CRINMAIL 118:

In this issue:

March is always a very busy time at the UN. There is a lot coming up for children’s rights with the Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child (this year on access to justice). This edition previews the Council’s session as well as the many other UN events coming up next month. It also provides a children’s rights analysis of some of the big news events from the UN concerning Syria and North Korea.

Best wishes

The CRIN team

Children’s rights at the Human Rights Council’s 25th session

Access to justice

The 25th session of the Human Rights Council starts in Geneva on Monday (3 March) and will finish on 28 March. Out of the Council’s three sessions each year, it is its March session that is the most interesting for children’s rights, mainly because this is when the Council’s annual day on the rights of the child always takes place.

The theme for this year’s annual day is “access to justice for children”, and the date is set for Thursday 13 March. You can find the session’s full programme, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) report on access to justice for children that will inform the day’s discussions. You can find CRIN’s submission for the OHCHR’s report, as well as submissions from other NGOs, on the OHCHR’s website.

The day will start with a discussion of international norms and standards on access to justice for children and child-sensitive justice, followed by an afternoon panel on empowering children to claim their rights. The concept note contains further details, including the list of speakers.

Access to justice is a human right, and it makes other human rights a reality. CRIN will be reporting live from Geneva during the week of the annual day (10 - 14 March). We will be sending out daily CRINmails with a full round-up of what was discussed at the Council, as well as some analysis of the implications for children’s rights. We will also publish commentaries and editorials on some of the issues we feel need discussion at the Council, but which are being neglected or ignored. Watch our HRC25 session page, and follow #HRC25 on twitter.

Other issues at HRC25

While the annual day on the rights of the child will focus on access to justice, the rest of the Council’s 25th session will cover other issues, some of which have important implications for children’s rights. Further information about the events, including speakers, what will be discussed and hopes for outcomes can be found on the Council’s 25th session page as well as our session page. Note that details for some are yet to be published, and that dates and times can change at the last minute.  

• On 12 March both the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Violence against Children and the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict will present their reports to the Council.

• A high level panel on the question of the death penalty will take place on 5 March at 3pm.

• A panel on the promotion and protection of civil society space is set for 3pm on 11 March.

• A dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will take place on 17 March at 10am. (See below for our coverage of the Commission’s recent report.)

• The annual half-day discussion on the human rights of persons with disabilities is set for 12 noon on 19 March. The theme this year is right to education.

• A high-level dialogue on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo will take place on 25 March at 9am.  

• A discussion on the OHCHR’s report on Sri Lanka is set for the morning session on 26 March.

Special procedures at HRC25

An unprecedented number of new special procedure mandate holders will be appointed during the Council’s 25th session, including the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

As part of the selection process, a consultative group, comprising of State representatives, gave its list of preferred candidates to the President of the Human Rights Council earlier this month. This list has been made public in the interests of transparency.

A number of special procedures will present their reports, which will then be debated, during the Council’s 25th session, including the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. You can find a full list of all the reports to be presented on the Council’s 25th session page.

HRC25 - Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

During the 25th session of the Human Rights Council, the following States will have their UPR reports adopted (from the 17th session of the UPR held from October-November 2013):

Saudi Arabia, Senegal, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Mauritius, Jordan, Malaysia, CAR, Monaco, Belize, Chad, Israel, Congo, Malta.

You can find all the reports on the OHCHR’s website.

NGO participation at HRC25

Side events

As always, a range of side events put on by NGOs will also take place during the Council’s session. Below is a selection of side events featuring children’s rights. Please note that details, particularly room numbers, can change at the last minute so check the side events schedule which you can find on the Human Rights Council extranet (login details can easily be requested from this page.)

• 6 March - Rights of migrant children. Terre Des Hommes Federation Internationale (4 - 6pm, Room XXII)

• 7 March - Child exploitation and human rights, Le Collectif des Femmes Africaines du Hainaut (2 - 4pm, Room XXI)

• 10 March - Sexual and reproductive rights. Action Canada for Population and Development (11am - 1pm, Room XXI)

• 11 March - Children and conflict. Defence for Children International (2.30pm - 4.30pm, Room XI)

• 11 March - Human rights of minority women and children, Liberation (3 - 5pm, Room XXVII)

• 11 March - Rights of the child and HIV, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (4-6pm, Room XXIV) 

A photography exhibition depicting child marriage and its consequences around the world will take place in the Human Rights Council during its 25th session. “Too young to wed” is a collaborative event exhibiting photographs by award-winning artist Stephanie Sinclair. The event is hosted by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in association with Plan International, Girls not Brides, World YWCA, the Governments of Canada, Ethiopia, Finland, Honduras, Italy, the Netherlands, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Uruguay and Yemen, as well as the African Union, IPU, OHCHR, UNICEF and WHO.

