NaBloPoMo: Posting every day this month!

NaBloPoMo is here! That stands for National Blog Posting Month and the challenge is to write a post every single day throughout November. I really want to try to do this. For me, this has been such an unbelievably busy year, and between working in the UK, South Africa and for shorter amounts of time, Ghana and Romania too, I haven't always had the chance to blog. (Sometimes I haven't even had electricity, let alone an internet connection!) I want to take this opportunity to write about children's rights issues which have caught my attention recently, and also to share my experiences, in case they are of some value to people interested in children's rights and welfare. My work has included attending the Equal Education Public Hearings in Cape Town, assisting with educational projects for Roma children in Romania, drafting the education chapter for the Children's Rights Alliance for England's Annual Report, and researching and producing a document for a Cape Town child rights organisation, to help with their advocacy work on establishing an Ombudsperson for Children in South Africa.

Schoolboy speaks out at the Equal Education Public Hearings, Cape Town

There have been other challenges this year too, and it has been tough emotionally. A mother I know in Cape Town found out that her adopted daughter was deaf, and I tried to help her fundraise for a cochlear implant, to allow her little girl to hear. My charity, CHW, has also been trying to support eleven siblings who lost their father to cancer at the beginning of the year. I have known this family since 2010, through the Romanian charity, FAST, and this has been such a devastating time. Although the struggle to help children in need can get very tough, it is something we must not give up on! 

I am looking forward to both taking the time to write my own posts, and to reading others' blogs this month. It will be good to learn from other people and see what things they are posting about during NaBloPoMo!

A chance for children to complain about violations of their human rights

This year's theme for Blog Action Day is Human Rights, so I will take this opportunity to blog about a new chance for children to be able to complain about violations of their human rights at an international level. 

Image courtesy of africa at freedigitalphotos.net

There are nine UN human rights treaties. Each of the nine treaties has its own treaty body, or committee of experts, which monitors the implementation of the provisions of these treaties, by the states which have ratified them. One of these treaties is dedicated to children's human rights - the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC sets out children's most basic human rights, such as their right to survival, and protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation. It also sets standards in healthcare, education, and legal, civil and social services for children. Its treaty body is the Committee on the Rights of the Child. 

Currently, seven of the treaty bodies may, under certain conditions, receive and consider complaints or communications from individuals. This does not include the Committee on the Rights of the Child. This means that a child cannot complain to the Committee about violations of their human rights. This situation could change though...


A complaints mechanism for children's rights violations

In December 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communications procedure. So what does this mean? An optional protocol can either make provisions for procedures with regards to a treaty (in this case the CRC), or it can address a substantive area related to the treaty. States which are party to the main treaty can sign and ratify optional protocols. 

The communications procedure is the third Optional Protocol to the CRC. (The other two are the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.) The third Optional Protocol is not yet in force, because ten states have to ratify it first. After this, it will become international law. Children in states which ratify this Optional Protocol will then be able to submit complaints to the Committee on the rights of the Child, if their rights have been violated, and if they have exhausted all domestic remedies to seek justice. So far, eight countries have ratified the third Optional Protocol.


What sort of human rights violations would children be able to complain about?

Children would be able submit complaints to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, if their rights under the CRC had been violated, so long as their country had ratified the CRC. If their country had also ratified either or both of the other two Optional Protocols, children would also be able to submit complaints if their rights under these had been violated too.

Most countries in the world have ratified the CRC. In fact, only the USA, Somalia and South Sudan have not. Fewer countries have signed the first and second Optional Protocols. The ideal situation would be for all states to ratify the CRC and the three Optional Protocols, to give greater protection to children's rights globally, and to allow children to complain about human rights violations at an international level.


What happens next?

On the day the UN General Assembly adopted the third Optional Protocol, Save the Children made this statement: 

"Save the Children with over 80 international and national NGOs have been campaigning for many years to offer children a level of protection equivalent to that provided to adults by other core human rights treaties. Now that the international legal framework is created, the NGO coalition is dedicated to campaigning for the widespread ratification of the Protocol and making sure it is used to make a real difference in the struggle to protect children around the world."

It is important for as many states as possible to ratify the third Optional Protocol. Firstly, so that it will come into force (and just two more states need to ratify it to make this happen!), and secondly, so that as many children as possible will have access to the communications procedure and can complain about violations of their human rights. 

