Children

YEMEN: Protecting women, children from violence
A Netherlands-funded project is aiming to provide better protection for women and children exposed to violence and sexual abuse. In June 2008 Interior Ministry statistics revealed 2,694 cases of violence against women in 2007, with cases ranging from killing to harassment; 130 women died as a result, 88 of whom were intentionally killed. Across the 2,694 cases, the violence caused 970 injuries. Yemen is ranked bottom among the 128 countries listed in the Global Gender Gap Report issued in 2007 by the World Economic Forum.

In a Fairy-Tale Village, Russian Orphans Thrive
An experimental orphanage in Kitezh is giving Russian children a taste of life’s possibilities and an alternative to the grim, crumbling state institutions where most orphaned Russian children reside. The community’s founders hope their efforts will serve as a model for reform and can be replicated in other parts of Russia.

VIETNAM: Child-led disaster training saving lives
According to Save the Children’s 2008 report, In the Face of Disaster, Children and Climate Change, In the Face of Disaster, Children and Climate Change more than 50 percent of those affected by natural disasters worldwide are children. In addition to the threat of death, they are much more at risk than adults to water-borne diseases and by the loss of adequate sanitation facilities. In Vietnam, Save the Children’s Child-Led Disaster Risk Reduction (CLDRR) programs have been operating for more than five years in seven provinces with more than 600 children in 30 schools have been trained.

PAKISTAN: The darker side of glittering bangles
Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim month of fasting, provides an annual boost for the glass bangles’ industry, but behind the glittering bangles lies another story - one of child labour, poverty, deprivation and hardship. “Usually we work eight or nine hours a day. At busy times like this we work for up to 16,” said Rizwan, as his 11-year-old cousin, Muhammad Fayyaz, looked on. Both boys are from Sahiwal, 160km southwest of Lahore, and were brought to the workshop by a relative. They each earn around 1,000 rupees (about US$13) a month. Pakistan’s huge glass bangle industry is centred on the city of Hyderabad, Sindh Province, and most production is for the domestic market. Dawn newspaper in May 2007 estimated that some 7,000 boys and 3,000 girls worked in the industry nationwide. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reckons 30,000 families are supported by the industry.

Young Iraqi girls turned into perfect weapon
U.S. and Iraqi officials argue that al-Qaida fighters are forcibly recruiting teenage girls as suicide attackers, drugging them and otherwise duping them into service. Rania Ibrahim Mutlib, a would-be suicide bomber, testifies that she was drugged and tricked into strapping on a vest laden with explosives.

Global leaders pledge $4.5B to send kids to school
A group of governments, humanitarian organizations, philanthropists and U.N. agencies last week pledged to donate $4.5 billion in an effort to enroll all the world’s children in school by 2015. The U.N. set that target in 2000, but the pace so far has not been sufficient to meet that goal.

LIBERIA: FGM continues in rural secrecy
Thousands of young girls annually prepare for their initiation into a women’s secret association, Sande Society, which operates mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. As part of their initiation, young women take a vow of secrecy after weeks of training in the forest, promising not to not tell uninitiated girls or men what happens to them, to assume new names, and to have their clitorises cut off - known as female genital mutilation (FGM) - according to women in the secret society. About half of Liberia’s some 16 ethnic groups, including the Bassa, Mende, Gola and Kissi, observe the rules of this historically-secret, centuries-old society.

SENEGAL: Malnutrition at crisis level in northeast
Poor rains and rising rice prices have contributed to increasing malnutrition to alarming levels in at least three regions of Senegal. Following a rapid assessment in July 2008 by the UN and the Mnistry of Health, the government has confirmed a malnutrition crisis in three of the five surveyed regions, with the most critical being Matam, where 17 percent of the children surveyed under five years old are malnourished.

AFRICA: Children take on the fight against sexual exploitation
Children should not be seen as victims of sexual exploitation, but rather the front-line fighters against it, said non-profit Save the Children Sweden at a preparatory meeting in Dakar in advance of the World Congress against sexual exploitation of children and adolescents to be held in Rio, Brazil in November 2008. The summit will be co-organised by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT). Up to 22 children from 15 African countries joined human rights groups, child specialists and non-profit organisations to debate how children can take on a bigger role in the fight against exploitation.

