CRINmail 1462
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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Inhuman sentencing
Lawmakers in India have passed a new juvenile justice bill allowing 16-year-olds to be tried as adults for crimes including rape and murder. The Bill stipulates that any crime carrying a sentence of more than seven years can be considered heinous, allowing some children to be charged with harsher penalties, and was brought about by public pressure after a high profile gang rape in Delhi. A new punishment for sexual abuse of children suggested by Indian civil society groups is the chemical castration of those who rape children. The country’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday that parliament should debate this measure, but it was not made clear whether sexually active children could be punished for acts with others below the age of consent, set at 18 in India.
Calls for Saudi Arabia to stop executing children have been amplified by a recent chorus of criticism over the kingdom’s latest mass execution. On 2 January 47 people were beheaded, claiming that the sentences for most were handed down for their involvement with terrorist group Al Qaeda. It is not yet clear if any children, or persons detained while under the age of 18, were among those executed. However, still at imminent risk of execution are three young men, all of whom were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest, after they were sentenced to death following their participation in protests calling for political reform.
Land rights and 'cheap' water
The loss of land and autonomy of tribal peoples has devastating consequences for them, including malnutrition and starvation, infant mortality, depression and the highest suicide rates in the world, according to a new global report by indigenous rights organisation Survival International. The authors point out that forcing change on indigenous societies in the name of “progress” and “development” is at the root of the problem, as in many cases tribes that have been forced into mainstream society are made to abandon sustainable food sources and a source of identity only to end up in poverty and marginalisation. The organisation points out that where the right to ancestral land has been respected or restored, tribes have flourished. The indigenous groups the report looks at include Brazil’s Guarani Kaiowá people, Aboriginal Australians, Native Americans and Botswana Bushmen, among others.
In the United States, at least 43 children in Flint, Michigan have elevated levels of lead in their blood resulting from the city’s drinking water, in what has become a public health crisis lasting more than a year. Shortly after officials switched the source of drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, as it was cheaper, residents soon started complaining that their tap water tasted bad, looked strange and caused rashes. It turned out that the river water was saltier and had begun corroding the old pipes, leaching lead - which can cause mental and physical development problems - into the water supply. State and city officials had largely dismissed residents’ complaints, however, until the data on lead emerged. A scathing report into the health crisis found that the State Department of Environmental Quality’s response to health concerns “was often one of aggressive dismissal, belittlement and attempts to discredit these efforts and the individuals involved.”
'Mature minor' and health autonomy
In Canada, access to euthanasia for terminally ill patients suffering extreme pain should not be restricted by “arbitrary age limits”, an expert panel advising the provinces said earlier last month ahead of talks on legalising physician-assisted death. The basis for the panel’s argument is the “mature minor” doctrine, which holds that children can make their own medical decisions if they understand the nature of their illness and the repercussions of their choices. Accordingly, the experts argue that eligibility should be based on each individual patient’s maturity and mental competence, not their calendar age. “We just didn’t feel that to make an arbitrary decision that, at 17 years and 364 days you wouldn’t meet the criteria, but the next day you would, we felt that wasn’t the way to go,” said one member of the expert panel.
Harmful traditional practices
In Malaysia, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) has caused outrage by stating that child marriage is a “medicine” to curb the rise in statutory rape charges, which account for about half of rape cases. Ivy Josiah, the former head of the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) strongly criticised PAS for advocating child marriage, saying it “justified and opened up a bigger space for more rapes to take place”. Josiah called PAS’s tacit support of child marriage “disappointing and alarming”, given Malaysia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and argues that the federal government should raise the legal marriage age to 18 regardless of gender, and remove the discretion given to shariah judges to give permission for marriages to minors.
Gambia's parliament has approved a bill banning female genital mutilation and has set high penalties of imprisonment and fines for offenders. According to the new law, a person who engages in female circumcision could face up to three years in prison or a fine of $1,250. If the act results in death, a person could face life imprisonment. Female genital mutilation is practised in more than half of African countries and entails the complete or partial removal of the external genitalia of women and girls for nonmedical reasons. A 2010 report found that 63 percent of Gambian women and children aged 14 to 49 have been subject to female genital mutilation.
