A compilation of extracts from ngo reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child relating to violence against children This document is an annex to the publication
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NEW ZEALANDEast Asia and Pacific CRC Session 34, 15 September - 03 October 2003 Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.34/ChildrenYouthAotearoa2003_FullReport.pdf […] New Zealand enered a Reservation to the Convention which allows for the mixing of under 18 year olds in some circumstances. At the end of 2002, there were 99 under 17 year olds in prison custody- 86 young males and 13 young females. In Some 8 males were mixed with adults. All females under 18 remained mixed with adult women. […] The limited information available shows that the incidence of vioilence to children in New Zealand is unacceptably high. […] A number of new Government initiatives (including the Agenda for Children, Te Rito – the Family Violence Stategy and the Blueprint for Care and Proteciton) may lead to improved outcomes for children in New Zealand over the next reporting period. […] The rights of many children cared for outside their birth families are not being met – and neither are the needs of their care-givers. Specialised therapeutic services for children traumatised by abuse are inadequate. The support, protection and rehabilitation rights of children caught up in domestic violence are not adequately recognised and often neglected. Maori children and young people are over represented in child abuse statistics and there are insufficient high quality and culturally appropriate services to meet their needs. Children’s participation rights and legal representation needs are not given priority or adequately respected in care and protection processes. There is widespread support for the principles of the care and protection provisions of the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989 (and considerable international interest in the New Zealand approach), but the outcomes of this legislation have not been evaluated through research. Although there has been progress in addressing sexual exploitation of children major problems still exist: • More information is needed about the extent of commercial exploitation of children in New Zealand and advocates report a growing incidence of child prostitution in major cities. • Services and support for children and young people already caught up in the sex industry are inadequate. • Unless more action is taken to address the precursors of the problems (including poverty, family violence and an inadequate care and protection system) children will continue to be vulnerable to commercial exploitation and sexual abuse. • The Government's Plan of Action to protect children from commercial exploitation has not yet been resourced or implemented. • Although convictions for child pornography are relatively high the penalties are light in comparison with other western countries. • The Government is yet to ratify the Optional Protocol on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime and its accompanying Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. […]
New Zealand does not do well in protecting workers, especially children. It is widely accepted that children from ten or tewelve years of age (and sometimes younger) will work part-time. This is seen as both a way of learning about responsibility and ‘good work habits’, and of earning money for the family, for educational costs and for ‘pocket money’. […]
The newspaper report stated that between 1 March and 30 May 2002, 107 youths spent 279 nights in Police cells, ranging up to eight nights at a time in some cases. […]
Physical punishment is still legal in New Zealand. […]
Reported child deaths from violence are one measure of violence to children, but probably do not accurately reflect the number of deaths because some abuse deaths may not be classified in a away that identifies them as abuse. For example, shaken baby deaths and deaths from neglect cannot always be identified as deaths from abuse. An average of about nine children a year under 14 years of age die in circumstances that can be classified as abuse. […]
The number of recorded notifications to Child Youth and Family Services rose from below 25,00 in 1996/97 to 26,588 in 1999/2000. NICARAGUAThe Americas CRC Session 39, 16 May - 3 June 2005 Federación Coordinadora Nicaraguense de ONGs que trabaja con la ninez y la Adolescencia www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.39/Nicaragua_summary(E).pdf (English summary) www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.39/Nicaragua_ngo_report(S).pdf (full version in Spanish) Violence against women, children and adolescents is a public health problem that has acquired important dimensions in Nicaragua. Negligence, lack of affection and abandonment are expressions of violence that affect social capacities as well as physical and emotional development, thus becoming a threat to the exercise of their human rights because it damages their self-esteem and security. According to data published by the World Bank, Nicaragua has the second highest rate of domestic violence in Latin America, with close to one in every three women reporting physical abuse, frequently in front of their children and commonly when they are pregnant.135 According to data from the ENDESA survey,136 52.8% of children who live in urban households and 54.4% of those in rural households are victims of abuse. The adults’ vision of children’s inferiority and weakness and the predominance of unequal power relations between genders act as social conditioners for the use of violence. Surmounting this negative health situation requires political will and investment by the state, yet the budget assigned to the health sector is insufficient. In 2002, approximately US$18 million was invested in health, which is equivalent to US$16.00 per inhabitant. That same year Ministry of Health cut the number of the medical personnel by 10%.137 The situation of children and adolescents regarding the right to special protection presents important challenges derived from the growth of population groups affected by situations requiring special protection, in particular labor exploitation, situations of abuse and abandonment, commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in children and adolescents. In the past two decades, child labor has increased palpably in Nicaragua due to the lack of jobs for adults, migrations of families from the countryside to the city and the intensification of poverty. Even though there has been legislative progress with the signing of international treaties, inter-sectoral coordination and the establishment of national plans to deal with and respond to this problematic situation in recent years, the incorporation of children and adolescents into the labor market is on the rise and starts at an earlier age. In Nicaragua, boys and girls start working at age 5 or 6 in agriculture-related labor, the manufacturing industry and commerce. According to ILO/IPEC data, 106,451 Nicaraguan children between 5 and 12 years old are involved in some labor activity. Including adolescents, the figure is estimated at over 300,000. The ILO-IPEC estimated that over 25,000 female children and adolescents in Nicaragua are dedicated to Domestic Child Labor, considered one of the worst forms of child labor. Despite the advances in this aspect achieved with the ratification of international conventions, the creation of coordinating entities and the formulation of the National Plan for the progressive eradication of child labor, the problem of labor exploitation continues to grow, which indicates that it is not enough