KYRGYZSTAN: Community kindergartens fill pre-school education gap
According to the head of the State Committee on Migration and Employment, Aigul Ryskulova, there are more than 400,000 Kyrgyz labour migrants, of whom 300,000 are working in Russia and 80,000 in Kazakhstan. In Soviet times, there was a kindergarten in the village but after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 it was closed down. Local children were deprived of any pre-school education for many years. Olga Grebennikova, a spokeswoman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN that about 11 percent of children in the country were attending pre-schools, while in rural areas that rate was between 2 and 6 percent.

UN: Ugandan rebels holding 90 children in DR Congo
The UN says 50 children were seized from a primary school and 40 children were seized from a secondary school by Ugandan rebels, who are holding the children in northern DR Congo. UNICEF has expressed concerns that the children might be impressed into fighting.

Burma’s secret schools of dissent
Political activists have established a network of schools that serve impoverished students and teach unofficial texts. For decades, the most reliable source of unofficial information has been smuggled books or underground discussion groups. Today, many go today to the American Center, a consulate branch that provides outside publications. The schools exist along the border with Thailand, in monasteries, and in jungles occupied by ethnic rebels.

We all know that the internet is a powerful tool, in the click of a button I’ll send this post out to hundreds of thousands of readers. Every day we all sit there and can send our thoughts to just about anyone and anyone, and in that same moment that we; send forwards of jokes, search for lost friends, buy a new pair of jeans, look for a vacation or just read the news, millions of children are violated and abused.  Yes, in that same flash that you instant messaged your best friend about your date last night, an image of an abused child was sent across the world to be viewed by millions.

A pornographic image is not a onetime image of abuse, but every time that image is viewed that child is once again abused and violated. Once out in cyberspace that image is lost in the fast paced internet world, never to be fully recovered again. The issue of child porn is a sensitive one, for its victims are never allowed to escape their abusers, as their abuse continues indefinitely, once circulated.

While the persecution of pedophiles and the efforts of law enforcement have increased, so has the difficulty to catch these offenders and find their innocent victims. To prosecute on behalf of each and every child or image, one must prove the child is ‘real’, and this is where the law and reality begin to shift apart. You may find 100 images on one person’s computer, and there may be 80 different children involved, but in order to prosecute on behalf of each image and child you must find each child, and often use them for testimony. This is where law enforcement and reality seem to crash and burn, for the identities of most children may never be found, and even if some are found they may be scattered around the world, and therefore building a solid case is often marred by distance and economics.

The lack of funding has been the pitfall for many victims of child pornography. As law enforcement officials try to grapple with the increasingly quick spread of pornographic images, the victims of internet porn are getting younger and the images are increasingly more violent.

However on September 24th, the United States Congress passed the PROTECT Our Children Act, (H.R. 3845/S. 1738). What does this mean?

- Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.

- Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.

- Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

While the new US act will clearly aid in the detection and prosecution of those involved in the use of child pornography, it will not truly aid those millions of children who are left to deal with the idea of their image in cyberspace for the remainder of their life.

Around the world millions up on millions of girls continue to remain marginalized. September 24th, International Girl Child Day, looks to bring light to the issues and awareness to the plight of girls across the globe. The fight for equality is far from new, and while historical battles have been fought and won across the globe, they are far from over. Around the globe the girl-child suffers needlessly, as daily struggles are increased by the relentless hold of history and cultural taboos. These battles for gender equality are compounded by the bureaucratic process of governments and politics.
 

Gender Inequality Facts:
- An estimated 39 million women and girls are “missing” in India alone due to infanticide and sex-selective abortions.
- More than 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), mainly in Africa and some Middle Eastern countries. (Frequently Asked Questions on FGM.)
- Of the estimated 500,000 to 2 million persons trafficked each year, the majority are females.
- 62 million of the 115 million children in the world who are not in school are girls.
*Sources: United Nations Development Fund for Women, “Violence Against Women — Facts and Figures”; UNICEF, “Basic Education and Gender Equality

The fight for the girl-child, is more than a fight for equality, but a fight to brake the chains of poverty, violence, illiteracy, modern slavery…it is the fight to sustainable solutions for the prosperity of all women, men and children. 

