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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Child health and hazardous substances

Some of the highest reported recordings of lead contamination in water in the United States are at schools and daycare centres, according to a new investigation by USA Today. The research identified 2,000 cases of excessive lead contamination in water systems across 50 states. Lead poisoning poses a significant health risk, especially to pregnant women and children, and can cause brain damage, attention disorders and other behavioural problems. Cases include an elementary school in Maine that had lead water levels 42 times higher than the recommended limit, while the contamination of the water system at an elementary school in Ithaca, New York was so bad it met the threshold for hazardous waste. The water systems which reported lead levels exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards collectively supplies water to six million people throughout the country.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes is inviting NGOs to submit information for his upcoming report on the extent to which children’s rights inform government policies related to hazardous substances. The report will be presented at the 33rd Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2016. To this end, a questionnaire has been prepared in English, French and Spanish.

First-timers on protection from violence

Mongolia has become the first State in East and Southeast Asia to ban all corporal punishment of children, including in the home. The new Law on Child Protection and the Law on the Rights of Children explicitly prohibit the use of corporal punishment by parents, carers and others, and put an obligation on parents and other adults caring for and educating children to use non-violent discipline. The new provisions will enter into force on 1 September 2016. Forty-nine States worldwide have so far banned all corporal punishment of children in all settings.

For the first time in Morocco’s history, lawmakers have proposed a bill to combat violence against women (VAW). A statement from the government stated that it was the aim of this bill to address the problem “in all its new guises” and that it would be doing so in an effort to uphold and protect the rights affirmed in the Constitution. Human Rights Watch stressed earlier this month the importance of urgently enacting legislation to tackle VAW in the country; this echoed calls from the National Council for Human Rights in Morocco which had stated last year that “6.2 million Moroccan women are victims of violence and that this represents a form of social acceptance of the phenomenon based on a lack of sanctions for perpetrators”. The draft proposes to develop a “clear and precise” definition of VAW in order to ascertain the behaviour to be criminalised. NGOs, however, have criticised the bill for providing a weak definition of domestic violence and for not criminalising marital rape.

From criminalisation to rights recognition

Chile’s Congress has passed a law easing a no-exceptions ban on abortion in force since the Pinochet dictatorship. The new law, which the country’s Senate must now approve, allows for abortion in cases of rape, when a pregnancy poses a risk to the mother life, or when the fetus is no longer considered viable. Chile is among seven Latin American countries that still have a total ban on abortion. The others are El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname. Meanwhile Cuba, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Uruguay allow abortions in cases other than rape, incest or threats to a woman's health.

CRIN and a coalition of child rights organisations have released a joint statement outlining our concerns around the upcoming UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. The joint statement addresses the failure of the current draft outcome document to address children’s rights issues, which is due to be adopted at the UNGASS in April. The signing organisations call for the document to be amended to include a commitment by Member States not to criminalise children for drug use and to respect and implement access to justice standards. Among other measures, that UN reports on States’ human rights records be used to assess the effects of national drug policies, particularly on children; and that research into the impacts of such policies be incorporated into the findings of the next ten-year plan of action. The statement also makes the recommendations to Member States and UN agencies and experts when tackling the world drug problem calling for. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to sign on, including your organisation’s logo.

Armed conflict and ‘radical’ measures

An increasing number of referrals are being made to the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism scheme ‘Channel’ each year, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act this week. Children aged younger than nine were among the 3,955 people reported to the programme in 2015, up from 1,681 referrals in 2014. The statistics from the National Police Chief Council are the first made public since local authorities, prisons, NHS Trusts and schools were ordered to take steps to prevent ‘radicalisation’ in June last year. Researchers have stressed that there remains a lack of clarity on how to spot radicalisation, as behaviours listed under the government’s guidance include normal teenage behaviour, such as changes in dress or not wanting to talk to teachers or parents.

As many as 24 children were among the 100 people killed when bombers from the Saudi-led military coalition struck a market and restaurant in Yemen. Residents said the strike had not targeted any kind of military installations, as there were none nearby, and had simply targeted civilians. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said the attack could be a war crime, recognising that it was one of many attacks which have now killed more than 6,000 people in the year since the start of the war. In northern Yemen, where cities and towns are now frequently attacked, residents have alleged that the Saudi coalition is following a policy of collective punishment in areas under the control or Iranian-backed Houthi groups.

