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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.
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- UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders
- UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health care
- UN Special Rapporteur on toxic dumping
- UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
- UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
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Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya
(A/ HRC/19/55/Add.1)
Country visit: 10–21 January 2011
Report published: 6 February 2012
Legislation: As at June 2011, India is a State party to […] the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two Optional Protocols (para 21).
Defenders affected by security legislations and militarization: In the case of Shopian, a girl allegedly gang raped and killed by the military, criminal charges were filed against lawyers, witnesses, doctors and neighbours who pointed to the military. Members of the committee established in her memory, who gathered peacefully, were reportedly physically abused by the Central Reserved Police Force. Passport applications by family members were denied. Similarly, in the case of a girl’s disappearance since 2002, her parents were denied passports. The police allegedly used abusive language against them (para 87).
Student activism: Student activism in Jammu and Kashmir is reportedly banned: students are not allowed to criticize fee hikes. Students in Kashmir are profiled by intelligence services and often branded as separatists, as was the case of one student who was falsely charged and his house raided. Some security forces came to the house of another student, armed with weapons, to intimidate his parents (para 91).
Children rights defenders: Activists working on trafficking of women and children have reportedly been under attack by traffickers and by the state. In March 2010, a group of individuals entered a tuition centre working on issues of forced prostitution and trafficking in Shivdaspur, Uttar Pradesh. They verbally abused staff members present at the premises and threatened that “they would break the arms and legs of anyone who attempted to continue teaching the children there”. A few days later, a group of individuals ransacked the centre, beat staff members and tore their clothes. According to the authorities, the matter pertained to a property dispute which was later amicably resolved (para 108).
The Special Rapporteur recommends that specific attention must be given by all authorities to the categories of human rights defenders mentioned in the present report, in particular […] defenders of child rights (para 138).
Defenders of religious minorities: In Kerala, defenders reportedly face Islamophobia. In Orissa, a defender working with youth Muslim groups was accused by the authorities of working against the state (para 127).
Defenders seeking accountability for communal pogroms: In 2002, Ms. Saribhai was the first activist to file a case against the Government of Gujarat for “genocide” following the Gujarat riot of February 2002. Within 24 hours, Ms. Saribhai received threats, together with her children and colleagues, and a media campaign was led against her (para 129).
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, Paul Hunt
(A/HRC/14/20/Add.2)
Country visit: 22 November - 3 December 2007
Report published: 15 April 2010
Shortage of skilled birth attendants: Auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) are multi-purpose health workers expected to perform a large, diverse range of preventive and curative functions, such as motivation for family planning, immunization, deliveries and treatment of childhood illnesses. For the most part, there is not a significant shortfall of ANMs, for example, a recent report on Rajasthan concluded that in 2007 “there was no acute shortage of ANMs”. (para 27).
In the present context, an especially grave problem is that ANMs do not have the competencies of a skilled birth
Attendant […] Today, their duties are mainly family planning, immunization and antenatal care. Their training has also changed. The new syllabus has less emphasis on midwifery; also, the training has been shortened from 24 to 18 months. As one study concludes, “ANM training today does not prepare [an ANM] for working in rural areas and does not give her skills to provide delivery care”. The international community defines a skilled birth attendant as “an accredited health professional —such as a midwife, doctor or nurse — who has been educated and trained to proficiency in the skills needed to manage normal (uncomplicated) pregnancies, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, and in the identification, management and referral of complications in women and newborns”. According to this definition, today’s ANMs are not skilled birth attendants. India is in breach of its right-to-health obligations because it falls far short of having a sufficient number of skilled birth attendants. (paras 28-30).
Financial incentives for institutional deliveries: The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) initiative, aims to increase the number of institutional (i.e. facility based) deliveries by providing cash incentives to pregnant women. The scheme is especially aimed at enhancing the access of women living in poverty and members of Dalit and tribal communities. The financial assistance is subject to fewer limitations (e.g. age of the woman and number of children) in designated low-performing states, such as Rajasthan (but not Maharashtra). The limitations on financial assistance penalize young women and women with more than two children (paras 47, 50).