 India, the worlds largest democracy, is embattled in a fight for equality and this year Indian based CRY (Child Relief and You) has launched a new effort which will be focused solely on the discrimination against girls.For more information on gender inequality please see my previous posts here.

In Haiti the term Restavèk, a Creole word derived from the French “rester avec”, meaning “to stay with” or “to remain with”, is deeply rooted in the countries history. While sending your children away to work as a domestic may be deeply rooted in the impoverished countries history, however the modern reality is that some 300,000 children in the country are enslaved as domestic workers according to the UN. Essentially a child is sent to live with a family that is better off under the guise that they will benefit from living with the family via education and economic opportunity, however the children are enslaved in a daily life of domestic labor, receiving little to no education, and they are most often abused physically, mentally and sexually.

Haiti who fought for freedom from slavery, winning independence from France in 1804, at which time slavery was officially abolished, has now ironically become a major global hub for modern slavery, seeing victims trafficked both with in the country and internationally. In neighboring Dominican Republic the sugar plantations are feed almost solely off the backs of Haitians, and children are sold like common goods as was seen when Nightline took a A Shocking Look into Child Slavery in Haiti.

Despite the nations historical triumph over slavery and freedom the Restavèk system has continued to remain in place. However these vulneralble children have been left even more vulnerable in the wake of hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. UNICEF estimates that some 300,000 children have been affected by the storms. The Times recently ran the story, Children in Servitude, the Poorest of Haiti’s Poor , highlighting the increased abuses and suffering that Restavèk children are facing in the shadows of hurricane season. Food aid arrives in Haiti but delivery is still difficult, which has left many of the Restavèk children clamoring for the scraps as they are pushed aside and marginalized once again. The situation has left many to fear that Haiti could face new food crisis after storms.

While many organizations have missed the plight of the Restavèk children, others like Limyè Lavi work daily on the ground to see that not only are the rights of children improved, but that the root causes that have enabled the Restavèk situation in Haiti to continue are address. Until the economic and educational roots of such problems in Haiti are addressed, the plight of thousands of children each year looks to remain teetering in the shadows.

Please see my other posts on the current situation of children in Haiti here.

Links and Related Articles:
“Children of Shadows” - documentary
Restavèk: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle Class American - book by Jean-Robert Cadet
Restavek Fact Sheet
Fondasyon Limyè Lavi (Light of Life Foundation) / Free the Slaves
Rule of the rapists in Haiti

ISRAEL-OPT: Thousands of East Jerusalem children not in school
Thousands of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem do not attend school as there is no room for them in the state school system, parents and rights groups said, adding that the drop-out rate remained the highest in the Israeli school system.

PAKISTAN: Swat conflict takes toll on girls’ education
For the 300,000 children of Swat aged between three and nine, there are 842 boys’ and 490 girls’ government-run primary schools. But only 163,645 boys and 67,606 girls are enrolled at either private or public schools, according to official figures. Even before the destruction of schools began, about 50,000 were unable to get an education due to the scarcity of places.

MYANMAR: Health of cyclone-affected children improves
The health of children under five in cyclone-affected Myanmar is improving, say specialists, despite huge challenges. The nutritional status of children was poor even before Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar, leaving almost 140,000 people dead or missing and affecting 2.4 million people more. Approximately one-third of children in Myanmar are malnourished, and about one-fifth of newborns are underweight, according to this year’s State of the World’s Children report.

AFGHANISTAN: 1.8 million children to be immunised against polio on Peace Day
The Ministry of Public Health, backed by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), is planning to immunise 1.8 million under-fives against polio between 21 and 23 September.

ETHIOPIA: More parents saying no to FGM
“The knowledge [that FGM is harmful] is increasing,” said Abate Gudunfa, head of the Ethiopian National Committee on Traditional Practices (commonly referred to as EGLDAM - its name in Amharic]. A network of 40 NGOs, including EGLDAM, the government and international organisations, are involved in anti-FGM campaigns in Ethiopia. Policies have also been reviewed to ensure participants are punished. A 2007 survey conducted by EGLDAM found that prevalence across the country had dropped from 61 percent in 1997 to 46 percent.

