The week in children's rights - 1584

In this issue:

LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Migrant and refugee children

Counter-terrorism

A UN expert on counter-terrorism and human rights has expressed concerns that a law in France designed to stop the spread of violent extremist ideologies is being disproportionately used against children. Speaking after an official visit to the country Special Rapporteur (SR) Fionnuala Ní Aoláin highlighted that the crime of “apology for terrorism”, which aims to stop incitement of terrorist activity, “captures a broad and indiscriminate range of expression and actors” and could have serious effects on the right to freedom of expression. The crime is the single most frequently used in France under the country’s counter-terrorism regime, and the SR noted that the law has been used “extensively against minors”, further claiming that due to its broadness the law constitutes “an undue restriction on the freedom of expression as protected by international human rights law in France”. Read more about the consequences for children’s rights when definitions of ‘extremism’ become vague or overbroad.

An Australian children’s commissioner has expressed fears that proposed counter-terrorism laws could allow children as young as 14 to be deliberately targeted by police. Victoria’s principal children’s commissioner, Liana Buchanan, also noted that a draft law before the state’s parliament would, if passed, allow children to be interrogated and held for up to two weeks without charge. In a hearing examining the draft law the commissioner said the legislation would allow children to be detained and questioned even in situations where they were unaware of planning for a terrorist attack. The commissioner’s submission also expressed concern about “broad and undifferentiated tests” which could allow police and intelligence agencies to detain and target children for questioning as an “easier means of obtaining information or evidence”. New South Wales is the only Australian state that currently allows children as young as 14 to be detained using similar powers, but Buchanan voiced fears that the push for national consistency would see other regions follow without including vital safeguards.
 

Sexual abuse and access to justice

Sweden’s parliament has approved a law to criminalise sex without explicit consent as rape. Most European countries still define rape based on whether physical force or threats were used, but this will no longer be required under Sweden’s new law. Coming into force from 1 July this year, the law regards consent as possible either through words or clear actions that show it is fully voluntary, otherwise it will be considered a criminal act, with passivity not considered a sign of voluntary participation. Two new offences of "negligent rape" and "negligent sexual abuse" also mean that it will be more difficult for an accused person to build a defence based on the alleged presumption that a child was older than they seemed because of their physical development. Under the new law, there will also no longer be a need to prove intent, which means an alleged offender could be convicted even if they did not actively intend to rape the victim. Debate on the issue gained momentum in 2014 with several cases in which alleged rapists were freed because they had allegedly not knowingly acted against the other person's wishes.

The State of Nicaragua is guilty of not guaranteeing access to justice to a girl who was allegedly raped and abused by her father when she was eight years old, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled. After filing a complaint against the father, a lower court ruled he was innocent, but it was the treatment of the girl during the judicial process which the Inter-American Court focused on. The judges heard how the girl had been asked to recount her ordeal more than once despite her wishes not to, she was made to assume the same position in which she was allegedly raped so she could be photographed, and was forcibly subjected to numerous genital exams against her express wishes. With regard to this treatment, the Court said the girl was re-victimised at the hands of the State, which committed “institutional violence” against her, effectively becoming “a second abuser”. In its ruling, the Court said the judicial process in this case was not child-friendly, asserting that a victim must be considered as a holder of human rights and never just as a piece of evidence. The Court recommended that investigations be mindful of the needs of child victims of sexual violence and that civil servants be trained accordingly.

The Indian government has commissioned a survey on child sexual abuse against boys after a filmmaker documented a culture of indifference towards the issue in the country. India’s last government research on the issue was carried out in 2007, when 53.2 percent of children reported having suffered some form of sexual abuse — of those, 52.9 percent were boys. Campaigners are hoping the study will lift stigma around the issue. “The biggest problem in Indian society is the mindset that ‘boys are not raped’. People live in denial,” said filmmaker Insia Dariwala. Various factors come into play, such as stigma and a hostile attitude from authorities and lack of trust. “But the most important factor is patriarchy,” explained Dariwala, “which forces a boy into believing that his abuse was something that he can get over, without any support. This mentality also forces the child to accept his abuse as a rite of passage”. Last month, India’s minister of women and child development, Maneka Gandhi, amended legislation to make the protection of children from sexual abuse gender-neutral for the first time. She will also seek to change the law to remove the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, allowing complaints of child sexual abuse to be filed years after the crime.

Health and discrimination

More than a third of girls in South Asia miss school during their periods, with a lack of toilets and cultural taboos around menstruation among the main reasons girls are kept out of lessons. A recent study by WaterAid and UNICEF also found many girls across the region did not know about menstruation before starting their periods. Many schools in the region do not provide enough toilets for girls, and this fact combines with a lack of access to proper sanitary pads, forcing many girls to stay at home during their periods. The World Health Organization recommends governments provide at least one toilet for every 25 girls, but according to the report some districts of Nepal saw as many as 170 children sharing use of just one. The report also underscored ongoing discrimination against women and girls, adding that in western Nepal, women are often forced to sleep in a hut away from home during their periods, while in Afghanistan most girls are taught not to bathe during menstruation.

African American children in the United States are taking their own lives at roughly twice the rate of their white peers, according to a new study. Using data charting the suicide rate for children between the ages of five and 11 years old between 2001 and 2015, the study showed a widening gap between the two groups. Suicide rates in the US have traditionally been higher among white individuals across all age groups, but rates increased from 1993 to 1997 and from 2008 to 2012 among black children aged five to 11, while they decreased among white children of the same age. Although suicide is comparatively rare among young children, the study’s lead author has claimed that the report’s findings reinforce the need for better research into the racial disparities. Overall between 1999 and 2015, more than 1,300 children ages five to 12 took their own lives in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the rate of deaths increasing in recent years.

Cuts to social programmes in Brazil could lead to more avoidable childhood hospitalisations and deaths, according to researchers from Imperial College London and Universidade Federal da Bahia in Brazil. Using statistical models researchers predicted that childhood mortality rates would be up to 8.6 percent lower by 2030 if investments in two major social programmes were protected from proposed austerity measures. This would translate into around 20,000 fewer childhood deaths and 124,000 avoidable childhood hospitalisations between 2017 and 2030. These services are the Bolsa Familia Programme (BFP) and the Estrategia Saude da Familia (ESF) - Brazil's main poverty-alleviating welfare programme and primary healthcare service. The researchers also found that the currently recommended austerity policies would disproportionately affect the poorest areas of the country as it struggles with a deep economic crisis. The BFP was estimated to cover 25 percent of Brazilian families in 2016, and existing evidence demonstrates that these programmes have led to large improvements in health — especially for children.

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