Mortality rates: The Sample Registration System, for example, produces annual crude birth and death rates, and the infant mortality rate, but it does not generate yearly rates for maternal deaths. The System reportedly provides inaccurate estimates for maternal deaths. […] The National Rural Health Mission promotes infant and maternal death reviews or audits (paras 67, 71).
Reducing maternal mortality beneficial for children: Maternal mortality reduction is not just a way of saving women’s lives and restoring India’s reputation. It is also a vehicle for establishing an effective health system from which all women, children and men will benefit. So why is it that India’s maternal mortality has not gone down more over the last two or three decades? First, there is a yawning gulf between India’s commendable maternal mortality policies and their implementation, reinforced by robust and independent monitoring, accountability and redress. Second, the problem is aggravated by buck-passing. Under the Constitution, India’s health services are the responsibility of state Governments. The national Government sets the policy framework and provides financial support for maternal and child health. When the Special Rapporteur was speaking with state and national Governments, each sometimes pointed accusingly at the other. (paras 98, 100).
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights, Okechukwu Ibeanu
(A/HRC/15/22/Add.3)
Country visit: 11 to 21 January 2010
Report published: 2 September 2010
Education for the children of yard workers: The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the availability and the quality of education available for the children of those employed in the yards. There are no schools in Alang/Sosiya, so children have to travel long distances to attend school in nearby villages. The shipbreaking industry has sponsored the construction of four primary schools in the surrounding region and has set up an informal education facility for the children of workers in Alang. In Mumbai, workers have set up an informal education facility for their children with the help of local trade unions (para 61).
Taking into account that about 20 per cent of workers are accompanied by their families, the Special Rapporteur also calls on the Government of India and regulatory authorities to establish and maintain schools or formal education facilities for the children of those employed in the yards (para 99).
Children as E-waste workers: At present, it appears that only 3 to 5 percent of e-waste is recycled in authorized recycling facilities. The majority of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is currently collected, dismantled and processed in the informal sector by some 80,000 workers, including women and children, who earn their livelihood by breaking down old computers and other high-tech devices to recover precious metals. The work is done largely by hand, using rudimentary techniques. Workers do not use any protective gear to guard against hazardous substances released during the breaking of obsolete EEE (para 69).
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Jean Ziegler
(E/CN.4/2006/44/Add.2)
Country visit: 20 August-2 September 2005
Report published: 20 March 2006
The visit of the Special Rapporteur was motivated by the fact that India has the largest number of undernourished people in the world, and one of the highest levels of child malnutrition. There are also recent signs that hunger and food insecurity are increasing despite strong economic growth (E/CN.4/2006/44/Add.2).
Malnutrition: Nearly 2 million Indian children die every year as a result of serious malnutrition and preventable diseases. Nearly half suffer from moderate or severe malnutrition, with 47 per cent of children underweight and 46 per cent stunted in their growth. This is one of the highest levels of child malnutrition in the world, higher than most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malnutrition is most severe amongst children in rural areas but is also high in urban areas. Nearly a third of children (30 per cent) are born underweight, which means that their mothers are themselves underweight and undernourished. Malnutrition also increases during early childhood,
particularly for girl children, reflecting persistent social discrimination against girl children who appear to be fed less than boy children. Micronutrient deficiencies are endemic and have a disastrous effect on physical and mental development. More than 80 per cent of women, infants and adolescent girls suffer from anaemia and iron intake is estimated to be below 50 per cent of the recommended daily allowance. Vitamin A deficiencies, particularly blindness, as well as iodine disorders have been recorded among children in hundreds of districts. Although the Tenth Five Year Plan 2002-2007 includes the prevention, detection and management of micronutrient programme, the Special Rapporteur was informed that the Indian Council of Medical Research’s studies have shown that National Nutrition Goals have not been met. (Paragraph 7)