KENYA: Young girls the new bait for fishermen
Jaboya (a customer who is also a lover), the only way for fish traders to make a living, some say and now there is stiff competition for a catch that is often less than plentiful means offering their own bodies is no longer enough, so desperate traders have now resorted to making available their younger, more nubile relatives - many of them under 18 years of age - to ensure they have an edge. The updated version of the jaboya system puts a new generation in the crosshairs of the pandemic, local health workers say. Nyanza Province has an HIV prevalence of 15.3 percent, the country’s highest. According to statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, prevalence among Kenyan fisher folk reached 30.5 percent in 2006.

RWANDA: Vulnerable children living on the margins
“There are at least 2.8 million vulnerable children in the country,” said Gisele Rutayisire, the officer in charge of social protection and governance for child rights with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kigali. An estimated 100,000 Rwandan households are headed by children. “There is a lot of vulnerability not only for children whose parents died in the genocide but also those whose parents are in prison as well as unaccompanied returnee children,” Rutayisire added.

NEPAL: Concern rising over illegal adoptions
A recent report, A study on inter-country adoption and its influence on child protection in Nepal by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Swiss NGO for child relief, Terre des hommes Foundation (TDH), revealed that the sale, abduction and trafficking of children was taking place in an under-regulated environment. The 62-page report was the result of six-month study conducted by researchers from a national NGO, the Centre for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities and child rights advocates in Nepal.

VIETNAM: Dramatic rise in child abuse cases
A Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), surveys indicate that the number of reported cases is skyrocketing. Statistics released by MOLISA on 22 August in a preliminary report available only in Vietnamese show violence against children in the home tripled between 2005 and 2007. Violence committed by teachers against children increased 13 times.

South Africa to provide vaccinations against child-killing diseases
South Africa will provide children with vaccinations for pneumococcal disease, the major vaccine-preventable cause of death among young children, and rotavirus, a diarrhea that affects almost every child before the age of 3.

Iraqi students exempted from school fees
Jordan has waived annual fees in state-owned schools for Iraqi students to help them cope with rising living costs, a Ministry of Education official said on 26 August.

Northern desert conflict disrupts maternal health care
Since violence broke out again last year, Mahaman Hanissou Ouedraogo, director of the UNFPA Agadez office, says it is hard to reach expecting mothers who live beyond town limits, which is roughly where paved roads end. Access to the mountains, which has been the centre of much of the fighting, is strictly cut off. The most recent information on maternal mortality in Niger was gathered before the latest surge in violence. According to the Niger government, in 2006 about 14,000 women died from pregnancy complications.

WHO: World needs to strengthen life expectancy rates
Social factors have an immense impact on lifespan and health. While life expectancy rates have increased across the globe in the last decade, the world community needs to do more to even the gains, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday. WHO officials are looking to identify ways to address causes of disparities, such as education, access and environment, as a step towards erasing them.

Child malnutrition is an old stain on a new India
Although India has staved off the specter of famine successfully in its bid over recent years to become a greater world power, it is still home to 40% of all the world’s severely malnourished young children. Only Bangladesh and Nepal have higher percentages of underweight children than India, where nearly half (60 million) are malnourished. Experts warn that malnutrition — which has never been treated as a serious concern for policy by India — could threaten to undermine the economic boom that India is currently enjoying.

In India, New Opportunities for Women Draw Anger and Abuse From Men
Harassment of women has increased among the upper middle class in India, where a backlash from men has answered the gains made by progressive women. The shift toward new retail and technology sectors and social mobility has eroded the centrality of the traditional, joint-family structure, freeing young women from the power of the husband and husband’s mother.

Measles Returns
An uptick in measles cases in the U.S., owing to misplaced fears among parents about vaccinations, has led to 15 hospitalizations. As in previous years, most incidents of the disease began when the virus was contracted abroad, but this year it spread more easily — resulting in 131 reported cases among home-schooled children and others who were refused vaccinations due to debunked fears that these vaccinations increase the possibility for autism.

