UNITED STATES: Children's Rights in the UN Special Procedures' Reports

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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Report by the Working Group on transnational corporations and business enterprises

Visit undertaken from 22 April - 1 May 2013

Report yet to be released.

Report by the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Visit undertaken from 25-29 January 2010

From press release:

The Working Group also noted the existence of a circle of poverty, inadequate education and limited employment opportunities affecting the lives of people of African descent on multiple levels, which is not being sufficiently addressed, in a holistic and coordinated manner, at the federal, state and local levels.

The Working Group particularly calls upon the Government to ensure to children of African descent all of the rights contained within the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to have the child’s best interest as a primary consideration in all dealings with the State.

Report by the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

Visit undertaken from 14 to 27 October 2010

See press release


Report by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women

Visit undertaken from 24 January - 7 February 2011

From press release:

Alternatives to incarceration should be envisaged, particularly for women who are primary care-givers of their children, as they face a heightened risk of losing their parental rights while in custody. I was made aware of how the Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) facilitates the termination of parental rights of mothers who are imprisoned for more than 15 months.


Report by the Independent Expert on water and sanitation

Visit undertaken from 22 February - 4 March 2011

No mentions of children's rights.

Report by the Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples

Visit undertaken from 23 April - 4 May 2012

Report not available.

 
Report by the Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of toxic & dangerous products and human rights

Visit undertaken from (3-14/12/2001)

Report E/CN.4/2003/56/Add.1

Issues raised:

Health: […] In the same report [See Carl Smith, “Pesticide Exports from US ports, 1997-2000”, vol. 7 International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (2001), 266-274], it is noted that:

[B]etween 1996-2000, the United States exported nearly 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides that have been identified as known or suspected carcinogens, an average rate of almost 16 tons per hour [...] these figures have particular import in regard to children in developing countries. According to the International Labour Organization, 65 to 90 per cent of the children estimated to be working in Africa (80 million), Asia (152 million) and Latin America (17 million) are working in agriculture. Evidence that children have heightened susceptibility to the carcinogenic effects of pesticides has even greater significance for developing countries. There, children live and work in conditions that involve almost continuous exposure, ranging from contact in fields to contaminated water, pesticide-contaminated clothing, and storage of pesticides in homes (Paragraph 36).


Report by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education

Report undertaken from (24/09-10/10/2001)

Read the full report - E/CN.4/2002/60/Add.1

Visit to the border with Mexico of the SR on human rights of migrants

Visit undertaken (7-18/3/2002)

Report E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.3

Issues raised:

Separation: The Special Rapporteur also noted with concern the deportation or expulsion of fathers or mothers of children born in the United States, resulting in the separation of children from their parents (Paragraph 11).

Violence: Also in Sasabe, the Special Rapporteur directly observed how men and women (with babies) were kept by smugglers in the desert and how migrants, including entire families and unaccompanied minors, travelled in overloaded vans in spite of the warnings of the Beta Groups* about the risks of the crossing, particularly about the danger of being abused by the smugglers. The Special Rapporteur invites the Beta Groups and the border patrols of the two countries to continue their efforts to save migrants from the violence committed by smugglers and to assist them when necessary. The Special Rapporteur observed the presence of the Mexican army, the Mexican customs authority, the Federal Preventive Police and the Judicial Police, all situated on the route taken by smugglers to cross the border (Paragraph 20).

Sexual exploitation: The Special Rapporteur is concerned at allegations that there are networks engaged in the sexual exploitation of children that take advantage of unaccompanied minors on the border. The Special Rapporteur considers that DIF and the migrant homes provide an indispensable service for minors, which should be strengthened in order to broaden their coverage and prevent the exploitation of boys and girls. The Special Rapporteur received with dismay the case of a 12-year-old girl who was smuggled to Laredo, Texas, believing that she was going to work as a housemaid. When the minor was found by the police, she was chained to the patio of a house and had been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (Paragraph 37).