Women and children, particularly girl children also, tend to suffer disproportionately from hunger and malnutrition as a result of discrimination. The Special Rapporteur received many other reports on alleged starvation or malnutrition deaths, including by FIAN,57 the Asian Human Rights Commission and Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha.58 In Orissa, when he visited villages, he received testimonies by women who had lost their children to hunger and malnutrition. As Chief Justice of the Uttar Pradesh High Court, A.W. Ray, said in his conclusion of the Judicial Colloquium on the Right to Food, “in a country where there is plenty of food, every child, woman and man dying from hunger is assassinated”. (Paragraph 42)
Most of the victims of starvation are women and children, members of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, with their deaths mainly due to discrimination in access to food or productive resources, evictions or the lack of implementation of the food-based schemes. (Paragraph 43)
Child labour: Child labour persists and the Special Rapporteur was particularly concerned to receive reports of child labour on farms contracted to transnational corporations, such as cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh, where young girls have been employed instead of men to reduce the cost of labour. (Paragraph 12)
Food based schemes: To ensure the fulfilment of the right to food, the Supreme Court directed that all destitute people be identified and included in existing food-based schemes and directed state governments to implement fully all these schemes, including the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme (TPDS), the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the Mid-Day Meals Scheme (MDMS). (Paragraph 25)
The Special Rapporteur also recommends that a National Commission for Children be established to protect their specific needs. (Paragraph 28)
The Integrated Child Development Services Programmes (ICDS) is one of the largest programmes in the world aiming to provide integrated nutrition, health and early child development services for children from 0-6 years, under the responsibility of the Department of Women and Child Development. The Special Rapporteur observed the operation of Anganwadi Centres in rural villages, where he saw how check-ups on children’s nutritional status were carried out to monitor severe and acute malnourishment, with food and nutritional supplements given to mothers of children identified as malnourished. According to the State government officials with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke, the ICDS has contributed to enormous progress in improving child nutrition and reducing child mortality. However, he noted that there seemed to be a tendency to overstate progress in monitoring levels of malnutrition, as progress appeared to be extremely rapid but did not seem to accord with the national statistical surveys. Some other problems were drawn to his attention, including the lack of storage facilities for food, occasional diversion of supplies by staff and lack of availability of the right quantities of food at the centres at the appropriate time as well as the financial constraints of state governments that have limited the nutritional supplements available for the ICDS. Predominantly distributing rice and wheat, even the ICDS does not sufficiently promote nutrition as well as food security. (Paragraph 34)
The Mid-Day Meals Scheme aims to provide meals to schoolchildren under the responsibility of the Department of Education as well as the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, and is implemented by the state governments. The dual aim is to ensure nourishment of children and encourage school attendance. Central government provides the foodgrains and state governments are expected to meet the costs of non-food expenses including cooking, transport and delivery of foodgrain to schools as well as arranging for cooking, serving and supplying micronutrients. Under a new order from the Supreme Court, schools were required to serve cooked rice and dal (lentils) or vegetables to primary school children from January 2002, although this order has not been equally implemented across the different states. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned by reports that, in the Mid-Day Meals Scheme, parents of upper-caste children have protested against women of scheduled castes or tribes being employed to cook or serve meals. (Paragraph 35)
Food security programmes should include elements to ensure nutritional security and to address micronutrient deficiencies. National initiatives for fortification of salt and flour should be complemented by low-cost local initiatives, including promoting small-scale horticulture production and supplementary food being distributed to children and women under ICDS and the Mid-Day Meals Scheme (E/CN.4/2006/44/Add.2).