An international coalition concerned with the communications procedure, called Ratify OP3 CRC, has provided material which explains more about the Optional Protocol itself, including a child-friendly leaflet, as well as an advocacy toolkit and template letters you can send to your government, to urge them to ratify this Optional Protocol. All of these resources can be found on this page. 

Children are one of the most vulnerable groups in society. Giving them a way to speak out and complain against violations of their human rights at an international level, is an important and empowering thing to do.

Call for help in editing children and youth's statement on sustainable development!

Below is a message from the UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) about editing a statement to be presented on behalf of children and young people on sustainable development. It is a really nice chance to be involved as the statement will be read out on behalf of all children and youth, under the age of thirty, in the world. If you are under thirty and want to help out with editing this, read the message from MGCY, which I have pasted below, and follow the link.

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Dear Children and Youth,

Please find attached our statement for the High Level Political Forum.

This statement will be read on behalf of all young people...therefore its important that you take a few minutes to read it, make comments, edits or suggestions so that it adequately reflects ALL of you.

You can make the changes using this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K9yb2aQWqnhHUKYp7lAYcy4bTKr3TiuXZQvjoO8E01Q/edit

Please circulate it to your networks, members and friends so that as much feedback as possible is given.

Please make sure that you edit aspects that you don't like...we need to make this concise and effective. We also only have 3 minutes for this statement.
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Remembering "Little Rock" and the other children, three years on

Today it is three years since a tragic accident where a minibus, full of schoolchildren, collided with a train in Cape Town. Ten children died, including Lisle (known as "Little Rock" in the media). One organisation that my charity, CHW, works with in South Africa, The Future Factory, had been supporting Lisle in previous years. 

Lisle had already been through so much in her short life, and had suffered a terrible, abusive incident at just seven years old. I had met her a few times and she was always so bright and lively, despite what had happened to her. I wrote more about her story here, this time last year. 

Lisle

Lisle, and all the children who were in the accident, are in my heart, and my thoughts and prayers are with their families, especially today. 

Back from Ghana!

I have spent part of the summer in Ghana, and am now back in London.

With some of the school children at New Life

It was really good to visit CHW's projects in Ghana. This was the first country where I set up links for the charity and started to fundraise. The projects CHW supports there are close to Cape Coast. The children had all grown so much and it was just so great to see them again! However, it was also a very difficult trip for me, as the founder of New Life, Madam Ruby, had passed away in June. She was someone who had truly inspired me. I met her when I was eighteen and I think I would have taken a different path in life if it wasn't for her. I was able to spend time with her family, which I am grateful for, as I stayed with them during my trip. Madam Ruby's vision and inspiration live on, as the children she was so determined to help continue to have shelter and an education due to her work.

As well as spending time in Cape Coast, I also went to Accra, and caught up with some former colleagues. I did some legal research there, and in the past, I have also worked in a law firm and at an advocacy centre. I visited the Human Rights Advocacy Centre. If you have studied, or worked in, human rights, it is possible to do internships there. They do very interesting work. 

A lot of my colleagues were talking about issues raised from the Care Reform Initiative (CRI). Currently, children's homes usually accept abandoned children, as well as orphans. As a result of the implementation of the CRI, more children living in homes are being reunified with their families, if possible. This may be with parents, or with other family members. Some people who work with the children say that the children's families often want them to stay in homes (or orphanages), as the children live in better conditions and are guaranteed to get regular meals and have access to an education. This is a very big issue - globally, not just in Ghana - as ideally every child should have a family, and there are serious problems regarding institutionalisation, which will have lifelong effects. At the same time, struggling families may see children's homes as a way to give their children more opportunities in life. Further problems are raised as some homes may have different standards, and if not registered, may not be regulated. It seems that the policy-makers, those working on the ground, and parents have very different views. Ultimately any action must be in the best interests of the child. I would like to explore these issues further and I invite anyone to get in touch with me if they would like share their views on issues of children's homes and reunification (not just in the Ghanaian context, but in general. I am interested in hearing about all regions and countries, and how people are working to solve these problems for children.).

I now hope to post more regularly as I am back home! Wishing you all a nice weekend!

