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In this issue:

LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Children call for right to vote

Under-18s in the United Kingdom have protested against not being able to vote in last week’s referendum on the country’s membership to the European Union (EU). A narrow majority of voters opted to leave the EU, with the older demographic coming out ahead of young voters who were overwhelmingly in favour of remaining part of the EU. But in a referendum that promises to define the country’s political and economic landscape for generations to come, some young protesters took to the streets in objection to not being given a say in their future, despite the fact that they would be the most affected by the decision.

Prior to the referendum the proposal to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to take part in the vote was rejected by the lower house of Parliament. Had they been allowed to vote, the result would have been entirely different, a survey revealed. Some politicians continue to use generalised claims that under-18s should not get the right to vote because they are not interested in politics. But the opposite was demonstrated in Scotland’s 2015 independence referendum in which 90 percent of young people registered to vote. Such a turnout prompted the voting age in Scotland to be lowered to 16. Also read why an age threshold should not be applied with regard to the right to vote in this paper on minimum ages.

In addition to civil rights concerns, the organisation Eurochild also called on the European Council to prioritise children’s best interests in discussions this week on the outcome of the UK’s referendum.

Getting health issues right

Campaign groups have criticised an article on female genital mutilation by The Economist magazine which argues that “minor” forms of the practice should be allowed to prevent extreme harm from the more invasive forms. The article says there has been slow progress in eradicating FGM and that, rather than imposing blanket bans against all forms of the practice, governments should “permit [forms of FGM] that cause no long-lasting harm”, labelling some forms of FGM as “merely bad”. NGOs which sent a letter to the Economist condemning the article as “dangerous and entirely unfounded”, say it contains “many misguided assumptions” and “discredits the experiences of women who have undergone FGM”. Meanwhile on male circumcision, the article also claims the practice “causes no lasting pain or impairment” unless it is botched and that “activists focus on unhygienic traditional versions”. But bodily integrity activists in fact argue that routine circumcision of young boys, in any setting, violates their rights because it is performed without their consent and exposes them to unnecessary health risks ranging from haemorrhaging, infection, amputation and even death.

The United States Supreme Court has said lawmakers may not put an “undue burden” on women who seek abortion, a decision that overturns a restrictive abortion law in Texas and which is likely to block or void similar laws in about two dozen other states. The court’s opinion concluded that the Texas bill, which set unnecessarily strict health regulations spuriously based on safeguarding women’s health, did little to protect them. The law had forced about half of the state’s abortion clinics to close, and if fully implemented would have reduced the number from 40 before 2013 to nine. Women’s rights activists welcomed the decision as the most significant abortion ruling since 1992, when the Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion but gave states leeway to regulate the procedure so long as they did not impose an “undue burden” on women’s rights.

China’s education ministry has ordered the removal of “toxic” school running tracks after a report alleged that industrial waste was used in their construction and children fell ill using the sports facilities. Authorities said environmental protection and quality watchdogs would inspect newly-built synthetic tracks and order ones that did not meet safety standards to be removed. The move comes after incidents at schools in various cities where children suffered nosebleeds, dizzy spells and coughing after breathing in pollutants coming from the tracks, raising safety fears about the materials used to build them. State-run media has reported that some of the substandard running tracks were made using industrial waste including scrap car tires, wires and cables. Tests at one school found that the running track leaked toxicity levels above European safety standards.

Gender and ethnic discrimination

The Supreme Court of Namibia ruled last week that non-Namibians living in Namibia on the basis of an employment permit can be considered to be ordinarily resident and thus pass on their citizenship to their children. The ruling overturned a High Court decision in which a boy was denied Namibian citizenship, despite his parents having lived there for three years before his birth and it being the only place he had ever lived. The Dutch couple’s younger son, born in 2012, was granted citizenship at birth and the pair challenged the courts as to why their older son, born in 2009, should not have the same legal status. The decision marks an important change in interpretation of what it means to be ‘ordinarily resident’ in the country and will allow others to settle in the country without fear of growing up without legal recognition of their identity.

In the United States a Kansas teenager has been fired from work reportedly for asking for the same pay as her male co-worker. The girl claimed that she had been given a job paying $8 per hour, whereas a coworker with the same skills and experience was working the same job for $8.25 per hour. After asking about the difference and questioning their manager both employees were fired, allegedly for discussing their wages. After an investigation the company released a statement saying that the pay dispute was an error by their manager, who has now left the company. Both were offered an apology and their jobs back.

