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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- Special Rapporteur on human rights in the country
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking
- Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances
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Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons
- Requested visits
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Report by the Special Rapporteur on human rights
A/55/282
Mr. Jiri Dienstbier
Country visit: 24 to 26 January and 11 to 15 June 2000
Report published: 20 October 2000
Issues raised:
Right to education: The major problem in the education system is the effective division of the education system along ethnic lines. There have been several cases of physical segregation, where minority children have not been allowed to use school premises. Following direct intervention from the international community, some crises were solved; thus, the primary schools of Stolac and Vares are now shared by Croat and Bosniak returnee children. In many other areas, however, segregation continues (Paragraph 35).
Regarding textbooks and curricula, the Special Rapporteur notes that some progress has been made on the removal of offensive and discriminatory material from textbooks, but this needs to be followed by further steps to ensure that textbooks eventually meet European standards. The signing of the Declaration and Agreement on Education in May 2000 was a welcome step (Paragraph 20).
Violence: The Special Rapporteur regrets to report that mine accidents have continued to take the lives of innocent victims, including children. At least 16 people were killed during spring and summer 2000. According to the Mine Action Centre, an estimated 1 million mines remain hidden in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mine-clearance efforts need to be redoubled and sufficient funding allocated to mine-clearance activities, including education of children and returnees (Paragraph 24).
Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children
E/CN.4/2006/62/Add.2
Ms Sigma Huda
Country visit: 1 to 28 February 2005
Report published: 30 November 2005
Issues raised:
Identification of victims: Many argue that the smaller numbers of victims identified is due to a change in the modus operandi of traffickers. It was reported that the exploitation of trafficked women and girls for prostitution moved from public establishments to private apartments and secluded houses. Reportedly, the large-scale raids by IPTF contributed to pushing the phenomenon underground. Traffickers now use more local women and women from Serbia who are in the country legally and often have contracts as waitresses or dancers. Identification of local women is more difficult as all the structures in place were created for the identification of foreigners. Furthermore, now that trafficking in persons is highly criminalized, traffickers have reportedly started to treat trafficked victims better, including providing them with salaries and imposing less restriction of their freedom. In the locations known to the police, this seems to be especially true and women have started to declare that they work voluntarily in the sex industry. Often, however, women who receive salaries are obliged to spend them in the bar to pay for meals and accommodation, or to purchase drugs and condoms sold by the traffickers. They reportedly also have separate lodgings and no longer live in the bars where they work. An increasing number of victims are addicted to drugs or alcohol or are subjected to other forms of control by traffickers. In an environment in which corruption is highly developed, it has also become easy for organized crime to obtain travel documents, residence and work permits and visas, thus making identification and interception more difficult (Paragraph 28).
There is a problem in identifying national victims of trafficking because all the protection measures adopted so far have been only for foreigners. The limitation of the protection measures also make it difficult to identify victims who are exploited for purposes other than sex, for example children trafficked for the purpose of begging (Paragraph 32).
Gender: According to the information received by the Special Rapporteur, in 2002 about 10 per cent of trafficked victims interviewed by STOP teams were girls under 18. In 2003, the percentage reportedly decreased to 5 per cent. However, the Special Rapporteur was informed that the grounds on which the police estimated the ages of the girls without documents or with false documents were not clear or coherent. Furthermore, statistics referred to the ages of victims when they first came into contact with law enforcement or assistance and not at the time they were trafficked. According to the data, the majority of foreign children trafficked for sexual exploitation came from Romania and the majority were girls over 14. Many trafficked children had forged papers so precise identification is very difficult (Paragraph 58).
Juvenile justice: The Special Rapporteur further recommends that police methods for dealing with children living or working in the streets, children in conflict with the law and children who are victims of crime be modernized through greater focus on proactive outreach work, confidence-building measures and cooperation with social services. The Special Rapporteur recommends outreach assistance for children living and working in the streets and members of high-risk groups, as well as the investigation of the involvement of criminal networks in begging. Professionals coming into contact with children living or working in the streets, as well as the general population, should be sensitized to the Roma culture and child protection (Paragraph 94).