Advertising and children’s right to dignity

In the UK, pupils from a London school are urging organisations to stop using images of children in their adverts and campaigns to inspire sympathy, which they argue is “undignified”. It is not uncommon for children’s organisations to use emotive campaigns to elicit pity and attract donations. But after members of the pupil parliament at Applegarth Academy explored children’s rights and what they think dignity is, “We decided that charities were taking pictures and videos of children who weren’t comfortable,” Jaedon Osei-Bonsu, aged 10 says. “We wrote to lots of charities and Save the Children responded to say they are trying to respect the children’s right to dignity but we don’t think trying is enough.” The pupils raised concerns about whether a child’s informed consent is obtained before their image is used in a campaign, and whether it is ethically correct to use images portraying a child in distress.

Rights issues in school

Teachers in Palestine’s West Bank have been demonstrating for a month over a pay dispute, claiming that the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority failed in its 2013 pledge to give them a 10 percent rise in line with inflation. Schools across the West Bank have closed as a result. Pupils have also joined the protests, with one saying "This is about their [teachers’] rights. They get low salaries and we need to stand with them." Public school teachers’ starting salary is currently 1,700 shekels ($434) a month, with additional payments bringing that figure up to 2,400 shekels each month ($615). But for many it is barely enough to get by on and and so some have taken second jobs. In the midst of this Palestinian primary school teacher Hanan al-Hroub was recently awarded a $1 million prize for teaching excellence, beating  8,000 other applicants from around the world with her emphasis on teaching students about non-violence. Al-Hroub told the Associated Press that she plans to use the cash to fund scholarships for students interested in teaching.

Anti-racism activists in the Netherlands have urged the country’s children’s ombudsperson to denounce the Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) Christmas tradition and its promotion in schools. Every Christmas participants of festive street parades dress up as Zwarte Piet, a trickster figure who accompanies Sinterklaas, the Dutch of Santa Claus, by donning frizzy wigs, applying red paint on their lips and blackening their faces. But the custom is both beloved as a children’s custom and reviled as a racist tradition. In August 2015 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said the practice contains negative stereotypes and is a “vestige of slavery, which is injurious to the dignity and self-esteem of children and adults of African descent”. The majority of primary schools include Zwarte Piet in the curriculum, but some school boards in Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht have either begun to phase out the character from their Sinterklass celebrations or to remove racial references, such as the black face or gold hooped earrings the character wears, which are symbols traditionally associated with slavery. Primary schools in Suriname, a former Dutch colony, removed Zwarte Piet from the curriculum in 2013.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Funding opportunity: Call for proposals from organisations supporting unaccompanied and separated children and youth in Greece
Organisation: European Programme for Integration and Migration - Epim
Application deadline: 31 March 2016
Location: Greece

Call for submissions: 8th Child in the City conference
Organisation: Child in the City
Submission deadline: 31 March 2016
Event date: 7-9 November 2016
Location: Ghent, Belgium

Americas: 157th session of the IACHR
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

Street children: Call for submissions on CRC General Comment on Children in Street Situations
Organisation: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Submission deadline: 12 April 2016
Location: N/A

Summer school: Critical interdisciplinary course on children’s rights
Organisation: Various
Application deadline: 15 April 2016 (for scholarship applicants)
Dates: 28 August - 9 September 2016
Location: Ghent, Belgium

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

Alternative care: International alternative care conference
Organisation: University of Geneva and Institut de droits l’enfant
Event dates: 3-5 October 2016
Deadline for travel subsidies & poster applications: 1 May 2016 
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Business: Call for papers for int'l conference on business & human rights
Organisation: Various
Submission deadline: 5 May 2016
Event date: 20-21 October 2016
Location: Seville, Spain

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

Europe: Exploring a multidisciplinary approach to child-friendly justice in European law
Organisation: Academy of European Law
Date: 5-6 May 2016
Location: Krakow, Poland

Digital rights: Children & young people's rights in the digital age pre-conference
Organisation: Int’l Association for Media & Communication Research
Event date: 26-27 July 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom

Violence: 21st ISPCAN International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect
Organisation: International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN)
Dates: 28-31 August 2016
Location: Calgary, Canada

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EMPLOYMENT

CRIN: Middle East and North Africa Intern
Application deadline: Rolling deadline
Location: Bethlehem, Palestine

IFEX: Consultancy on gender and freedom of expression
Application deadline: 29 March 2016
Location: Toronto or Ottawa, Canada

Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict: Research Officer
Application deadline: 31 March 2016
Location: New York City, United States

Afghanistan Mother and Child: Trustees
Application deadline: N/A
Location: London, United Kingdom

JARGON OF THE WEEK

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