Residency: The Special Rapporteur was also concerned that under-age children of migrants who were born in the United States cannot request legal residence for their parents in that country. The Special Rapporteur met with many parents who had been separated from their children and deported to Mexico because they were undocumented. The parents are confronted with the dilemma of returning to the United States illegally or disrupting the lives of their children as United States citizens by taking them out of the country (Paragraph 40).

Detention of undocumented migrants at the United States border : In the United States, the Special Rapporteur visited centres where intercepted irregular migrants are temporarily held until they are deported or sent to migrant detention centres. In Laredo, the Special Rapporteur visited a detention centre administered by a private security agency, where migrants subject to deportation or whose migration status is being decided, are held. She also visited an INS detention centre in El Centro, California. The Special Rapporteur was informed that in California women and minors are held in Casa San Juan, which has a capacity for 120 persons and is administered by the Catholic Church. In the detention centres, the Special Rapporteur noted that many migrants showed signs of depression and anxiety (Paragraph 45).

Report by the Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty

Visit undertaken (23 October- 8 November 2005).

Report E/CN.4/2006/43/Add.1

Issues raised:

State programmes: From his discussions with community groups and poor people, the independent expert understood that public assistance programmes were often seen to be overly complicated and difficult to navigate. Whether it was programmes to access health services, affordable housing or education, people often depended on community groups to act as intermediaries to navigate available programmes. A member of a community group in Mississippi expressed the view that “the State of Mississippi does not give welfare, but warfare, as families feel that seeking social assistance is like a fight against all kinds of obstacles, put up to discourage them”. The rules and the letters from the Social Security administration were difficult to understand and not easily accessible to elderly people, and if a person lost his/her public assistance for some reason, the process of appeal was long and difficult (Paragraph 21).

Report by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants

Visit undertaken (20 April - 18 May 2007)

Report A/HRC/7/12/Add.

Detaining: The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the stepped up strategy of arresting deportable immigrants through early morning actions at their homes. In many cases, ICE enters a home with a warrant to arrest one or several immigrants and then proceeds to sweep the entire building, knocking on other doors and demanding to see immigration papers from all the inhabitants. In one case three young boys, aged three, four and seven were awakened at six in the morning to find that their parents were being taken away by immigration officers. ICE carries out these raids in a forceful fashion and uses them not only as an enforcement mechanism but to deter others from being in the United States. These raids are carried out as coordinated efforts with a massive law enforcement presence and have considerable impact on affected families and communities (Paragraph 65).

Detention: Mandatory detention and mandatory deportation prevent migrants from fulfilling responsibilities they have to family members, to employers, and to the wider communities that may rely on them for various reasons. Children can suffer trauma and severe loss from the sudden, prolonged, and sometimes permanent absence of that parent. The absence of a family member can result in irreparable economic and other injury to an entire family structure. Additionally, health conditions and medical situations specific to certain families are not considered when individuals are subjected to mandatory detention (Paragraph 76).

Report by the Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights

Visit undertaken (16-25 May 2007)

Report A/HRC/6/17/Add.3

Juvenile justice: Noting that persons brought to Guantánamo Bay under the age of 15 have since been repatriated, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that this does not apply to all persons who were children at the material time of their alleged conduct. It is a matter of concern to the Special Rapporteur whether juvenile Guantánamo Bay detainees have been segregated from adults and accorded treatment appropriate to their age and legal status in accordance with article 10, paragraphs 2 (b) and 3 of the Covenant, and that the Military Commissions Act does not, as it stands, make room for procedural adjustments that will take account of the age of juvenile defendants and the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation. Further, the Special Rapporteur received alarming reports that the young age of some of the detainees was only taken into account by applying interrogation methods that utilized their age-specific phobias and fears (Paragraph 15).