Report by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Press release, 21 June 2010
No relevant references found
Report by the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons
Visit undertaken from 13-20 June 2008
Previous visit:
Country visit: 9 to 15 June 2005
Report published: 29 December 2005
Issues raised:
ESC Rights: Displaced persons suffer mainly from problems concerning their economic and social rights (see guiding principles 18 and 19, para. 1). They are disproportionately affected by the general problems of the population. For example, while the whole country struggles to cope with the economic depression resulting from the effects of war and the transition to a market-led economy, IDPs constitute around 45 per cent of the extremely poor in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 21 per cent in the Republika Srpska.18 Within the displaced population, vulnerable groups such as female heads of households, disabled persons, victims of torture and severely traumatized individuals, elderly persons without family support, unaccompanied children and the Roma are again particularly affected and often live under extremely adverse conditions (Paragraph 29).
Psychological impact: Due to achievements with regard to the rate of return, as well as the start of the closure of camps by international agencies and local authorities some years ago, only several hundred IDPs remain in officially recognized collective centres. However, according to official figures, about 7,300 persons still live in irregular collective centres and ad hoc settlements which were originally provided by local authorities as temporary shelter for those displaced by the conflict. Most of these centres, which remain monitored by UNHCR, are located in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina where some receive limited support from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Refugees and Displaced Persons or the cantons and municipalities concerned. The Representative visited some of these unofficial centres and settlements no longer supported by the Government or the international community and noted with concern the abject poverty and deplorable living conditions of IDPs, which are clearly not in accordance with the right to an adequate standard of living as provided for by guiding principle 18. Unofficial settlements inhabited mainly by Roma have no running water and electricity and are not connected to public services such as waste collection. As a consequence of these conditions, the social isolation of the centres and the high percentage of inhabitants suffering from depression and trauma, an increased level of learning and psychological difficulties among children has been documented by UNICEF, affecting especially those children who have been living there for extended periods of up to 10 years (Paragraph 30).
Discrimination and education: Problems in the area of the right to education, such as discrimination and ethnic separation, pose another important obstacle to sustainable return. For years after the war, children attending the same school were separated on the basis of ethnicity, and different curricula with strong nationalist content were taught to different groups. As a result, many families have split, with one parent returning and the children staying with the other in the place of displacement to be able to follow the curriculum corresponding to their ethnicity. In other cases, children have returned with their parents but travel long distances to school. Since the authorities stopped financing the bussing of children to other entities at the end of the 2003/04 school year, some parents organize transportation themselves (Paragraph 46).
Although serious efforts have been made to address discrimination and to develop an egalitarian education system with curricula designed at State level, many challenges remain. In some regions, education is still organized along ethnic lines. For example, some 50 so-called “two schools under one roof”30 located mainly in parts of Herzegovina use the same facilities but are administratively separate and follow different curricula. Children, teachers and non-teaching staff segregated along ethnic lines attend the same school in shifts or use separate entrances and sections. The Representative found that school segregation perpetuates ethnic tensions into the next generation and delays the process of national reconciliation (Paragraph 47).
Efforts addressing these challenges include the 2002 education reform and an “interim agreement on accommodation of specific needs and rights of returnee children” signed in March 2002 between the entity Ministers of Education. As a result, returnee teachers were hired, and a larger number of schools offer to their minority returnee children separate classes on certain subjects such as language and literature, history, geography and religious instruction. Some schools have introduced the common core curriculum agreed upon by the education ministers in August 2003. As a consequence, certain areas recorded an increase in the number of returnee children attending schools in their places of return. Despite these efforts, marginalized groups of children, including IDPs and returnees as well as children with disabilities, face difficulties in accessing schooling. Of the 4-6 per cent of children not attending school at all, the majority are Roma and displaced children (Paragraph 48).
Report by the Independent Expert on minority issues
Visit undertaken from 17-25 September 2012
Report unavailable
Report by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women
Visit undertaken from 29 October - 5 November 2012
Report unavailable
Report by the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Visit undertaken from 13-24 May 2013
Report unavailable
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Visits requested
Visits accepted
- Special Rapporteur on racism (accepted in January 09)
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Last updated 29/07/2013 13:40:02
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