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In this issue:

LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Status offences and children’s rights

Following the International Day for Street Children on 12 April CRIN is today launching a revised edition of its status offences paper. Street children are often criminalised for not having a home and trying to make a living on the street, but there are many other examples of laws that make certain acts legal for adults, but illegal for children.

The third edition of the global report on status offences addresses the ways that these offences have developed, the new forms they have taken and how laws that do not exclusively target children can indirectly criminalise young people based on their age. The report builds on the content of the first edition of the report published in 2009, but also includes new topics such as the use of technology, purchasing of alcohol and tobacco, and sexting, as well as examples of how these laws and practices have been challenged.

Even when a status offence does not single out children they will often be disproportionately affected. Status offences target what adults consider to be problematic behaviour in children, but acceptable once above the age of majority, placing limits on children's activity that would not be tolerated by adults. Status offences not only fail to respect children's rights, they are in conflict with children's best interests, are a form of age discrimination and should be eliminated.

Read the full report.

Also read CRIN’s submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the development of the General Comment on children in street situations.

 

Drugs, criminalisation and harm reduction

Next week the UN is convening the largest gathering on drug policy in two decades, called for by States hoping that a General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) will salvage a positive outcome from the political, social and economic wreckage of the failed global war on drugs. The preparatory process has left many observers taking a pessimistic view, as the final draft of the UNGASS outcome document does not mention many key drug-related challenges facing the world today and fails to offer rights-based solutions to address them. As such, the UNGASS process is now perilously close to representing a systemic failure of the UN system.

A joint statement by CRIN and others calls for amendments to include a commitment by Member States not to criminalise children for drug use and to respect and implement access to justice standards. It further calls for UN reviews of States’ human rights records to 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.

Read the joint statement by CRIN and others for UNGASS (19-21 April, 2016) in English and Spanish.

Climate change lawsuit in Pakistan

A seven-year-old girl is behind a climate change lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Rabab Ali, by way of her father and environmental lawyer Qazi Ali Athar, asserts in the petition that the federal government and the Province of Sindh have violated the public trust doctrine, a legal principle requiring a State to ensure the preservation of natural areas and resources for future generations. The petition claims that the exploitation and continued promotion of fossil fuels, particularly coal, violate the doctrine, as well as children’s right to life, liberty, property, human dignity, information, and equal protection of the law. Qazi Ali Athar laments that, despite Pakistan being “rich in renewable energy sources”, the “most environmentally degrading and carbon intensive fuels’ continue to be exploited at the expense of future generations”. This case is the latest in a line of similar constitutional challenges globally, including the precedent-setting case in the US state of Washington which recently asked judges to step in once again after the Department of Ecology failed to honour its proposal to reduce carbon emissions in a timely manner.

Read CRIN’s case study on the Washington case.

 

Rights violations in armed conflict

The trial of three Congolese soldiers who allegedly sexually abused women and children in the Central African Republic while in a UN peacekeeping role has begun. These trials are the first related to a string of abuse complaints against UN peacekeepers and are expected to take several months to complete, with around 100 other complaints of sexual abuse by 'blue helmets' in CAR still outstanding. Also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a further 11 Tanzanian soldiers are facing paternity suits related to similar abuses carried out while deployed as UN peacekeepers. New allegations show no sign of stopping as the trials finally begin, with reports from the Code Blue Campaign suggesting that among the long list of victims four girls may have been tied up and raped by a dog on the directions of a French military commander. 

Grave violations of children’s rights have taken place in Yemen, according to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for children and armed conflict, with under-18s recruited to fight and die by all parties. The SRSG said the past year has seen 900 children killed, at least 848 recruited to take part in hostilities, and 115 attacks carried out on schools and hospitals. A truce which officially started on Sunday night has seen most fighting stop across the country, with peace talks set to begin on 18 April in Kuwait between the Yemeni government, its coalition of Saudi Arabia-led allies, and Houthi rebels who are battling for control of the country. The Saudi coalition has repeatedly come under fire for their alleged targeting of civilian buildings, with the deliberate destruction of schools, potentially keeping a generation of Yemeni children out of the classroom.

 

Detention, health and violence

The rate of attempted suicide among juveniles held in young offenders institutions in Chile increased by a staggering 91 percent since cases began to be recorded in 2011. In the latter half of 2014 there were 22 reported cases of attempted suicide and 42 in the same months of the following year, according to figures released by the national commission which oversees juvenile detention centres.

