Human rights group issues report on international childrens rights News
Human rights group issues report on international childrens rights

[JURIST] Human rights group ChildFund Alliance (CFA) [advocacy website] on Thursday issued a report [text, PDF] addressing the current issues with international children’s rights commemorating the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [text]. The report, entitled “Small Voices, Big Dreams Survey,” recognizes the need and urges for additional human rights protections to be addressed by the international community, despite the continued implementation of new laws protecting children’s rights. The survey reports that “[i]n developing countries, 28% of children surveyed say children in their country are rarely or never protected from harmful work that is detrimental to their health and education.” The report’s findings come from surveying children from the age of 10 to 14 from 44 different countries around the world. CFA hopes that the survey will raise awareness for children’s Rights [CFA report] in an effort to end the exploitation and violence by adults and nations.

Of the many international children’s rights issues, recruitment of children soldiers has been controversial topic worldwide. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released a report [JURIST report] in June claiming that teenagers as young as 15 have been recruited by armed groups in Syria with some becoming suicide bombers. Earlier that month the International Criminal Court [official website] confirmed war crimes charges against Congolese general Bosco Ntanga [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] including the recruitment of child soldiers. In January the UN Children’s Fund [official website] reported that as many as 6,000 child soldiers may be involved [JURIST report] in the conflict in the Central African Republic [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. HRW reported in September 2012 that armed Islamist groups in northern Mali are employing child soldiers [JURIST report]. The Transitional Government of Somalia [CFR backgrounder] signed [JURIST report] a UN-backed action plan in July 2012 to end the recruitment of child soldiers.

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