Report by the Special Rapporteur on racism

Visit undertaken (19 May- 6 June 2008)

Education: Educational policy at the federal level is carried out by the Department of Education. An Office for Civil Rights within the Department is mandated “to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights”. This Office enforces several federal laws that prohibit discrimination, including Titles VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin). The Office for Civil Rights enforces this law in all institutions, including elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities that receive funds from the Department of Education(Paragraph 26).

An important piece of federal legislation in the domain of education is the No Child Left Behind Act, which was enacted by Congress in 2002. One of its key objectives is to promote more accountability in public schools and to improve the performance of students. In this regard, it also explicitly addresses the need to close the achievement gap between white and minority students.10 Recent data indicates that although the achievement gap is still large, it has narrowed in recent years (Paragraph 27).11

Immigrants are entitled to some constitutionally-protected rights regardless of their immigration status. In Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court established that denying free public education to children on the basis of immigration status is unlawful. Furthermore, although the Immigration and Nationality Act protects only documented migrants from employment discrimination, unfair documentary practices and retaliation, EEOC noted several judicial decisions that prevent courts from disclosing the immigration status of plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases (Paragraph 45).

Law enforcement: Juvenile justice was an issue of concern for civil society organizations, particularly when it represents an entry point into criminal justice (see subsection III.C). The rate of detention of youth in 2003 was five times higher for African Americans and two times higher for Hispanics than for whites. The Special Rapporteur was also presented with data concerning the disproportional representation of African American youth in several stages of the juvenile justice process, including arrests, detentions, petitions and prison. Reference was made to the issue of sentencing of youth to life without parole, which is applied in 39 states, as well as on reported racial bias in these practices, particularly in certain states. In the 25 states for which data is available the rate of African Americans serving life without parole sentences is on average 10 times higher than whites, relative to the state population. In California, the rate is 18 times that of white youth. Even after controlling for differences in murder arrest rates, racial disparities remain (Paragraph 51).

Several organizations expressed concern at the National Special Entry-Exit Registration Program (NSEERS), put in place in 2002. The special registration program required male non-citizens over the age of 16 and from 25 countries to register with local immigration authorities. Twenty-four of these countries have a majority Muslim population. While the initial requirements of re-registration after 30-days and one year of continuous presence in the United States have been suspended, the program continues to be considered by civil society as discriminatory on the basis of national origin and religious background (Paragraph 54).

Education and segregation: One of the most important decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in the fight for racial equality was Brown v. Board of Education prohibiting school segregation. However, interlocutors pointed out that despite the end of de jure segregation and positive changes, particularly in the 1960-1980 period, the trend has since been reversed. The percentage of black students in predominantly minority schools, which was 77 percent in 1968 and decreased to 63 percent in 1988, had surged to 73 percent in 2005. Civil society organizations expressed concern at recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions – Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Directors – that ruled that race-conscious integration measures are unconstitutional. In the view of many NGOs, these race-conscious measures are a necessary measure to ensure racial integration and made an essential contribution to de-segregation of schools, particularly in the South. Some organizations also pointed out that the rise of segregation also has an impact on the quality of education received by students belonging to minorities. Furthermore, a concern was expressed that the Court may have abandoned the notion that racial diversity can be considered a compelling interest that justifies the use of race-based criteria. This view is present in the dissenting opinion of Justice Breyer in the Community Schools case (Paragraph 58).

Report by the Special Rapporteur on summary executions

Visit undertaken from 16 - 30 June 2008

Report by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries

Visit undertaken from 20 - 24 July 2009

 


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Requested visits

Visits requested

  • Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers (requested in 2012)
  • Independent Expert on foreign debt (requested on 20 May 2011, Reminder on 17 April 2012)
  • Special Rapporteur on sale of children (requested in 2009)
  • In relation to Guantanamo by SRs on independence of judges and lawyers; health; freedom of religion and torture (joint request in 2004)

Visits accepted

  • Working Group on arbitrary detention
  • SR on torture (Dates to be agreed)
  • SR on food (late 2013)

Countries

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