Access to information in Japan
In Japan, children’s “alarming” lack of knowledge about sex and relationships is mostly a result of poor sex education at school, said education rights advocate Asuka Someya. Having founded Pilcon, an NGO devoted to raising awareness of sexual health and contraception among youths, Someya says that Japan urgently needs to foster sexual literacy and create an environment where young people can speak openly about sex. “Young people are taught that sex is a deviancy and brings risks, that’s all,” she said, adding that sexuality is still a taboo in Japanese culture. Although sex education has been introduced in high schools as part of physical education, the use of terms like sexual intercourse and contraception is not allowed in junior high school, according to the education ministry’s guidelines, which were last revised in 2005.
UN news
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Makarim Wibisono, has resigned, saying that Israel had ignored his repeated oral and written requests for access for over 18 months.
The 71st session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is under way. Countries under review on their children’s rights record are: Benin, Brunei Darussalam, France, Haiti, Iran, Ireland, Kenya, Latvia, Maldives, Oman, Peru, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Two UN human rights committees are preparing a general comment on the human rights of children in the context of international migration. The CRC and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) are accordingly inviting submissions to obtain a wide range of perspectives to inform the drafting process. The deadline for submissions is 29 February 2016. More details on submission criteria here.
Read more latest news about children's rights at the UN here.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN NEPAL
Nepal ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990. The CRC takes precedence over national law and thus is directly enforceable in national courts, though the Supreme Court of Nepal does not always follow this rule. Cases related to violations of children's rights under the Children's Act may be initiated by any person on behalf of the child involved. The Children Welfare Committee of Nepal may also bring a case on behalf of the child. Although the General Code does not forbid a child from filing a complaint on his or her own, practice shows that the assistance of a parent or legal guardian is required. The government is required to provide legal counsel for juveniles accused of committing offences. Moreover in every court there is a free-of-charge lawyer for those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
Read the full report on access to justice for children in Nepal.
This report is part of CRIN's access to justice for children project, looking at the status of the CRC in national law, the status of children involved in legal proceedings, the legal means to challenge violations of children’s rights and the practical considerations involved in bringing a case.
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EVENTS
Americas: Requests for hearings & working meetings at the IACHR 157th session
Organisation: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Deadline: 20 January 2016
Event dates: 2-15 April 2016
Location: Washington DC, United States
Juvenile justice: Human rights of children deprived of liberty - Improving monitoring mechanisms
Organisation: Defence for Children International
Date: 15 February 2016
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Digital rights: Call for papers - Children & young people's rights in the digital age pre-conference
Organisation: Int’l Association for Media & Communication Research
Submission deadline: 15 February 2016
Event date: 26-27 July 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom
Alternative care: Improving standards of care - systems, policies & practices
Organisation: Udayan Care
Date: 18-19 March 2016
Location: Noida, India
Leadership: Future Leaders Programme
Organisation: The Resource Alliance
Event date: 4-8 April 2016
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
Disability: 32nd Pacific Rim international conference on disability and diversity
Organisation: Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Event date: 25-26 April 2016
Location: Honolulu, United States
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EMPLOYMENT
CRIN: Middle East and North Africa Intern
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Bethlehem, Palestine
Open Society Foundation: Programme Officer - Early Childhood Programme
Location: London, United Kingdom
Application deadline: 30 January 2016
JARGON OF THE WEEK
Promoting the use of clear language among children's rights advocates
In this week’s Jargon of the Week we’ll let The Guardian do the talking, as it looks at how NGO-speak - as if it wasn’t bad enough - has become overrun with corporate buzzwords. So don’t be surprised if you hear NGOs discussing innovation and paradigm shifts as they try to ideate and share deliverables during cluster meetings -- it’s the corporate lingo talking.
More of the corporate jargon here.
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