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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Visits requested
- (R in 2003, 2007, 2008) SR on human rights defenders (follow-up request 2007)
- (R in 2000, follow-up R in 2005, Reminder in 2008 and 2009) SR on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
- (R in 2004, follow-up R in 2006) SR on racism
- (R in 2006) by SR on freedom of religion
- (R 2006) SR on human rights and counter terrorism
- (R in 2006,reminder in 2008) SR on adequate housing
- (R in 2007) joint visit: SR independence of judges and lawyers and SR freedom of expression
- (R 22/12/2010) SR torture
- (R 02/02/2011) SR on food
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Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy
(E/CN.4/2000/68/Add.4)
Country visit: 9-11 September 1999
Report published: 13 March 2000
- Situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan: Although not a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol thereto, the Government of Pakistan accepted all Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion prima facie as refugees. (para 41)
- Domestic violence in refugee camps: The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the rise in violence against women among the refugee population, including child abuse, prostitution and trafficking. A local newspaper in Peshawar reported that two Afghan girls were being sold by their parents to Arab men when they were arrested at the airport. Trafficking in women and girls was thought to be increasing as was the prostitution of Afghan refugee women and children due to the lack of economic opportunities. (para 44)
Domestic violence, incest and honour killings were reportedly commonplace in the refugee camps. As the situation has become more tense with increased unemployment, the number of fatalities in domestic disputes has increased. (para 46)
Violence against women and girls is of growing concern in the refugee village of Saranan, established in 1989, near Quetta, Baluchistan, which accommodated 3,100 families. The Special Rapporteur received information about the case of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and went to the bazaar for an abortion. Sexual abuse is said to be a particular problem in Surkhab, G. Minera and Pir Alizi refugee villages. (para 54)
- Trafficking of children: The case of N (aged 12) is an example of the current vulnerability of girl children and the need for a safe house for survivors of violence. When N's mother married a mujahadeen commander, after her natural father's death, N went to stay with her grandmother. She was approached by a beggar woman who took her to Pakistan. N worked for her for two months in prostitution, after which she was sold to a Punjabi man. She managed to escape, but is still in a vulnerable position without a family to look after her. The local Afghan community who are sympathetic to her situation are too afraid to take her into their homes for fear that her involvement in prostitution will bring stigma and shame on their family. Women's organisations stressed to the Special Rapporteur the need for a safe house for such cases. Human rights workers are under threat themselves and feel that the United Nations should take responsibility for setting up a shelter. (para 45)
- Health care in refugee camps: The Special Rapporteur visited Akora Khattak refugee village, in North West Frontier Province. The refugee village was created in February 1997 and had a population of approximately 2,812 families, belonging to a mixture of ethnic groups. (para 48)
Doctors at the Mothers and Children Clinic in the camp informed the Special Rapporteur that many of the patients they treated suffered from malnutrition, and TB was rampant. The Special Rapporteur was struck by the skin rashes and communicable diseases that seemed apparent in the camp population. The medical staff expressed the need for a 24-hour clinic with better facilities and a greater selection of medicines. The doctors wrote prescriptions, but the patients had to go to the bazaar to buy the medicines as the clinic only stocked vitamins and pain-killers. The doctors had requested medical supplies from the donors who founded the clinic, but doubted that they would receive the necessary supplies, because of donor fatigue. The clinic lacked the necessary medical facilities and instruments. The Special Rapporteur was later informed by UNHCR that an emergency 24-hour clinic was planned for September 1999. More resources are desperately needed for health services. The Special Rapporteur recommends that, given the numbers of new arrivals in the cities, the introduction of mobile health units should be considered in order to provide the most basic health care to all refugees. (para 52)
- Education for girls in the refugee camps: According to UNHCR statistics in the Saranan refugee village there were four female committees, two girls' schools (up to grade 5), two mixed schools, 12 girls home based schools, seven non-formal education centres (adult literacy) and four groups that guarantee lending (12 women in each) in the camp. (para 55)
Three years previously, home based schools were started in the refugee villages, providing education for girls up to grade 5. The Special Rapporteur's assistant visited a home based school where 16 girls were studying (grade 3) Pashto, Mathematics, drawing and the Koran for three hours, five days a week. Families who allow their girl children to go to school receive five kg of edible oil every two months as an incentive. (para 57)
A UNHCR human rights programme was scheduled to start at the end of October 1999, initially for health staff and schoolteachers. In the second phase, human rights training is planned for home based school teachers and tribal leaders (para 59).
Recommendation: The Special Rapporteur recommends that humanitarian aid to all parts of Afghanistan and to the refugees in Pakistan should be increased and noted that the majority are women and children. Such assistance should include: the provision of shelter for women victims of violence, increased food supply, better medical services and health care for all refugees and the provision of primary, secondary and tertiary schooling for all Afghan children. The aid community should take all possible measures to meet what is without doubt one of the world's greatest humanitarian disasters. (para 89)
- Impact of the transit on children: Rather than living in the refugee camps which spread out into the desert along the border with Afghanistan, the majority of new refugees arriving in Quetta remain in the city, where the resident Hazara population tries to assist them to survive. A group of new arrivals from Bamyan testified that they had left their homes three months earlier and had lived in the mountains for two and a half months before travelling to Quetta when the weather started to deteriorate in the mountains. They had lost children along the way and the children who had survived looked severely malnourished and in need of special medical attention. (para 60)
- Repatriation: There is a group repatriation programme aimed at ensuring the refugees' successful reintegration and sustained return. A main component of this approach is to maintain the link between those who have been repatriated and the rest of the community still residing in Pakistan, the aim being that refugees who have stayed behind may be convinced to repatriate. (para 64)
Non-governmental organisations have alleged that UNHCR is pushing repatriation, even over returnees' security. The Special Rapporteur is concerned, but unable to verify the allegation. Many refugees would not consider returning until their girl children can go to school and the women can work. (para 65)
- Human rights defenders' children: As the situation deteriorates, Afghan human rights defenders based in Pakistan are leaving for Europe and the United States of America, because of direct intimidation, pressure and the lack of options for their children. (para 72)
- Taliban recruitment of children: Non-governmental organisations are concerned about what they call the "Talibanization" of Pakistan. The participation of young Pakistani boys in the Taliban effort and the setting up of ideologically similar groups in Pakistan has raised concern about the effect of these changes on the women of Pakistan. All the women's groups in Pakistan with which the Special Rapporteur met expressed this concern. (para 71)
