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Children's Rights: More Flash Than Substance

By David Gallup

(Part I of two)

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.

Inadequacy of International Treaties

Besides the recent Convention on the Rights of the Child, other international agreements affirm children's rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, considers that children "are entitled to special care and assistance." Both the International Covenants, on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, provide social protection to children as part of family rights. The Declaration Concerning the Aims and Purposes of the International Labor Organization (ILO) instructs the ILO to develop international programs to achieve, among other goals, "provision for child welfare." Regional documents such as the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter encourage the protection of minors in their working and living conditions.

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.

Nongovernmental Organizations Monitoring Rights Violations

International League for Human Rights (ILHR) Program Director Ethan Taubes said, "No political instrument currently exists to intervene on behalf of children in serious situations at the world level. Despite the good offices of the Secretary General, UNICEF, and NGOs, cross-border problems continue; these include child soldiers, child refugees, bonded child labor, female genital mutilation, sale of children, and child prostitution. These problems are endemic and systemic." Price Cohen emphasizes the importance of applying a world view to the enforcement of children's rights: "Whether we like it or not, we're living in a world community and we have to create structures to deal with these global issues," she said. What legal and global structures can deal with the endemic and systemic sources of violations of children's rights?

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.

Global Ombudspersons to Prevent Rights Violations

As part of an ongoing project, the ILHR has suggested the creation of an "Office of Special Ombudsperson for the Rights of the Child." In addition to monitoring and investigating compliance with the Children's Rights Convention, the ILHR has suggested that an ombudsperson office could intervene in urgent cases of violations of children's rights, as a "roving" legal guardian who could expose the violations to the global public and confront governmental violators.

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.

A World Court of Human Rights to Adjudicate Children's Rights

In conjunction with a network of ombudspersons, a global judiciary, such as a World Court of Human Rights for which the World Judicial Commission has published a draft statute, could ensure that children's rights, as an integral part of human rights, are respected and enforced. Currently, only children in western Europe and the Americas have access to judicial grievance systems beyond those sponsored by the national governments: the European Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accept complaints from individuals whose rights have been violated. Their respective courts, however, do not provide for individual standing if the Commissions or national governments do not initiate the complaint.

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.

David Gallup is the General Counsel of the World Service Authority.


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