When children are born, they are, in a sense, proto-human. In other words, parents and the community have the power to mold them-to shape how they perceive the world, how they behave towards the human and natural environment and how they view themselves.
Even though some adults treat children as lesser beings, legally children possess the same rights and responsibilities as their adult counterparts. "Childhood is not a pre-human condition. Children, too, have human rights," said Cynthia Price Cohen, Executive Director of ChildRights International Research Institute and participant in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by 187 national governments, with the exception of the Cook Islands, Oman, Somalia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.
Despite the plethora of treaties that mention special protection for children, children's claims of rights violations often go unheard and unredressed. Price Cohen said, "The Convention on the Rights of the Child is still in its infancy. This is the newest convention besides the convention on migrant rights. It will take a while before we know what the Convention's impact will be." Established under Part II of the Convention to review progress on compliance with the Convention, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has received only one set of reports since 1993; the Convention simply requests national governments to "undertake to submit" reports on their progress in fulfilling the treaty obligations only once every five years after their initial report. Consequently, national governments, under no obligation to provide information to the Committee, can ignore this reporting aspect of the Convention.
Furthermore, even if governments provide periodic reports, the Committee does not have investigative powers to perform on-site monitoring of Convention compliance and verification of the accuracy of the national reports. The Convention only authorizes the Committee to provide observations, suggestions and general recommendations on the progress reports of national governments and to transmit governmental requests for technical assistance in complying with the Convention. The Committee has no mandate to act upon individual cases of human rights violations suffered by children, and it cannot require a particular government to cease a violative practice. Without investigative authority and the power to intervene on behalf of children, the Committee fails to transcend the symbolism of political rhetoric and the Convention remains a normative wish list.
Many nongovernmental organizations, such as Save the Children, Alliances Benefiting Children, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, as well as intergovernmental organizations, such as UNICEF, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Red Cross, monitor and independently report on violations of children's rights. Some also provide humanitarian assistance to children made refugees by war or who are living in extreme poverty. Certainly, they have identified the sources of violations in the anarchic and violent nation-state system, which often blatantly ignores and expressly violates human needs and human rights for economic gain or to maintain repressive control over a population. Monitoring and reporting violations is the first step in a global process to deal with children's rights violations; intervention and enforcement is the next step.
To be effective, an ombudsperson system would have to be independent of the United Nations, whose members often violate children's rights and whose political pressure might prevent a U.N.-based ombudsperson from autonomously and faithfully guarding the best interests of children. The ombudsperson would also need to have the authority to intervene on behalf of children whose rights may be violated by businesses and other nongovernmental actors. Furthermore, the ombudsperson's mandate should not be limited to egregious violations of children's rights. A network of local, regional and global ombudspersons, unaffiliated with local and national governments, could monitor and intervene on behalf of children in cases where, although their right to life may not or no longer be in danger, their rights to adequate social services and community participation are being violated. Moreover, the ombudsperson must have the capacity to act as legal advocate in domestic courts for children whose rights have been violated in cases in which the local government does not provide public prosecutors to children.
Beyond the regional level, an International Tribunal for Children's Rights has already been initiated in Montreal, Canada. Co-founder of the Tribunal Judge Andree Ruffo explained that this court will utilize the strategies of mediation and global publicity to promote respect for children's rights. She said, "It's easy for adults to write laws and conventions, but they have difficulty upholding them. We have a common and planetary responsibility to children, to raise their voices that these violations exist and that we must denounce them. Knowledge-the power of moral persuasion makes people aware of the violations. For example, we publicize that a perfume company employs children to pick flowers, and then people no longer buy that company's perfume."
This tribunal is a positive first step toward a global court for all human beings, whatever their age or other status. A World Court of Human Rights would allow individuals to have standing to prosecute human rights violations claims against both governmental and nongovernmental entities. It would also require an enforcement mechanism, beyond publicly exposing the violations, issuing injunctions, or designating criminal penalties. To assist the Court in enforcing its rulings, the ombudsperson system would also provide services of a world peace force. Comprised of volunteers from around the world, this peace force, like Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement, could intervene nonviolently in conflicts affecting children and provide arbitration services, negotiation and conflict resolution training.
In part two of this column, I will discuss children's education and children's participation in law-making as stages in the process of dealing with violations of children's rights.
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