 Palestinians return to school despite hardships As one million Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip prepare to return to school next week, UN agencies and the Palestinian Ministry of Education have been stressing the problems schoolchildren face in the occupied Palestinian territory [oPt].“We should celebrate - in spite of all the hardships - going back to school,” said Filippo Grandi, the deputy-commissioner of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, at a press conference held under the banner of “Unite for Education”.At the same time he noted that 76 Palestinian children had been killed so far this year, a 50 percent rise on last year.

Yemen confronts plight of child brides
Owing to widespread poverty and deeply rooted tradition, child marriage makes up nearly half of all marriages in Yemen. A law prohibiting marriage for girls under aged 15 was revoked in the 1990s because some readings of Muslim law suggest that age of marriage cannot be restricted. Parents who are unable to provide for families send off, and sometimes, sell their daughters.

Searching for Freedom, Chained by the Law
Increasing numbers of Pakistani women are stepping forward to challenge gender inequalities ingrained in Pakistani society. The brothers and husbands of women seeking independence often use false charges of extramarital affairs or other immorality to imprison women who refuse an arranged marriage or seek a divorce.

Germany Reports Hike in Childbirths
For decades now, Germany has been a demographic time bomb, with a fast-graying society and a shrinking population…creating a recipe for disaster for the future of the country’s cradle to grave social welfare system. On Wednesday, though, the country reported its first fertility rate increase since 2001, with an average number of 1.37 children per woman in 2007 — up from 1.33 the previous year. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reported 685,000 births in the country last year, 12,000 more than in 2006.

UN mission alarmed as another child kidnapping victim is killed
Officials with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti have voiced alarm at the continuing spate of kidnappings of children, days after abductors killed a boy apparently because his family could not pay the ransom. The body of the 12-year-old boy was found in Grande Ravine on August 16, four days after he had been kidnapped, the mission reported on August 19. He was the third child kidnapping victim to be killed this year. UN Police (UNPOL) announced that a 10-year-old boy was kidnapped last week in a separate incident in the Martissant neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

End Beating of Children in Public Schools
More than 200,000 US public school students were punished by beatings during the 2006-2007 school year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a joint report released Aug. 20. In the 13 states that corporally punished more than 1,000 students per year, African-American girls were twice as likely to be beaten as their white counterparts. In the 125-page report, “A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in US Public Schools,” the organizations found that in Texas and Mississippi children ranging in age from 3 to 19 years old are routinely physically punished for minor infractions.

UN project in Cote d’Ivoire to speed up reintegration of ex-combatants
The UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) launched a USD 5 million project on August 14 to speed the reintegration of ex-combatants from the country’s civil war, as well as young people at risk. The “1,000 micro-projects” initiative was launched in Bouake by the UN’s top envoy in the West Africa nation, Y.J. Choi. The projects seek to support ex-combatants, ex-militias and young people at risk, along with children and women associated with the Ivorian conflict. The projects cover a range of activities, including technical training, agriculture, cattle rearing, fishing, forestry, construction, transportation, motor mechanics, public works and catering.

Children are main victims of violence in Chad, Ban says in new report
Children continue to be the primary victims of the conflict in Chad, whether they are recruited as soldiers, killed or hurt by landmines or denied humanitarian access, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a report made public August 12. “The political, military and security situation remains highly volatile,” he said, due to the ongoing violence between Chadian armed forces and rebel groups, the presence of foreign rebels in the country’s east, cross-border raids by allied militiamen known as the Janjaweed and continuing tensions, mainly between Arab and non-Arab communities. As a result, children are made to suffer.

UN probes India ‘abuses’ in Congo
The UN has found that its peacekeeping troops from India may have engaged in abuse and exploitation while serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply troubled by the findings. Ban said the Indian government had assured the UN the allegations would be thoroughly investigated and if proven action would be taken. One UN official said there may have been abuse of young girls and boys by at least 100 Indian peacekeepers.