British football fans disgraced themselves in France by taunting and humiliating Romani children on the streets of Lille while drinking in preparation for their Euro 2016 matches. A Russian journalist captured footage of drunken fans jeering and throwing coins at a group of children, while other sources claim that children were made to drink beer in return for small change by abusive supporters. The European Roma Rights Centre wrote to the national and European football associations and the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport calling for the fans to be identified and punished for the public humiliation they subjected the children to, noting that other racist and xenophobic attacks had also been carried out before and during the course of the tournament against Romani women and children.

Violence and protection

Twenty-five children were reportedly killed during airstrikes over the weekend on the Islamic State-controlled Syrian town of Quoriya over the weekend, according to UNICEF. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 47 people, including 31 civilians, were killed during Saturday's airstrikes on the town. "Amid an intensification of violence, attacks on children in Syria are becoming commonplace with callous disregard for the lives of children,” said UNICEF. “Nothing justifies attacks on children - no matter where they are - nor under whose control they live,” added the humanitarian aid body. According to UN figures, the Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 200,000 people and displaced nearly half of the population. Many of those remaining in besieged areas face limited access to water, sanitation and food. As the summer months approach, UNICEF emergency communication specialist Toby Fricker said "Water has been used as a weapon of war, with parties to the conflict deliberately cutting supplies.”

Ahead of upcoming August elections in Zambia, suspected supporters of the ruling Patriotic Front stormed a school owned by a parliamentary candidate for the opposition United Party for National Development, breaking windows and doors, and beating a number of children. Police say the attack may have been politically motivated. Education Minister John Phiri told reporters in Lusaka: “An attack at the school regardless of the ownership is not only inhuman but barbaric.” Previously the country’s electoral commission threatened to “suspend all political party campaigns and disqualify them [parties or candidates] from the elections” due to growing cases of violence, after clashes between supporters of the ruling PF party and the main opposition UPND.

Earlier this month military police in Brazil shot dead a 10-year-old boy who was driving a stolen car, in what human rights officials say is the latest case of police abuse against the civilian population. Police said they fired in self-defence because the boy was reportedly armed and shot at them from the car. But preliminary forensic investigations indicate no shots were fired from inside the car, as no marks were found from the three shots Italo is alleged to have taken, and investigators have also alleged the crime scene was tampered with. “For us, it is impossible to believe that a 10-year-old boy could drive under fire, operate a gun, open the window to shoot and then close the window again,” said the São Paulo police ombudsperson, Julio Fernandes Neves. “There are clear indications that the military police executed the child,” said São Paulo state human rights attorney Ariel de Castro Alves. An 11-year-old boy who was also in the car but survived said police had beaten and threatened him during interrogation to support the police version of events.

Child rights advocates in New Zealand are urging the government to change the way 17-year-olds are treated in the justice system to stop them being dealt with alongside serious adult offenders. Currently 16-year-olds will be dealt with by the Youth Court and spared adult prison, but "If you're 17 -- you're wearing a school uniform, [are in] full-time education -- and you commit an offence, you can end up in the District Court or you can end up in prison," says Victoria University's Dr Nessa Lynch. An expert advisory panel is recommending that the government raise the age of youth justice to include 17-year-olds and, in certain cases, 18- and 19-year-olds, the latter being based on brain science which shows that a person's frontal cortex is not fully developed until they are around 25. The focus, they say, should be on intervention and rehabilitation, not retribution. The proposed change is part of a complete overhaul of the child, youth and family system.

Also read how one teenager successfully challenged the practice in the UK of treating 17-year-olds as adults in police custody to ensure they have all the rights enjoyed by under-16s who are detained. 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Climate change: Inter-generational Equity, Children’s Rights & the SDGs
Organisation: Voices of Future Generations Programme
Event date: 7 July 2016
Location: London, UK

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

South Asia: Submissions for journal - ‘Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond'
Organisation: Udayan Care
Abstract deadline: 15 July 2016

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

Participation: Young Citizens & Society - Fostering Civic Participation
Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Dates: 2-3 September 2016
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Alternative care: International alternative care conference
Organisation: University of Geneva and Institut de droits l’enfant
Event dates: 3-5 October 2016
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

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EMPLOYMENT

GI-ESCR: Human rights and social services campaigner
Application deadline: 30 June 2016
Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Keeping Children Safe: Global Head of Fundraising and Communications
Application deadline: 4 July 2016
Location: London, United Kingdom

THE LAST WORD

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