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UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
Asma Jahangir
A/HRC/10/8/Add.3
Country Visit: 3-20 March 2008
Report Published: 26 January 2009
Personal status laws: According to article 26 of the Indian Constitution, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, subject to public order, morality and health. Diverse personal status laws exist governing all family relationships such as marriage and divorce, maintenance, custody of children, guardianship of children, inheritance and succession, adoption etc. There are five broad sets of personal status laws: one for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs as well as separate laws for Christians, Jews, Muslims and Zoroastrians (Parsis). Hindu and Muslim personal status laws also cater to different schools of thoughts within each community. Family law is a concurrent subject in the Constitution allowing each state as well as the Centre to legislate on it. (Paragraph 10)
Religious conversion: Five states have passed and implemented the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts (Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh). Similar laws have been passed but not yet implemented in two other states (Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan). All of these laws stipulate that “no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion”. The term “force” is defined to “include a show of force or a threat for injury of any kind including threat of divine displeasure or social excommunication”. These laws carry penalties of imprisonment and fines with harsher penalties in case children, women or persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes are forcibly converted. (Paragraph 11)
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UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
Radhika Coomaraswamy
E/CN.4/2001/73/Add.2
Country Visit: 28 October-15 November 2000
Report Published: 6 February 2001
Trafficking: Women and girls are trafficked into India for sex work, for forced labour and for forced marriage. Forced prostitution remains the primary goals of many of the traffickers. While a survey by the governmental Social Welfare Board estimates that in 1991, in six metropolitan cities there were about 1 million women and children engaged in sex work, the Indian Association for the Rescue of Fallen Women estimates that in 1992 there were 8 million women and children in sex work. (Paragraph 109)
Child prostitution: On the issue of child prostitution, in the case of Vishal Jeet v. Union of India, the Supreme Court called on the central and state governments to set up advisory committees to advise government on matters relating to child prostitution and social welfare. As a result of this decision, the Government of India set up a Central Advisory Committee on Child Prostitution and state governments also set up advisory committees. (Paragraph 113)
In the second decision, Gaurav Jain v. Union of India, the Supreme Court in 1997 directed the Government to constitute a committee to make an in-depth study of the problem of prostitution and child prostitutes and to develop strategies for their rescue and rehabilitation. A Committee on Prostitution, Child Prostitutes and Children of Prostitutes was constituted, headed by the Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development. Its report was submitted in 1998. A copy was presented to the Special Rapporteur.(Paragraph 114) The primary legal framework that deals with the problem of trafficking is the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act of 1986 (PITA).PITA was amended recently and the presumption of guilt is now on the accused for cases in which children or minors are found in a brothel who have been determined by medical examination to have been sexually abused. PITA has made stricter
punishment for offences relating to children. (Paragraph 115)
According to the report of the Committee on Prostitution, Child Prostitutes and Children of Prostitutes submitted by the Department of Women and Children pursuant to the Supreme Court decision, the number of cases involving trafficking has lessened in recent years, especially during the period 1991-1995. However, given the fact that commentators have indicated to the Special Rapporteur that trafficking is on the increase, that statement may reflect the fact that PITA is not fully implemented.(Paragraph 118)
The Juvenile Justice Act 1986 has elaborate provisions for the care, protection, treatment, education, vocational training, development and rehabilitation of children rescued from those procuring, inducing and taking persons for the sake of prostitution and detaining persons in premises where prostitution is carried on. Such children are covered under the definition “neglected juvenile”. Besides the police, any person authorised by the state government may bring the juvenile before the Juvenile Welfare Board for placement with a fit person or a fit institution, or failing which, in a juvenile home. Voluntary institutions also function as protective homes under the respective laws. These institutions must function on the basis of certain minimum standards of care and reformative treatment. (Paragraph 119)
The Central Social Welfare Board also provides financial assistance to NGOs to run centres and short-stay homes for women in need. Some trafficked victims are sent to these homes. In addition, financial assistance is given to NGOs to run development and care centres for the children of the sex workers. These centres are set up in the red light areas and provide day care along with educational support programmes and nutritional programmes for the children. (Paragraph 137)
Extensive support should be given to NGOs working in this field. The NGOs working with the children of the sex workers should be given special encouragement along with those who work with the victims of trafficking. A partnership between Government and NGOs working in this field is essential if the problem of trafficking is to be dealt with in the South Asian region. (Paragraph 168).
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Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns
A/HRC/23/47/Add.1
Report published: 26 April 2013
Country visit: 19 to 30 March 2012
No mention of children’s rights.