CRINmail 1468
In this issue:
Latest news and reports
- Children's access to justice
- Media censorship & over-blocking
- Disability & victim discrimination
- Juvenile justice & detention
- Violence in all spheres
- UN annual day on children's rights
Upcoming events
Employment
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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Children’s access to justice
Last week CRIN launched Rights, Remedies and Representation: A global report on access to justice for children, which analyses how countries have enshrined children’s ability to use the legal system to challenge abuses of their rights and seek redress. The report was accompanied by a global ranking of countries, in which Belgium took the top position, and Kenya was the only country outside of Europe to make it into the top ten. CRIN has received feedback from several States, responded to each of them and invited them to discuss access to justice in their countries, as well as how they could address any concerns raised about their legal systems. You can read more about the report and see the global map and ranking on the Access to Justice section of our website.
Further information:
Media censorship and internet over-blocking
Indonesia’s media regulation body has banned television and radio programmes from showing the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as “normal”, in a move it claims will protect children from “deviant” behaviour. Earlier this month national broadcasting commission (KPI) officials expressed their intention to block the content, as children are “prone to duplicating LGBT behaviour,” in a meeting joined by the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, whose spokesperson said young boys who cross-dress or adopt traditionally feminine characteristics had been “brainwashed” by television programmes. KPI says positive representations of LGBT people violate the code of conduct for broadcasters, which requires programmes to respect values and norms of “decency and civility”, and bans those portraying “inappropriate behaviour”.
France’s top court of administrative justice has upheld a decree allowing blocking of websites that support terrorism or distribute images of child sexual abuse, despite claims from civil society that it violates international law on freedom of expression. “Website blocking is a severe form of censorship. It's like using a trawler net rather than a fishing line - it catches legitimate content at the same time as content that may be legitimately prohibited. There's an inherent risk of over-blocking which therefore leads to unnecessary and unjustifiable restrictions on freedom of expression,” explained Pierre-François Docquir, senior legal officer at ARTICLE 19, which submitted a brief to the court, in support of a group of French associations on digital rights which challenged the decree. These said that while lawmakers’ aims are fair, the decree itself does not comply with the condition in international law that all restrictions on freedom of expression should be proportionate.
Disability and victim discrimination
Women and girls rescued after being kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria face being rejected by their families and communities, who treat them with suspicion over fears they have become supporters of the Islamist extremists, according to a new report by International Alert and UNICEF. The mistrust can turn to persecution if a former captive gives birth to a child after being raped by members of Boko Haram, the report’s authors point out. Locals, they explain, see the babies as being infected with “bad blood”, as they believe the children will grow up to become like their fathers. “The child of a snake is a snake,” goes a local saying. Referred to as annoba meaning “epidemic”, many of the women are pushed into poverty, and some turn to prostitution to avoid homelessness and to provide for their babies. The organisations say the findings show the need to better reintegrate those returning from captivity and provide them with support, including for trauma from kidnapping and sexual violence.
Young disabled children born in Australia to parents from New Zealand are denied access to the national healthcare programme for people with disabilities because of special visa conditions for New Zealanders. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is open to persons who are either citizens or permanent residents; yet New Zealand natives are subject to a special visa categorisation whereby they are classed as ‘temporary’ residents, despite the fact that they may remain in Australia for decades in accordance with it, as well as paying the NDIS levy as part of their Australian taxes. The rule, in force since 2001, was passed in an effort to limit New Zealand citizens coming to Australia and immediately accessing welfare. Children born in these circumstances cannot become Australian citizens until they turn 10 years old, so younger children cannot access the scheme.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, a boy with autism born to Belgian parents has been refused residency on health grounds. In 2014-15 alone, the country’s immigration authorities, which assess the ongoing and future health burden on public services of a migrant person with health needs, denied 116 residency applications on medical grounds.
Juvenile justice and detention
In a case of mistaken identity in Egypt, a military court sentenced a four-year-old boy to life in prison for murder, destruction of property and the incitement of riots. Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali was convicted along with 115 others for their alleged involvement in violent protests in the Egyptian province of Fayoum in 2014. At the time the alleged events took place, he would have been one-and-a-half years old. Before the court acknowledged its mistake, it had refused to accept proof of the child’s age during proceedings, according to the child’s defence lawyer. Still of concern, however, is that it was a 16-year-old boy who the court meant to convict and sentence to life imprisonment.
Europe’s first guide to monitoring respect for children’s rights in places where children are deprived of liberty was released last week as part of the Children’s Rights Behind Bars regional project. The guide is the result of research conducted in 14 European countries, which found there is a lack of monitoring and complaints mechanisms to ensure detention is used only as a last resort, that living conditions in detention facilities are appropriate, and that children are protected from abuse and have contact with the outside world.