to have programs targeted to groups of working children and adolescents. It is also necessary to implement a strategy to prevent the growth of this phenomenon and ensure special protection against this scourge that affects children and adolescents. No studies exist that give an accurate dimension of the problematic of commercial sexual exploitation in the country, which makes it difficult to define actions to respond to and prevent it. According to data provided by small polls, the Coordinating Federation of NGOs that work with children and adolescents (CODENI) estimates that nearly 20,000 Nicaraguan children and adolescents of both sexes are victims of sexual violence, pornography, remunerated sexual activity and sexual tourism. Given this phenomenon, important joint efforts are being made by CODENI, entities of the Nicaraguan judicial system, ILO-IPEC, Children’s Ombudsman, Covenant House, Ministry of the Family and CONAPINA aimed at revising the Penal Code with respect to sexual crimes, particularly to the already existing figures regarding sexual exploitation. The involvement of adolescents in the commission of criminal acts and the phenomenon of spontaneous youth gangs is an issue that has been present in Nicaragua for over a decade but has created a greater public perception of insecurity in the past five years. This problem is evidence of the generalized levels of social decomposition and the lack of real education and recreation alternatives or organizational options for adolescents and young adults. For some it is the aftermath of the armed conflict of the eighties and the intensification of the poverty, but since the Children’s Code went into effect, the media and public opinion have generated perceptions in the collective self-image that magnify the youth group phenomenon, stigmatizing adolescence and thus distancing an objective and correct addressing of the problem. According to National Police data, minors under 18 only represent 8.2% of the total number of people accused of committing crimes in 2002.138 In recent years, progress has been made such as the creation of seven juvenile criminal courts in the country’s main departmental capitals and the training of human resources in the police and judicial sector in dealing with adolescents. A pending theme is the definition of strategies for applying socio-educational measures for adolescents under 15 years old and those from 15 to 18 who have committed crimes that do not merit their being deprived of liberty. It should be stressed that the coordinated action of judicial branch entities, police, municipal governments and civil society organizations are developing efforts for the application of these measures, but given the lack of control and follow-up offices, it is difficult to fulfill them. Despite the request for resources made by the Supreme Court, the budget lines assigned to this branch of the state continue to be insufficient to comply with the dispositions of the Code of Children and Adolescents regarding penal justice. NIGERWest and Central AfricaCRC Session 30, 20 May-June 2002 Niger Network For The Child Plan International Niger http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.30/niger_ngo_report_eng.pdf […] Child refugee and affected by armed conflicts Niger is a signatory of the Convention on the protection of child refugees and in conflict situation. A High Commission for peace restoration has been established to look into and find solution to the various types of armed rebellion the country went through the past years. Niger is not facing serious refugees issues and armed conflict; however, important social and economical reinsertion programs have been conducted for young rebels living in the North and the far east of the country. […]
Child trafficking The phenomenon tends to be developed in Niger; so, it is urgent that tough sensitization and repressive measures be taken by the Government on one hand, and NGOs, Associations and stakeholders on the other hand. NIGERIAWest and Central Africa CRC Session 38, 10-28 January 2005 African Network For The Prevention And Protection Against Child Abuse And Neglect – Nigeria Chapter www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.38/Nigeria_ANPPCAN_ngo_report.pdf […]
In fact, an estimated 700,000 children have lost one or both parents as a result of AIDS and it is projected that this number will climb to 2.5 million been 2010. No substantial support for these children has yet been planned. In view of the adverse economic situation facing Nigerian families, it should be expected that most of the orphans would not receive the same care and attention from relatives as they would have got from their own parents. If the epidemic is not effectively controlled, Nigeria and its children will face a grim future. […]
Trafficking in children mainly for the purpose of domestic service or prostitution, is a relatively new phenomenon that has received wide media coverage in Nigeria but has been the subject of few research studies. In view of the clandestine nature of trafficking, accurate and reliable information on the phenomenon is sparse. The only recent study on child trafficking was conducted on behalf of ILO in locations that were already suspected to have a high population of trafficked children (Ebigbo 2000). These were sites in Owerri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Lagos, Kano, Sokoto and Maiduguri. There has been some form of confusion between commercial trafficking and migration through traditional fostering arrangements, which have traditionally been a common practice in Nigeria. The trafficking of children is not a purely local phenomenon, within Nigeria’s borders. It has a significant regional and international dimension too. It is a well-known phenomenon that children are being smuggled across international frontiers, mainly for menial work in the heavily immigration – dependent economy of Garbon, plantation work in Cameroon and commercial sex work in Europe. […] The number of children who live and sleep on the streets has been on the increase in most major urban areas in Nigeria. There are so many locations in which children are found to be living on the street. Street families are also becoming prominent in certain urban slum areas. These destitute families can be found living under bridges, in public toilets and in markets. Their children too are in extremely precarious condition and urgently require intervention and assistance. […] Commercial sexual exploitation has become a problem of special concern in Nigeria, both because of its scale and because of its role in the development of the HIV/AIDS epidemic now sweeping the country. Studies of sexual exploitation are scarce, owing to the clandestine nature of the phenomenon and the traditional inhibitions on discussion of sexual behaviour. Few studies however, indicate that child prostitution is now common in towns such as Owerri, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Edo in the South East and South South geo-political zones, Markurdi and ilorin in the North central zone, Maiduguri in the North East and Lagos in the South West. Directory: docs docs -> Application for acem docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project docs -> Traditional British values docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. What is a Register Of Merit docs -> Protecting the rights of the child in the context of migration docs -> United Nations E/C. 12/Esp/5 docs -> 9th May 1950 the schuman declaration docs -> Getting To Outcomes® in Services for Homeless Veterans 10 Steps for Achieving Accountability Download 4.33 Mb. Share with your friends:
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