The above mentioned will also host a high level panel debate on child marriage during HRC25. Further details.

Oral statements

The sign up system for making oral statements at the Council’s 25th session openned at 2pm today (28 February) Geneva time. You can already get login details for the online system, but note that you should use the same logins if you have already made a written statement for the session. Guidelines to use the online system are available in English, French and Spanish.

Written statements

The deadline for written statements for this session has now closed. You can view all statements made by NGOs on the Council’s extranet (login details can be easily requested).

Follow the session live

Even if you can’t make it to Geneva, you can still find out what’s going on by watching the live webcast and following #HRC25 on twitter. As mentioned above, CRIN will also be reporting live from Geneva during the discussions with daily CRINmail round-ups, analysis and commentaries on some of the neglected issues.

North Korea: UN releases damning findings on the “totalitarian” State

“The State operates an all-encompassing indoctrination machine that takes root from childhood to propagate an official personality cult and to manufacture absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader...The gravity, scale and nature of these [rights] violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”

This diagnosis comes from the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) report published earlier this month. As noted above, the report will be the subject of a dialogue with the Commission at the Human Rights Council’s 25th session next month.

The Commission, headed by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, has urged for the referral of senior members of the regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, including the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. “The fact that the DPRK, as a State Member of the United Nations, has for decades pursued policies involving crimes that shook the conscience of humanity raises questions about the inadequacy of the response of the international community. The international community must accept its responsibility to protect the people of the DPRK from crimes against humanity, because the government of the DPRK has manifestly failed to do so,” says the report.

The Commission found that there is an “almost complete denial” of all civil and political rights in the DPRK, and that denial of the right to food has been used as a way to get rid of those not profitable to the regime.

China received a reprimand in the report for its policy of sending back people who have escaped the DPRK, and in some cases even giving information about these people to the DPRK, who were sure to be subjected to death and/or torture.

The report also rebukes China for the plight of an estimated 20,000 children born to women from the DPRK who are in China and deprived of their rights to birth registration, nationality, education and health because their birth cannot be registered in China without exposing the mother to significant risk.

The detailed account of rights abuses in the 400 plus page report make for harrowing reading. Below are some of the key findings for children’s rights.

• “Repatriated women who are pregnant are regularly subjected to forced abortions, and babies born to repatriated women are often killed. These practices are driven by racist attitudes towards interracial children of Koreans” (who usually have Chinese fathers, and the mother has been sent back to the DPRK by China). The Commission also noted that the denial of reproductive rights of women in forced labour camps in the country is “enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide”.

• “The State has used food as a means of control over the population. The Commission is particularly concerned about ongoing malnutrition of children and its long-term effects. The State denied humanitarian access to some of the most affected regions and groups, including homeless children. While acknowledging the impact of factors beyond State control over the food situation, the Commission finds that decisions, actions and omissions by the State and its leadership caused the death of at least hundreds of thousands of people and inflicted permanent physical and psychological injuries on those who survived”.

• “Violations of the rights to food and to freedom of movement have resulted in women and girls becoming vulnerable to trafficking and increased engagement in transactional sex and prostitution.”

• “In an attempt to keep Pyongyang’s “pure” and untainted image, the State systematically banishes entire families from the capital city if one family member commits what is deemed to be a serious crime or political wrong. For the same reason, the large number of street children migrating clandestinely to Pyongyang and other cities - principally in search of food - are subject to arrest and forcible transfer back to their home provinces, experiencing neglect and forced institutionalisation on their return.”

While the Commission could not gain access into the DPRK and the government did not respond to attempts to make contact, commissioners interviewed hundreds of survivors from the regime in neighbouring countries. They noted that many would not consent to be interviewed, even anonymously, because of fear or reprisals.

The report includes a letter from the Commission to Kim Jong-un containing a summary of the systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations that the Commission says amount to crimes against humanity, and a note that the Commission is recommending that Kim Jong-un be referred to the ICC.