Australia Increases Support for Food Security in Indonesia
Australia will provide USD 6.5 million over two years to the World Food Program (WFP) to address malnutrition caused by chronic food shortages in Nusa Tenggara Timur and Nusa Tenggara Barat in Indonesia. Nutritional food supplements will be provided to the most vulnerable, including pregnant and nursing women and children. This two-year program continues Australia’s partnership with the WFP and will also build the Indonesian Government’s capacity to respond to the adverse impact of food shortages on communities in these provinces. Australia has committed USD 38 million to lift productivity in Indonesia’s agriculture sector.

UN mission launches countdown to International Peace Day
The top UN envoy to Afghanistan joined graduating students from Kabul’s Polytechnic to launch a countdown on Aug. 12 to the annual International Peace Day intended to be marked by a global ceasefire on September 21. “Peace is Afghanistan’s greatest need and it is the United Nations’ highest calling,” Kai Eide, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said. In other news, three female international aid workers were killed on Aug. 13 in an ambush by insurgents in the Logar province in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said.

The sacrifice that some children make at such young age is hard for most to imagine, but across the world many young people sacrifice their education and future to support that of their families. War, natural disasters and poverty have left many families and children seeing little options for survival and prosperity, causing many to remove children from school to enter the workforce, or even worse literally selling a child, in order to support the family.

May Thet, a teenager in Myanmar, has become the only hope to earn enough money to provide food for the family and send her younger sister to school. The sacrifice for May Thet is her education, her future;

“I feel like crying when I see my friends going to school, but, I have to console myself. It’s my destiny. There are a lot of us who can’t go to school because we have to help our parents. …Earning the family income is much more important right now than going to school.”

May Thet is lucky in some ways, as her mother has made sure that she stays close to home, despite the lure of additional income by going to work in Yangon (Rangoon), the country’s capital.

“My mother said no [to my going to Yangon to look for work as a housemaid], because she was afraid I would be sexually assaulted or trafficked into the sex industry. I’m also afraid of being sold or raped. But my mother told me I cannot go there. I have to listen to my mother’s orders.” (IRIN)

Almost three years after an earthquake devastated the communities in Pakistan, many stories mirror that of May Thet’s, as child labor on the rise in quake-hit north. The issue of child labor in Pakistan is nothing new, however following the earthquakes devastation a substantial rise in the number of children out of school and forced to work has caused grave concern to NGO’s and local authorities. NGO’s estimate that some 30% of children in the region are working and the last known estimate of child labor in Pakistan in 1996 put some 3.3 million children in the labor force, while now those in the field say the problem has only increased.

Endless cycles of debt bondage, one of the widest used forms of modern slavery, leave children forced to work towards the families debt, such as in Afghanistan’s brick factories. A local NGO in Sorkhrod District of the Nangarhar Province, estimated that some 2,298 children, mostly under the ages of 15, work in the 38 brick-making factories, 90% of which are not in school (IRIN).

However child labor and low school attendance levels are not the only concern for many countries, as abuse, violence and trafficking are also at the heart of the problem. As seen after a shocking case of abuse emerged from Pakistan last month as a father of 6, clubbed 4 of his children to death. Abdul Salam, an out of work laborer, stated that he had killed the children who ranged in age from 18 months to 11 years old , as he could no longer feed them. Salam had attempted to kill all 6 of the children; however 2 of the children survived the vicious attacks. Salam told the local press that he had killed the children because he was “unemployed for 10 days and could not meet their demands”, and that there was insufficient food in the house and when he killed them they had gone to sleep hungry, he said (Lack of food prompting extreme actions by parents).

The stories of children denied an education and a future are endless, they cover the globe and while the names may change, the stories themselves remain much the same. The issue of child labor only bringing a global magnifying glass to a local issue, uncovering the root causes for the worlds some 27 million slaves. Looking through the glass one can see that sustainable solutions must be immediately put into place in communities hit by disaster to ensure that children are able to remain in school while the families are able to rebuild and recover, as well as to those communities which continue to struggle with poverty and economic hardship. Education and awareness must also be brought to both the short and long-term effects of child labor and debt bondage, in order to begin to break the cycle and see a development of sustainable and viable solutions in each community.