The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces has more than doubled since October 2015, with police being accused of usingunnecessary force and violent interrogations on the children, according to Human Rights Watch. The news comes as Israeli authorities announced the release of a 12-year-old Palestinian girl believed to be the youngest ever female prisoner detained by Israel. In other news, a military court hascleared an Israeli colonel of shooting dead a Palestinian boy last year in the West Bank after he threw a stone at the colonel’s vehicle. The army alleged that the soldier had opened fire “in response to the imminent danger”, but a video showed the shots were fired as the boy was running away. Human rights group B’Tselem blasted the decision as a “whitewash”.

Lawmakers in El Salvador have revived talks about trying children as adults in court for involvement with gangs. The country’s Attorney General, Douglas Meléndez, is the latest to add his support for the proposal, calling it a “necessity” and that current legislation “limits us”, despite criticism that changes would violate international law. The proposal is a heavy-handed response to an issue in which children represent only a small minority. In the last 15 months, 156,250 people were prosecuted for criminal offences, with only 6.38 percent of these being under-18s. Of the 12,231 who were convicted, 8.79 percent were children. 

 

UN elections

This week in New York UN Member States are meeting with candidates hoping to be the next Secretary-General, marking the first time in the UN’s history elections for the role have been accessible to the public and civil society. The President of the General Assembly will also ask the candidates a selection of the more than 1,000 questions submitted by civil society from 70 countries worldwide. The final choice of questions was agreed on by a selection committee of which CRIN was a member. The sessions will be webcast live on UN Web TV, and you can read thecandidates’ resumes and vision statements. The 1 for 7 Billion campaign is providing live coverage of the meetings on Twitter.

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MINIMUM AGES: Children's right to vote

Following the launch of CRIN’s discussion paper on minimum ages, we will be providing weekly snippets of a children’s rights issue where age thresholds are applied. This week, we look at the right to vote. 

Children systematically have no say in the decisions that govern their lives simply because of their age. Not having the right to vote excludes them from the democratic process and is a major reason why their rights continue to go unfulfilled. The arguments used to deny children the vote are easily quashed: a family’s electoral preferences can influence a voter whether we are 10, 20, 50 or 80 years of age; and claims of lack of capacity and sound judgement were also used to deny women the vote in the past (and present in some places). Such arguments are arbitrary and ignore the wide range of skills and competencies possessed by different children. That a child is interested in politics and voting is indication enough of capacity and potential. Individuals of all ages should be allowed to vote as and when they choose to do so and whenever they choose to register for voting.

Read more on the issue on page 9 of CRIN’s discussion paper on minimum ages. The paper draws out some general principles and criteria to ensure consistent and adequate respect for children’s rights in setting such ages. 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Americas: 157th session of the IACHR
Organisation: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Dates: 2-15 April 2016
Location: Washington DC, United States

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
Deadline for travel subsidies & poster applications: 1 May 2016 
Event dates: 3-5 October 2016
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Funding opportunity: Grants for capacity building in child protection systems and legal professionals representing children
Organisation: European Commission
Application deadline: 5 May 2016 

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
Application deadline: 1 May 2016
Course dates: 6-17 June 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

Justice: Juvenile justice in Europe - Past, present and future? 
Organisation: University of Liverpool et al
Date: 26-27 May 2016
Location: Liverpool, United Kingdom

Investment: Why Europe needs to invest in children
Organisation: Eurochild
Date: 5-7 July 2016
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Statelessness: StatelessKids Youth Congress
Organisation: European Network on Statelessness
Dates: 11-13 July 2016
Location: Brussels, Belgium 

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: Web Manager and IT Support
Location: London, United Kingdom
Application deadline: Until filled

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

Media Monitoring Africa: Children's Project Facilitator
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Application deadline: 19 April 2016

Council of Europe: Programme Advisor (children’s rights division)
Location: Strasbourg, France
Application deadline: 30 April 2016

Child Soldiers International: Trustees
Location: N/A
Application deadline: 3 May 2016

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia: Representative for Children and Youth
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Application deadline: 6 May 2016

Afghanistan Mother and Child: Trustees
Location: London, United Kingdom
Location: Bethlehem, Palestine

LEAK OF THE WEEK

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