In addition to referring the regime’s leaders to the ICC, the Commission has recommended that the DPRK, and other States including China, immediately halt the human rights violations documented in the report. The Commission also urged the international community to take responsibility for the horror and urgently assist the citizens of the DPRK, and has called on the UN Security Council to adopt targeted sanctions against those most responsible for the crimes against humanity. The Commission has stressed that such sanctions should not hit the citizens of the DPRK who have already suffered so much.

The Commission’s full report is available online, as the evidence from witnesses and survivors.

Unanimous Security Council resolution on Syria

As the Syrian crisis delves into its fourth destructive year, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution last weekend (22 February) demanding that all parties to the conflict allow aid and humanitarian access to the devastated country.

In the resolution, the Security Council “strongly condemns all grave violations and abuses committed against children in contravention of applicable international law, such as recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape, attacks on schools and hospitals as well as arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, ill treatment and use as human shields, as described in the United Nations Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Syria.”

The resolution goes on to stress “that some of these violations may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”, and “demands the immediate end of these practices and the release of all arbitrarily detained persons starting with women and children, as well as sick, wounded and elderly people and including United Nations personnel and journalists”.

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, attended the meeting and welcomed the resolution, but added it "should not have been necessary" as humanitarian assistance is not something to be negotiated but allowed by virtue of international law.

The resolution requests the Secretary-General to report to the Secretary Council on the implementation of the resolution by all parties in Syria in 30 days time, and then every 30 days thereafter.

Children’s rights at the UPR - 18th session

The 18th session of the UPR took place in late January, with fourteen states being reviewed. The reviews will be passed at a future Human Rights Council session, but in the meantime highlights for children’s rights are below.

• Recommendations for Afghanistan include a moratorium on executions, for the government to take measures to end recruitment of children into armed conflicts and to prevent child marriages. The State was also asked to repeal the section of the penal code which gave perpetrators of “honour” killings legal concessions, and was asked to explain the high percentage of children employed in hazardous conditions.

• The recommendations to Chile include setting up a children’s ombudsperson, to establish a specialised juvenile justice system and to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all settings.

• Uruguay was also asked to ensure that its juvenile detention system was in line with its human rights obligations, as well as to address the worst forms of child labour.

• Recommendations to Cambodia include taking necessary measures for effectively fighting human trafficking and child labour.

• The issue of a moratorium on the death penalty (including for minors) again arose for Yemen (See CRIN’s campaign to end inhuman sentencing for more). The State was also urged to end the practice of early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

• The issue of FGM also arose during Eritrea’s review, where it was noted that the country had a high rate of this harmful traditional practice. The State was also asked to end the practice of children undertaking their final year of schooling in a military training camp.

• Both Macedonia and Comoros were asked to take steps to avoid discrimination against LGBT persons, with a further recommendation to Macedonia to end impunity for violence and intimidation against LGBT persons.

• The Dominican Republic was also asked to implement policies to end discrimination against LGBT persons. Other recommendations to the State include decriminalising abortion and to ensure that women and girls seeking it and health professionals were not subject to criminal sanctions.

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

CERD held its 84th session this month, and have recently released its concluding observations for Belgium, Kazakhstan, Honduras, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Poland, Switzerland and Uzbekistan. We are currently reading through them and will post children’s rights extracts on our website shortly.

Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

The 57th session of CEDAW concluded today. The State reports of Bahrain, Cameroon, Finland, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Qatar and Sierra Leone were considered. The Committee's concluding observations are yet to be released and will be included in next month's CRINmail.

Upcoming

Call for contributions - death penalty

The OHCHR is asking for information to feed into the Secretary General’s report on the question of the death penalty, which is due to come out in the Human Rights Council’s 27th session in September this year.

The deadline is 31 March. Send submissions of no more than 1500 words covering developments since 1 April 2013 to registry@ohchr.org. Further information.

Treaty body sessions

The Human Rights Committee’s 110th session will take place between 10 and 28 March, with Chad, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Nepal, Sierra Leone and the United States of America all up for review.   

Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Paraguay will be under the spotlight during the Committee on Enforced Disappearances 6th session starting 17 March.

The 11th session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will commence on 31 March, with Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Sweden and Mexico under view.

The Committee on Migrant Worker’s 20th session will start on 31 March, and El Salvador, Mali, the Philippines and Uruguay are under review.

Special procedure visits

The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions will visit Papua New Guinea between 3 and 14 March.

The Working Group on arbitrary detention is due to visit New Zealand from 24 March to 7 April.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will receive a visit for the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences between 31 March and 15 April.

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