Ex-Oprah school matron pleads not guilty in South Africa on Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Virginia Mokgobo, 27, arrested in November and out on bail, is facing charges relating to common assault, harassment and soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts and verbal abuse.

Pillay confirmed as human rights chief
The UN General Assembly unanimously confirmed the nomination of South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Chinese teacher heads for re-education over earthquake efforts
A Chinese teacher has been sentenced to one year in a labor re-education camp for taking photos of schools that collapsed in May’s devastating earthquake, Human Rights in China said Wednesday. Liu Shaokun was charged with “inciting a disturbance” after posting his photographs on the Internet.

Ambitious family planning goals
Madagascar, has doubled in the last 25 years, reaching 19.6 million in 2007, according to the UN, and is expected to hit 43.5 million by 2050. In some parts of the country 70% of 16-year-old girls have already given birth to their first child. The Madagascar Action Plan (MAP), has set two ambitious goals: reducing the average size of the Malagasy family and comprehensively meeting the demand for contraceptives and family planning, by making contraceptives more widely available, providing educational programs and reducing unwanted teenage pregnancies.

More education equals less teen pregnancy and HIV
Keeping Kenyan girls in school and ensuring they have access to HIV and sex education has a dramatic effect on lowering future levels of HIV, according to experts.

Women, non-Lebanese children get raw deal
Thousands of children in Lebanon are denied full access to education, healthcare and residency because they do not have Lebanese citizenship. Lebanese women cannot pass on their nationality to their children and in the event of separation, it is the father who gains automatic custody, according to Lebanese nationality law.

A child in prison surely sounds like a superfluous statement, for unquestionably children do not belong in prison. The word prison is often synonymous with adult, yet sadly around the globe there are some 1 million children languishing in prisons, and most of these are not some special child prison or version of juvenile detention, but adult prisons.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child the imprisonment of a child to be used “only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” and that the child “shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age”.

Poverty and war often lead children to the streets and they therefore often find themselves embattled in a life of petty crime, sex trafficking, begging, etc. Life on the streets for many children quickly leads them to be placed behind bars, such as in the Philippines.

In many countries, women who are placed in prisons who have children for which they cannot find relatives to care for, are often forced to take their children with them. Children are then imprisoned along with their mothers, where they often lack access to any form of education. The lack of education on a child can be devastating and in turn create a cycle of poverty. Such a case reached the media in May when in Zambia, Kabwe Social Workers Rescue Five Children From Prison. The five children, who’s ages ranged from 5 months to 4 years old, where placed in the care of local social services after they where discovered in the dire conditions of the maximum security prison. However the case in Zambia mirrors that of many other countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and many other countries.

The issue of children in prison, or detention centers, does not even escape western nations such as the US. As discussed in the post Child Detainees, An International Crime?, children detained at the Hutto, Texas, center. Hutto was again brought to light again only today in The New Yorker article, The Lost Children: What do tougher detention policies mean for illegal immigrant families?,

Children who are either placed in prison for their own perceived crimes and those who are placed in prison along side their mothers, are not the only children affected by what many see as systems failing families, including in the US as was brought to light this month in the article, Women, children suffer from harsh prison policies, on women in detention. Many states in the US are now looking at alternative solutions including prison nurseries, halfway houses, and other programs which help mothers and children foster healthier and more substantial relationships, in order to brake the cycle of prison life in the family.

The issue of children in prisons and detention centers is complex and varied, but one thing is clear, all of these children are being denied a fundamental right to childhood! The denial of freedom has led these children to be denied the rights to education, the right to play and thus the right to a healthy and happy existence.
See former posts on children in prison and search for other countries and recent articles, including;

• Brazil’s Penal System Shows It’s Lawlessness as A Young Girl is Raped For Weeks
• Child Detainees, An International Crime?
• Haiti’s Children’s Prison - 2005
• INSIDE THE CHILDREN’S PRISON IN ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA - 2002
• SUDAN: Women and children in prison
• Children in Conflict With the Law: What is Done, But Rarely Told - 2006
• DRC: Children “languishing in Ituri prisons”
• CAMEROON: Two months after riots, children remain in prison
• IRAQ: Child prisoners abused and tortured, say activists