in March, said more than half of the fighters in the militant group may be children, with some as young as nine being used in combat. Al-Shabaab has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the Somali government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.

The UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry has called for international action in recognition of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by so-called Islamic State (IS) against Yazidis in Iraq, three years after the terrorist group launched an attack against the religious community. Publicly condemning Yazidis as “infidels”, IS sought to destroy the community through executions, enslavement, forced displacement and measures intended to stop the birth of Yazidi children. Many women and girls were taken to Syria where they were sold and sexually enslaved, while boys were indoctrinated and trained for use in hostilities. The Commission pointed out that the genocide is ongoing and remains largely unaddressed, with thousands of men and boys still missing, while around 3,000 women and girls continue to be subjected to brutal rapes and beatings almost daily in Syria. The Commission urged action to bring the perpetrators to justice, including through the International Criminal Court or through national courts by means of the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The UN has condemned the “disregard” for civilians’ safety shown by combatants from all sides in Yemen. The statement came after recent attacks on a house and a private vehicle in Sa’ada province, a Houthi stronghold, left at least 12 civilians dead and 10 wounded, including children. An airstrike by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition on a family home less than two weeks ago killed three women and six children from the same family, according to a local health official. Yemen has been ravaged by civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to regain territory lost to the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls most of the north, including the capital Sanaa. The conflict has seen some airstrikes targeting schools and hospitals, while disruptions to water supplies have led to a cholera epidemic that has killed thousands.

A three-year-old boy has died from gunshot wounds after almost two months in hospital in the besieged town of Awamiya, Saudi Arabia. The boy was shot in his family’s car when an armoured vehicle fired live ammunition as it drove past the local police station. The predominantly Shi’a Muslim town has been sealed off by Saudi security forces in confrontation with an armed group hiding in a historic district slated for demolition and redevelopment. Satellite imagery shows extensive damage to the town and residents say that most people have fled, with those who remain lacking essential services. Security forces have reportedly fired into populated areas away from the al-Musawara district, occupied a public school, closed clinics and pharmacies and turned away ambulances. Last week Saudi Arabia announced that security forces had forced almost all “terrorists and criminal elements” out of al-Musawara, but activists say the violence has killed more than 12 people in addition to at least five armed militants. Evacuation efforts following an escalation of violence on 26 July were coordinated by local volunteers without any assistance from Saudi authorities, and residents claim that security forces turned away anyone who attempted to return to the town. Awamiya, the hometown of the prominent Shi’a cleric Nimr al-Nimr who was executed in January 2016, has long been a hotspot for protests against government discrimination against Saudi Shi’a.
 

Eighteen people have been convicted in the United Kingdom of drugging and sexually abusing girls as young as 14. Police investigations uncovered groups of men in the West End of Newcastle - many of whom were known to each other - who exploited vulnerable young women and girls over a period between 2010 and 2014 by luring them to parties, plying them with drink and drugs, and then raping and beating them. Over the course of four trials, 20 young women gave evidence against 26 defendants, with more prison sentences expected to be handed down in the coming months. Despite the success of their investigation, the police operation has been marred by controversy after it was revealed that investigators paid a convicted child rapist £10,000 to act as an informant to help bring down the group. The child protection charity the NSPCC and groups representing rape survivors said that the use of such an informant “crossed the line” by using a convicted rapist, though senior police officials maintain that they made the right decision.

The UN has warned that children are increasingly being trafficked to Thailand to be sexually exploited for an online audience. Researchers pointed to a shift in where children were being sexually exploited and abused in front of webcams, with an increase in incidents being recorded in Thailand after the Philippines, previously the location of much of the abuse, began to investigate and prosecute similar crimes more systematically. Deanna Davy, senior research consultant at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) claimed that the problem had grown so much that demand for child webcam sex tourism is "outstripping the supply". Thailand has historically been a source, destination and transit country for men, women, and children who are often smuggled and trafficked from poorer, neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to work in Thailand or further afield in Malaysia.