Violence in all spheres
In Lebanon, a 12-year-old domestic worker was set alight by her employers after having been repeatedly abused, in a case which has fuelled calls on the government to do more to protect the rights of domestic workers. The case is just one of many in Lebanon where members of the employer’s family have been found to have taken part in extreme acts of torture of domestic workers, often young migrant women. In response, there have been increasing calls for legal provisions to be implemented where child domestic workers can safely report abusive employers to the relevant authorities in order to allow them to be rescued. Despite these calls, and even though new domestic labour legislation has been drafted by the government intending to provide and guarantee basic rights to domestic workers, these provisions have yet to be implemented after a series of delays.
In eastern Ukraine, hundreds of schools have been attacked by both government forces and Russian-backed militants in the past two years, forcing many of them to close, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Schools on both sides of the front line have been hit, with many in rebel-controlled areas remaining too damaged to reopen. Both sides have deployed forces in and near schools, turning them into military targets. When military forces have occupied schools, they have often destroyed school furniture and equipment as well as leaving behind heavy artillery or unused munitions. In one case, HRW researchers found undetonated landmines in the school grounds, apparently thrown off a supply truck while it was parked in the schoolyard. Local authorities and school administrators in many places also told researchers that the risk of renewed fighting made them reluctant to fund or carry out school renovations.
In the United States, a loophole allowing the importation of fish caught using forced labour is to be closed with the signing of a new law on port regulations. The move follows other efforts from federal agencies and international trade unions to better protect the rights of offshore workers, many of whom are under 18. The bill ends an exemption under the US Tariff Act allowing goods made by slaves to be imported if consumer demand cannot be met without them, a measure senators have recently described as “an outrage”. The problem of slavery is particularly prevalent in some areas, including Southeast Asia, where indentured labour, including that of children, abounds in the open seas, where exploitation, slavery and the risk of death on fishing vessels is commonplace, according to a New York Times series called The Outlaw Ocean.
Children are being used by so-called Islamic State as suicide bombers and in combat roles at an unprecedented rate according to new research. The study, carried out at Georgia State University, revealed that the death rate for under-18s fighting for the terror group has doubled since the start of 2015. Reports also suggest that the group is looking to train future generations of fighters from as young an age as possible, creating special training camps for young children.
UN day on the rights of the child
All next week CRIN will be reporting live from the UN Human Rights Council’s 31st session in Geneva, where on Monday the Council will hold its annual day on the rights of the child under the theme of information and communication technologies and sexual exploitation. We will provide daily round-ups of discussions in our newsletter on Children’s Rights at the UN, which you can subscribe to here. You can also follow our live coverage on Twitter at @CRINwire and the hashtag #HRC31.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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
Film: Int'l Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights
Organisation: Various
Event date: 4-13 May 2016
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Film: Human Rights Watch film festival
Organisation: HRW
Dates: 9 March - 18 November 2016
Location: London, Toronto, New York, Nairobi
Violence: Child abuse linked to a belief in witchcraft and juju
Organisation: AFRUCA
Date: 10 March 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom
Advocacy: International Children's Peace Prize 2016
Organisation: KidsRights
Nomination deadline: 14 March 2016
Location: N/A
Alternative care: Improving standards of care - systems, policies & practices
Organisation: Udayan Care
Date: 18-19 March 2016
Location: Noida, India
Americas: Requests for hearings & working meetings at the IACHR 157th session
Organisation: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Dates: 2-15 April 2016
Location: Washington DC, United States
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
Child rights: Online foundation course on children's rights
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Event date: 27 April - 7 June 2016
Location: Online
Child rights: Online course on child safeguarding
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Event date: 27 April - 7 June 2016
Location: Online
Child rights: Geneva summer school on children's rights
Organisation: University of Geneva
Course dates: 6-17 June 2016
Application deadline: 1 May 2016
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
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EMPLOYMENT
CRIN: Legal Research Assistant
Application deadline: 29 February 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom
CRIN: Middle East and North Africa Intern
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Bethlehem, Palestine
SOS Children's Villages International: Consultant - 'Training professionals working with children in care'
Application deadline: 26 February 2016
Location: N/A
IFEX: Head of Member and Network Development
Application deadline: 29 February 2016
Location: Toronto, Canada
Save the Children Sweden: Director Humanitarian Section
Application deadline: 1 March 2016
Location: Stockholm Sweden
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LEAK OF THE WEEK
Children: protect yourselves from being recruited into violent extremism! How? By playing a video game of a goat trying to dodge blocks. Phew. Well that was easy - at least according to the FBI which came up with the idea.
Called “The Slippery Slope to Violent Extremism,” the game involves a running goat that players manoeuvre to the left and right to avoid hitting blocks, which apparently represent violent extremists, albeit in abstract form because of the lack of humanoid resemblance. The game is part of the FBI’s theme Don't Be a Puppet, which encourages children not to blindly accept the views of violent extremists but to carefully think through the issues.
In the game, if users hit a block too many times, their goat gets K.O.-ed and they lose the game. It’s at this moment that players are advised to “AVOID DISTORTED LOGIC” like “the use of violence is the only way to defend our beliefs” and “our violent actions will result in a better future.” While the message rings true, what a running goat playing dodgeball with giant blocks has to do with the issue, we don't know.
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