UN Adopts Optional Protocol on Complaints Procedure for Violation of Child Rights

NEW YORK, December 19: Today, in a landmark step for children’s rights, the UN General Assembly has adopted a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) establishing a complaints procedure for violations of children’s rights. The new treaty will enable children, or their representatives, claiming that their rights have been violated to bring a complaint to an international committee of children’s rights experts if they have not been able to get remedies for these violations in their countries.

A coalition of over 80 international and national NGOs, coordinated by the NGO Group for the CRC, which has been actively campaigning for the treaty since 2006, welcomed the news.
“It was high time to put children’s rights on an equal footing with other human rights! Until today, the Committee on the Rights of the Child was the only UN treaty body that was denied the power to examine individual cases”, said Peter Newell, co-chair of the NGO coalition. “Children’s rights are no longer ‘mini rights,” he added.
Cases concerning any violation of children's rights –from children who cannot access primary education to children forced into sexual exploitation, for instance –could be brought before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In order for a complaint to be reviewed, a State must have accepted the procedure. The NGO coalition will now turn its efforts to lobbying States to ratify the new treaty which must be accepted by ten countries before it can be used.

Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jean Zermatten added his support for the new protocol “The Committee looks forward to hearing from child victims and identifying precisely where national systems have failed to better help States with the implementation of their obligations.” Top

Children Sue to be Evacuated from Radiation Fall-Out Zone

JAPAN, December 19: Children at risk from exposure to radiation in the Fukushima prefecture have filed a lawsuit demanding that the government transfer them to a safer location. 14 children of Fukushima, the plaintiffs of the lawsuit, go to school every day where the contamination level of radiation is dangerously high.

The Japanese authorities have allegedly been downplaying and withholding data on children’s exposure to nuclear radiation in Fukushima area. The country’s nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Safety Commission, has removed from its website data on the results of checkups for children in the affected area, 45 per cent of whom tested positive for radioactive substances that accumulate in the thyroid gland. No other information is publicly available on children’s health in the wake of the nuclear disaster, despite experts saying that children exposed to radiation face greater risks of developing thyroid cancer. Previously, The Japan Times reported that small amounts of the radioactive chemical caesium were found in the urine of 10 children in the city of Fukushima, confirming their internal exposure to radiation. Experts, however, said it is difficult to judge the level of contamination, and urged the government to carry out thorough tests on all Fukushima children to find out the precise levels of children's internal exposure. Top

Parent-child Communication Key to Preventing Abuse

ARGENTINA, December 7: The latest figures on child sex abuse in Argentina reveal that in 85 per cent of cases, the perpetrators were persons known to the victim. According to sexologist Dr. Amelia del Sueldo Padilla, the factors that allow for abuse to continue include: a lack of communication between parents and their children, not believing children when they claim to have been abused, and blaming the victim for the abuse suffered. To prevent abuse, Padilla emphasizes the importance of effective communication between parents and their children as a basic protection tool, and that children should also be taught to recognise for themselves the threat of potential abuse. Top

Sudan Still Sentencing Minors to Death    

KHARTOUM, DECEMBER 7: The Special Criminal Court in North Darfur upheld the death sentences handed down to four minors for their involvement in a carjacking case, and ordered for them to be crucified following their execution. Despite the country’s Child Law of 2004 establishing that child offenders should be tried in special courts and detained in juvenile detention centres, the application of capital punishment remains authorised for children in cases of “serious offences.” While the Sudanese government assures that no juvenile is executed in practice, activists contend that the mental anguish of being sentenced to death is in itself a violation of a child's rights. They are calling for the sentences to be commuted and the children to be retried in accordance with international juvenile justice norms.

Four minors were among nine people who had been sentenced to death for a carjacking on October 21. Sudan is a signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the execution of minors. In line with this, Sudan reformed its laws in January 2010, raising the age at which an offender can face capital punishment from 15 to 18.

Sudan, along with Iran and Saudi Arabia, is one of only three countries to have executed a minor since 2009. In May 2009, 19-year-old Abdulrahman Zakaria Mohammed was executed in El Fasher, North Darfur, after he was found guilty of armed robbery and murder two years earlier. Top

Law proposed for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences

INDIA, December 10: The Government proposes to enact a special law for protection of children from sexual offences, according to a written statement by the Minister of Women & Child Development. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on March 23, 2011.

The Minister stated that for the first time, a special law has been proposed to address the issue of sexual offences against children. The Bill defines different forms of sexual offences, harassment and use of child for pornography. For speedy trial, the State Governments have been mandated to designate a Court of Session in each district, to be a Special Court to try offences under the Bill. It is expected that enactment of this Bill will contribute to the safety and security of children and the stringent punishment proposed under the Bill will act as a deterrent for offenders. Top