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Summary: Daily updates on child rights at the 61st
Session of the UN Commission on Human
Rights
No 7 – Thursday 7 April 05
Children Have Rights Too!
Child rights at the 61st Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
LATEST NEWS – Annan: Commission Casts a shadow on the UN
Kofi Annan today addressed the Commission to present some of his plans
for reform of the Human Rights system. Regarding the Commission, he
said “we have reached a point at which the Commission’s declining
credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the UN system as a
whole… a Human Rights Council would offer a fresh start”.
The Council, as he proposes it, would be a standing body that would “be
able to meet when necessary… its main task would be to evaluate the
fulfillment by all states of all their human rights obligations”. In terms of
membership, he proposes that they are elected by a two-thirds majority,
by the GA, and that those elected should have a solid record of
commitment to the highest human rights standards”.
CHILDREN'S HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS – trafficking of Children
This morning’s guest speaker was Ms. Sigma Huda, Special Rapporteur on
Trafficking in persons, especially in women and children. Her mandate, she
explained, is very wide and so is the definition of trafficking. Affecting
children, are the following issues: prostitution, camel jockeys, international
adoption, sale of organs, post-conflict situations, natural disasters, and
internal political disturbances.
There was a brief discussion about the effects of natural disasters, such as
the Tsunami in Asia. In such situations, children are at risk of being
separated from their parents, or orphaned, and you have so-called ‘do-
gooders’ who will take advantage of these situations. Generally speaking,
the SR strongly believes that children should not be put up for
international adoptions, where possible, relatives should care for orphans,
or foster families. She also said that a priority in emergency situations, is
to get children back to school or provide at least some sort of education so
they can regain a sense of normality.
In the future, she wishes to visit Africa, and look at cases of child soldiers.
She has sent a request to Nigeria, and is waiting for a response.
Otherwise, she would like to visit Latin America, then Asia. She is
interested in looking at the routes of traffickers, so where they originate,
what are the transit countries, where is the demand, and where are
trafficked people being taken.
NGOs’ input is vital, whether for cases of individual complaints, or general
issues to highlight, or useful data; contact: Email: vbirga@ohchr.org, or
visit the website:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/trafficking/index.htm
NGO SIDE EVENT: “Combating and preventing child pornography on the
internet”
This event was organised by the International Catholic Child Bureau and
co-sponsored by ECPAT. Juan Miguel Petit, the Special Rapporteur on the
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, spoke first and
explained that for a long time, crimes on the Internet looked like
something distant from reality, and far from some of the more urgent
problems faced by children, such as access to health, education, etc.
Vernon Jones, from Save the Children's Hotline programme, talked about
the difficulty in identifying child victims. Working with Interpol, a database
has been set up to include photos of victims. Out of 20,000 children, only
297 so far have been identified. It is possible to find perpetrators, but only
when NGOs, Interpol, national law enforcement agencies, and social
services co-operate and treat these cases as serious crimes. Psychological
trauma is the next issue that needs attention. The effects of abuse and
the fact that those photos, once on the Internet, can never be removed,
can be very traumatic for children.
Ernie Allen, President and CEO of the International Centre for Missing and
Exploited Children talked about the "Dublin Plan" and the Global Campaign
to Combat Child Pornography. The Dublin Plan established several key
points: in many countries, there was little knowledge about how to deal
with such cases. Training was therefore organised around the world.
A 'Cyber Tip Line' was set up for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), for the
public, etc. to report pornography, this was also complemented by
collaboration between law enforcement agencies such as Interpol,
Europol, FBI, etc. to gather expertise. They also involved credit card
companies to make it harder to purchase pornography over the internet.
Finally, research is being undertaken to establish what legislation exists
and where. The report of the SR is available at www.crin.org/chr
NGO SIDE EVENT: “Global Progress to End All Corporal Punishment”
This event organised by OMCT, and moderated by its President Ms. E
Reusse-Decrey, emphasised some of the recent trends in the EU, whereby
the European Committee has proclaimed the EU as a “corporal punishment
free zone”. Mr. P S Pinheiro, independent expert, gave the participants an
overview of the legal progress to end corporal punishment and expressed
the importance to include the issue on legal reform in the UN Study on
Violence. Mr. J E Doek, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
talked about the Committee’s firm position on seeing corporal punishment
as one expression of violence against children. He and Ms. A
Vandekerckhove, from the Children’s Rights Commission for the Flemish
Community, gave examples of developments in Holland and Belgium. She
believes that campaigns to change public opinion, parallel to legal reforms,
are two important strategies to end corporal punishment.
Mr. P. Newell gave an overview of the problems of the social and legal
acceptance of corporal punishment, and as Mr. Pinheiro stressed, children
are the only human beings not being legally protected from violence. Mr.
Newell explained the complexity of individual complaints systems for
children, and gave examples of the positive sides of a collective complaint
system as the one established in the European Committee on Social
Rights, Article 17. The protection of children that have been victims of
corporal punishment is a fundamental issue.
PLENARY SESSION: Item 13, rights of the child
This item has still not started and will start tomorrow. Owing to the delay,
the Plenary session will start at 9AM and run until 6PM.
For detailed reports, visit : http://www.crin.org/chr/reports.htm
COMING UP – Friday 8 April
13 – 15, Room XXII: General briefing with the Special Rapporteur on
trafficking in persons, especially women and children, organised by
OHCHR/DPI
13 – 15, Room XXIII: “Global Progress to End All Corporal Punishment”,
Panel with focus on the legal aspect of corporal punishment with Mr.
Pinheiro, Mr. P Newell and other experts. Organised by OMCT.
Full agenda is available online at: http://www.crin.org/chr/agenda.htm
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This update has been produced by the Child Rights Information Network,
in collaboration with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, Subgroup for the Commission on Human Rights. These updates
are also available at the following link: www.crin.org/chr/news. You can
sign up to receive these by email. Send an email to: childrightscaucus_chr-
subscribe@domeus.co.uk . Further information about the 61st Session is
available on the CRIN website at: www.crin.org/chr. To submit information,
contact Veronica Yates on vyates@crin.org. CRIN, c/o Save the Children, 1,
St John’s Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK.
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