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Summaries of child rights hearings - upcoming sessions - news from the rapporteurship on child rights The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights concluded its 137th session last week. This year marks the Commission's 50th anniversary. During its 50 years of existence, the Commission has witnessed significant advances in political and civil rights as a result of the transition to democracy of many countries in the region. The new challenge, said the Commission, is to improve the quality of that democracy, highlighting in particular the human rights implications of the recent coup d'état in Honduras. Read more here. During the session, the Commission held a number of hearings on child rights, with a strong focus on violence against children. These hearings are summarised below. Summaries of child rights hearings Jamaicans for Justice presented a hearing on the situation of children in State custody. They acknowledged that Jamaica has taken some steps towards improving the safety and well-being of chidlren in State care, but highlighted challenges which have yet to be addressed. These include upgrading care facilities and improving the monitoring and review of institutions for children in care. State representatives from El Salvador acknowledged for the first time that forced disappearances of children were carried out by the State during the internal armed conflict in a hearing presented by Asociacion Pro-Búsqueda. They said the State did not oppose the arguments set out by Pro-Búsqueda in relation to specific cases brought to the Commission's attention. A report presented by Regroupement des Citoyens por la Protection des Droits Humains (RECIPRODH) addressed human rights in Haiti and violence against women and children on the Haitian-Dominican Republic border in particular. The report notes that there has been considerable effort on the part of the government to further democratic and human rights principles, for example in respect of arrest, detention and legal process. Nonetheless, considerable challenges remain. The report documents incidences of violence and discrimination towards more than 800,000 Haitians who live in the Dominican Republic. In a hearing on the right to education for persons with disabilities in the Americas and the Caribbean, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Vernor Muñoz, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and CLADE, claimed that this right is neither recognised nor respected in the region. Where people with disabilities do receive education, they do so under a segregated “special education” programme. In his report on the right to education of people with disabilities, Vernor Muñoz, highlighted negative attitudes towards individuals with disabilities, inadequate knowledge among school teachers and administrators, and the lack of physical access to schools and educational material. In a hearing on the situation of indigenous peoples in Chile, the Commission noted with particular concern complaints of police abuse against members of the Mapuche community, including women and children. The UN Committee against Torture also denounced this situation in May 2009, and asked the State to conduct investigations of abuses committed against members of indigenous peoples and to prosecute and punish police officials who commit this type of act. In other news, Paraguay recognised international responsibility for the forced disappearance of two 14 year olds - Marcelino Gómez Paredes y Cristian Ariel Núñez - who were illegally conscripted and disappeared whilst in the care of the army in 1998. In a meeting at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington, D.C., State officials signed a friendly settlement with the organisations representing the victims: The Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and Servicio Paz y Justicia de Paraguay (SERPAJ-PY). In the agreement, the State admits to violating the children's right to personal freedom, integrity, life, to special protection measures, and to judicial protection and guarantees. The agreement obligates Paraguay to establish a commission to investigate the disappearance of children and to sanction those responsible for violating the human rights of the victims. Session 138: 28-29 January 2010 Rapporteurship on the Rights of the Child Regional consultations The Office of the Rapporteur participated in two sub-regional consultations on violence against children in March 2009: the first was held in San José, Costa Rica for Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico; the second was held in Bogotá, Colombia for countries in the Andean region and Brazil. The rapporteur's office also participated in two sub-regional consultations on juvenile justice in the Eastern Caribbean and the Bahamas and one in Washington, D.C., with 50 participants from the United States and Canada.
Country visits The Office of the Rapporteur visited a number of countries to gather information for a thematic report on juvenile justice in the Americas. In other news, the Rapporteurship published a Report on Corporal Punishment and Human Rights of Children and Adolescents in August 2009 in Spanish and English. It will soon be available in Portuguese. On September 14, the Rapporteurship gave a presentation on “The right to food of children under two” within the Inter-American Human Rights System, as part of a technical consultation organised by the United Nations World Food Programme and other agencies of the UN system. The consultation, which was held in Panama, focused on the impact of the international food crisis among the most vulnerable groups, specifically children under two years of age, in Latin America and the Caribbean. Further information
Read the petition, the hearing presentation, and a previous related hearing report.
Read the news story and hearing presentation (in Spanish)
Read the full report here.
Read the full report and the presentation by Vernor Muñoz (in Spanish)
Upcoming sessions
Session 139: 15-26 March 2010
Session 140: 12-16 July 2010
Session 141: 20 October – 5 November 2010
Read the report in English and Spanish