Chance to change the law to support Care-Leavers

Today, there is a chance that a change to the law on children leaving care could be discussed and accepted in Parliament. Currently, children in foster care must leave on or before their eighteenth birthday. Support for care-leavers depends on the local authority, and varies greatly from one area to another. 

The Children and Families Bill has been making its way through Parliament, and has reached its Report Stage today. It will be discussed later this morning. MP Paul Goggins has tabled an amendment which would allow young people in foster care to stay with their foster carers until their twenty-first birthday (as long as both parties agree). This amendment could be considered today, if the Speaker selects if for debate. A number of MPs have signed up in support of the amendment. You can see more about this on the website of the Don't Move Me Campaign.

The Who Cares? Trust has produced a briefing for the Report Stage of the Children and Families Bill. It highlights the fact that those leaving care are some of the most vulnerable people in society and states that:

"Many children who have been in the care system have had a childhood full of instability and trauma, with over 62 per cent of looked after children being taken into care due to abuse or neglect."

Yet despite this reality, young people in care are expected to be able to fend for themselves at an early age. The Fostering Network states that the average age for leaving home in the UK is twenty-four, but those who have been in care are expected to leave much earlier on. 

Image courtesy of marin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Fostering Network also produced a briefing (which you can download from this page), that states:

"Many young adults who have left the care system struggle to reach the same levels of educational attainment as their peers. They are over represented in prison populations, and are more likely to be unemployed, single parents, mental health service users and homeless than those who grew up within their own families...

The attainment gap between looked after children/care leavers and non-looked after children is wide.  In 2011, 40% of the general population was in higher education compared to only 7% of care leavers. The older an individual is when they leave care the more likely they are to remain in education."

Having to leave care before they are eighteen interrupts children's education. This article, in The Guardian, gives two examples of this. A girl, who was approaching her sixteenth birthday, and studying for her GCSEs, was told by the local authorities that her placement could no longer be funded, and was shown hostels where she could live. Another girl, who, in the run up to her eighteenth birthday, was studying for her A Levels, was told that her foster place could not be supported any longer. She would have had to leave college and go on income support. 

Whilst costs will be involved with extending payment to foster carers, the Guardian article points out that such a scheme would not be so expensive, based on the results of the Department for Education's pilot, called Staying Put. The Fostering Network's briefing also points out that costs to the public purse are incurred through supporting and treating young adults who have left care, and who are experiencing various problems, given in the quote above.

I hope that this amendment will be selected for debate and that it will be accepted. Much more needs to be done to support vulnerable children and young people leaving care.

Including Young People in the Post-2015 Process

The world now has its largest generation of young people ever! It was highlighted at a recent event at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), that half the world's population is under the age of twenty-five. In Tanzania, half the population is under 15! It is vital that young people are included in setting the development agenda.

The Millenium Development Goals, a set of eight development goals, agreed upon by the international community, will expire in 2015. Back in July 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, appointed a group of twenty-seven people, known as the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons, to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015. The Panel includes leaders from civil society, private sector and government and is co-chaired by the Presidents of Indonesia and Liberia, and the Prime Minister of the UK. The Panel released a report today, presenting their recommendations to Ban Ki-moon and the UN. You can read the report here.

Ban Ki-moon praised the Panel for its inclusive approach and extensive consultations over the past year. As ODI points out, young people have been a visible presence in the emerging post-2015 process, from taking part in participatory consultations and 'tweet-ups' to participating in roundtables with the High Level Panel. The two reports released at ODI's event show the importance of making the voices of young people count in setting the post-2015 agenda. Both reports are now online:

1. Youth and international development policy: the case for investing in young people, by the ODI.
2. Youth Voices on a Post-2015 World, by the DFID-CSO Youth Working Group.

Tomorrow (31 May), a number of stakeholders and UN Agency Groups will hold a discussion on the High Level Panel Report. The UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth forwarded this useful info sheet, with details of the discussion. The discussion will take place at the UN Headquarters and you can participate online.
You can watch a livestream of the discussion here, on the World We Want platform, from 10 am to 12 pm EDT.
You can follow the conversation on twitter using, #Post2015HLP, @WorldWeWant2015, @unngls, @2015on.

Please do pass this on to young people, so they can participate on 31 May. We cannot have a discussion about them, without them!