Tag Archives: Children

Canadian Governments and Churches Pursued a Policy of “Cultural Genocide”

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March First Nations Canada

Representatives of First Nations peoples took part in a march in Ottawa last Saturday

Canadian governments and churches pursued a policy of “cultural genocide” against the country’s aboriginal people throughout the 20th century, according to an investigation by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into a long-suppressed history that saw 150,000 Native, or First Nations, children forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated in residential schools rife with abuse.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to attend Christian schools to rid them of their native cultures and integrate them into Canadian society.

Children inducted into residential schools were forbidden from speaking their native languages, subjected to routine physical abuse, inadequate nutrition and neglect. Sexual abuse was common, according to the survivors who testified at commission hearings throughout the country.

More than 3,000 children died and were often buried in unmarked graves without any identification or notice to their parents. Continue reading →

Leiden Summer School on International Children’s Rights

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by Leiden University and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies

Venue: Leiden and The Hague

Date: 6-10 July 2015

Summer School 2015 International Children Rights

The Leiden Summer School on International Children’s Rights offers a great opportunity to engage with eminent professors, children’s rights experts and colleagues from all over the world and acquire state of the art knowledge of the most important global children’s rights themes.

The one week programme offers insight in highly relevant and topical issues including migration and children’s rights, children and digital technologies, children in armed conflict and conflict situations, child justice and child protection. In addition, you will be challenged to engage with experts in strategic litigation, monitoring of children’s rights and the role of civil society in implementing children’s rights.

The summer school is held in the beautiful cities of Leiden and The Hague and includes excursions to the Leiden Children’s Rights House, a youth institution and the International Criminal Court, as well as social activities. Previous editions have attracted professionals and advanced students from all over the world

The course will be coordinated by Professor Ton Liefaard, UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights at Leiden University, and by Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen, Professor of Children’s Rights in the Developing World at Leiden Law School

Guest speakers  will include Human Rights experts and academics.

Tuition fees for professionals are: €1100, and for students: €900.

A limited amount of applicants will be admitted to this summer school. The course is mainly aimed at professionals, but advanced students are invited to apply as well.

If you wish to apply, click here.

The deadline for applications is 1 June 2015.

ICC: Appeals Chamber Upholds Verdict and Sentence Against Thomas Lubanga

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Thomas Lubanga © Reuters

Today the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered its judgments on Thomas Lubanga’s appeal against the verdict issued by ICC Trial Chamber I, that Mr Lubanga was guilty of the enlistment, conscription and use in hostilities of children under the age of fifteen.

The Appeals Chamber issued simultaneously its judgment on the appeals of the Prosecutor and Mr Lubanga against the sentence imposed by the Trial Chamber. The Appeals Chamber confirmed, by majority, the verdict declaring Mr Lubanga guilty and the decision sentencing him to 14 years of imprisonment.

The Appeals Chamber rejected Mr Lubanga’s allegations that the proceedings were unfair and found that Mr Lubanga did not substantiate several grounds of appeal he raised. The Appeals Chamber established, with respect to factual errors, that it would not assess the evidence anew, but would intervene only if the Trial Chamber’s assessment of fact was found to be unreasonable. In applying this standard, the Appeals Chamber rejected, among others, the alleged errors in the Trial Chamber’s findings relevant to the age of the child soldiers.

With respect to the alleged legal errors regarding Mr Lubanga’s individual criminal responsibility, the Appeals Chamber confirmed the Trial Chamber’s approach that a co-perpetrator must make an essential contribution and does not need to personally and directly commit the crime.

With respect to the Prosecutor’s and Mr Lubanga’s appeals against the Sentencing Decision, the Appeals Chamber held that a Trial Chamber enjoys broad discretion in determining a sentence. The Appeals Chamber rejected all the grounds of appeal raised by the Prosecutor and Mr Lubanga, finding that the sentence was not disproportionate to the gravity of the crimes and reflected Mr Lubanga’s culpability for the crimes for which he was convicted. Accordingly, the Appeals Chamber confirmed the total sentence of 14 years.

For the Conviction Decision, click here.

For the Sentencing Decision, click here.

HRW Report on Children in Syrian Armed Groups

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syriacrd0614_reportcoverYesterday, Priyanka Motaparthy, a researcher in the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), published a report documenting on the recruitment and use of children by armed groups in Syria. The 31-page report entitled “Maybe We Live and Maybe We Die” recounts the experiences of 25 children and former child soldiers in Syria’s armed conflict. Priyanka Motaparthy interviewed children who fought with the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front coalition, and the extremist groups ISIS and Jabaht al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, as well as the military and police forces in Kurdish-controlled areas.

The investigation reveals that non-state armed groups in Syria have used children as young as 15 to fight in battles, sometimes recruiting them under the guise of offering education, and as young as 14 in support roles. Extremist Islamist groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) have specifically recruited children through free schooling campaigns that include weapons training, and have given them dangerous tasks, including suicide bombing missions.

“Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities” is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Syria in 2003,  bans government forces and non-state armed groups from recruiting and using children, defined as anyone under 18, as fighters and in other support roles. Continue reading →