CRINmail 1473

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Teen set for execution in Iran

A young Iranian man on death row for an offence carried out when he was a child, has been told that he will be executed soon after 1 April, warns Amnesty International. Himan Uraminejad was sentenced to death in August 2012 after he was convicted of fatally stabbing a boy during a fight, when he was 17 years old. The judicial proceedings that led to Himan’s conviction were riddled with due process violations. His interrogations were conducted without a lawyer present, he is believed to have been tortured while in police detention, and his trial was held before an adult court, without special juvenile justice protections. No investigation is known to have been carried out into his allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.

Abuse, transparency and accountability

Turkey’s parliament has agreed to set up a commission of inquiry into child sex abuse following reports that at least eight children were raped by their teacher in apartments rented by the state-funded religious school system the Ensar Foundation. The teacher was arrested on 4 March and a ban on media coverage was imposed on the investigation on 14 March. Allegations of a government cover-up exploded on social media with unconfirmed reports that as many as 45 children may have been abused in the apartments. The ruling AKP party initially rejected the proposal to form the parliamentary commission, which is responsible for investigating future cases of child abuse in the country, describing the alleged rape cases as “a one-off incident” that “cannot be a reason to defame our foundation which stands out for its services”. But the Ensar Foundation has faced allegations of child sex abuse in the past. The 15-member, four-party inquiry commission is expected to produce findings and recommendations in three months’ time.

Former vice president of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Jean-Pierre Bemba has been convicted of war crimes, marking the first time a high level official has been found guilty for crimes committed by his subordinates at the International Criminal Court. The Court recounted graphic detail of the alleged crimes in its judgment, describing the rape of children as young as 10 by Bemba’s forces while he was a member of an armed group in 2002 and 2003. The ICC case is also the first to focus primarily on crimes of sexual violence committed in war. According to Judge Sylvia Steiner, Bemba failed to restrain or discipline the soldiers, allowing them to continue committing the crimes. Bemba is expected to appeal the verdict, possibly causing the trial to drag on for several more years. DRC has also made the news recently in relation to rapes carried out in Central African Republic by UN peacekeepers, with UN officials allegedly warning that DRC troops had a history of sexually abusing local populations.

Children in Uzbekistan continue to be used in the annual cotton harvest, according to the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, which documents pressure to work on under-18s as a persistent feature of the country’s annual harvest. While officials, schools and colleges are aware that children should not be used for the labour, many do recruit children to help with picking the plant, when they are forced to put their own lives on hold for weeks at a time under the threat of dismissal or harassment. One teacher explained that while the rules were clear on paper the reality was very different, saying: “We send them to the harvest anyway. The harvest requires a lot of people. And that’s why we send [children]. Even though it’s not like it used to be, with overnight shifts, we send them for daily shifts, there is no other way”. As well as the coercion of students in educational institutions several people interviewed for the report also noted that some children chose to skip school to help their parents in the fields, while school administrators ignored the truancy.
 

Call to stop criminalising drug use

An international commission of medical experts is calling for governments around the world to stop criminalising drug use, arguing that current policies lead to violence, deaths and the spread of disease, harming health and human rights. The commission, set up by medical journal The Lancet and Johns Hopkins University, published its report on the eve of a special session of the UN devoted to drugs, urging a reversal of the repressive policies imposed by most governments. “The global ‘war on drugs’ has harmed public health, human rights and development. It’s time for us to rethink our approach to global drug policies, and put scientific evidence and public health at the heart of drug policy discussions,” said the medial experts. The commission calls on the UN to back decriminalisation of minor, non-violent drug offences involving the use, possession and sale of small quantities. Military force against drug networks should be phased out, it says, and policing should be better targeted on the most violent armed criminals.

A coalition of child rights organisations has released a joint statement outlining concerns around the upcoming UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, including for the failure of the current draft outcome document to address children’s rights issues.  To sign on, email [email protected].

Early and forced marriage

A court in Saudi Arabia has annulled a marriage between an 84-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, ruling that it was illegal. The case came to light after the groom said he wanted to divorce the girl after she refused to consummate the marriage. The presiding judge also referred the officer who performed the marriage to the prosecution. While the minimum age for marriage in the country is 16 years for girls, the judge also said that no marriages where there is a considerable age difference between the bride and groom should be performed. 

In the United States, the Utah Supreme Court has cleared the way for a woman to sue the leader of a polygamous sect after he forced her to marry her cousin when she was 14 years old. In 2007 Elissa Wall’s testimony helped to convict Warren Jeffs, former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in 2007 as an accomplice to her rape, though the verdict was later overturned on a technicality. But following the Utah court’s decision, Wall can now seek millions of dollars in damages from the sect’s communal property trust, United Effort Plan, which has an estimated worth of $110m. The court’s decision comes as the federal government goes after the sect on multiple fronts, including on child labour.

Armed conflict takes its toll

Hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen are facing life-threatening malnutrition and millions lack access to healthcare or clean water due to the ongoing conflict in the country, UNICEF has warned in a new report. All sides in the war had "exponentially increased" the coercive use of child soldiers, with 848 documented cases of boys as young as 10 being forced to fight, according to the report. UNICEF has confirmed that 934 children have been killed and 1,356 injured as a direct consequence of the conflict, but says they are "only a tip of the iceberg". "Basic services and infrastructure in Yemen are on the verge of total collapse," it said, noting attacks on schools, hospitals and the water and sanitation system. Nearly half of Yemen's 22 provinces are on the verge of famine and over 13 million people need food aid. An estimated 320,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition.

Sudan has signed a UN action plan that will establish new measures to protect children from armed conflict. Under the new agreement, Sudan's national security forces will put an end to child recruitment and release all children currently enlisted. The Sudanese government has promised to cooperate with the UN and appoint members to ensure the proper implementation of the action plan. Furthermore, the minister has stated his commitment to strengthening principles of the Child Act of 2010 and the Sudan Armed Forces Act of 2007. With the new action plan, Sudan became the latest country to join a worldwide campaign to end child recruitment for national security purposes.

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CASE STUDY FROM PERU: Abortion guidelines established after 90-year delay

A 13-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped was denied a legal abortion, even though her physical and mental health were in danger. She was left paralysed; but thanks to her case, Peru now has a protocol on therapeutic abortion and the UN has recognised the denial of a legal abortion as a form of discrimination against women. Read the case study here. 

CRIN’s collection of case studies illustrates different approaches to using the law in children’s rights advocacy. Throughout the world advocates are changing legislation and societies for the better through what is known as strategic litigation - when a case seeks broader impact than simply bringing justice in a case at hand. Looking at how these efforts work in practice, CRIN is interviewing those involved in cases and looking at their outcomes and the impact they created. We will highlight both successful cases and less successful ones - which have still had an impact - to allow advocates to learn from previous efforts to challenge children’s rights abuses. 

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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

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

Call for submissions: 8th Child in the City conference
Organisation: Child in the City
Submission deadline: 29 April 2016
Event date: 7-9 November 2016
Location: Ghent, Belgium

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

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

LEAK OF THE WEEK

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