Child
Rights Glossary : B
BAL MITRA GRAM
The majority of children deprived of their childhood, opportunities
and future, live in different villages. Most of them are engaged
in economic activities and denied schooling. Their emancipation
is today's biggest challenge. The solution lies in changing the
mindset, behaviour and priorities of the village community.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude)
in India is working towards creating a child friendly society
where the first and foremost step is child friendly village, BAL
MITRA GRAM.
The BBA (SACCS) has been engaged in wiping out the blot of child
servitude for more than two decades. Their efforts have led to
the release of more than 60,000 children from the shackles of
servitude.
The uniqueness of the Bal Mitra Gram (BMG) initiative lies in
active participation of the village children in creating a legitimate
democratic space for themselves in panchayats, communities, schools
and families. Secondly solving the deep rooted problem of child
labour and creating a demand and value for good education as a
village pride, igniting the mass consciousness and using the people's
potential, power and local resources is another significant element
for success and sustainability. BMG is the true translation of
child rights at the grassroots level.
BASIC NEEDS, BASIC RIGHTS
The essentials that everyone has a right to, including food, water,
education, healthcare, information and participation. It is believed
that by taking advantage of these rights people will be free from
a life of poverty.
BEST PRACTICE
It is the continuous process of learning, feedback, reflection
and analysis of what works (or does not work) and why.
It is the basis from which various child rights, and other organisations,
identify, exchange and document important lessons learned. Best
Practice has been shared through exchange forums networks Best
Practice Collection publications, and technical assistance.
UNIDS (HIV/Aids)
As regards UNAIDS and its co-sponsors and partners, for example,
the Best Practice Collection expanded to over 190 original publications
and videos in 1998, including joint and Co-sponsor publications.
The collection includes Technical Update, Point of View, Case
Study, Key Material and the Summary Booklet.
Best practice means much more than preparing publications for
the UNAIDS Best Practice Collection. Drawing on practical experience
from countries around the world, effective approaches, policies,
strategies and technologies are identified as "best practice"
by UNAIDS Secretariat and Co-sponsors.
For example, the Secretariat and Co-sponsors strongly advocate
HIV-related education as a best practice. UNICEF is helping countries
to develop youth-friendly health services and to promote life-skills
education that includes information on HIV/AIDS. UNFPA has worked
to integrate HIV and sexually transmitted disease prevention into
family life and reproductive health programmes for young people
in more than 150 countries. UNDCP organised the Drug Abuse Prevention
Forum in Banff, Canada. The outcome of the meeting was "Vision
from Banff," a document stating young people's goals to achieve
demand reduction for drugs. The World Bank is including HIV/STD
education in its negotiations on Bank loans for more efficient
school systems and in its training programmes for World Bank Task
Managers.
Other areas where best practice policies, strategies and projects
have been identified include condom promotion, women-controlled
barriers to HIV, voluntary HIV counselling and testing, helping
HIV-positive mothers to have healthy babies, and preventing HIV
in mobile populations and other at-risk population groups.
Other useful examples of Best Practices
on various topics:
» Adoption of the Best
Practices on Child Soldiers: An international symposium on child
soldiers was held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 30 April 1997.
The meeting agreed on principles of "Best Practice"
to prevent child recruitment and to promote demobilization and
reintegration of the children. The symposium also drafted a Plan
of Action to put an end to the use of child soldiers (for more
details, see Child Soldiers).
»
International Cocoa Initiative Best Practices: Working
Towards Responsible Labour Standards For Cocoa Growing.”
A Catalyst for Progress in Addressing Abusive Child Labour Practices.
Geneva, Switzerland (July 1, 2002). (Also see Fair Trade Chocolate)
»
The Common Law Judicial Conference On International Child Custody
Best Practices: (Washington, D.C., September 17-21, 2000). Proposals
for the ‘Best Practices’ to improve operation of the
Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction ("Hague Child Abduction Convention").
» Best Practices in
Respite Services For Children: A guide for families, policy makers,
program developers. Health Canada, in its Principles of Child
and Youth Health (1993), asserts that children must be valued
and felt to be valued for their intrinsic worth, not just as a
resource for the future. "For optimal development, children
need to grow up in a nurturing atmosphere of support, happiness,
love and understanding. Support for the family...is the single
most important way that society can optimise the development of
children and youth."
BONDED CHILD LABOUR
Refers to the phenomenon of children working in conditions of servitude
in order to pay off debt. The debt that binds their employer is
incurred not by the children themselves, but by their relatives
or their guardians – usually by a parent.
The United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition
of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar
To Slavery, 1956, defines debt bondage as “the status or
condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services
or those of a person under his control as security for a debt,
if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied
towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of
those services are not respectively limited and defined.”
In many third world countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa,
where child labour statistics are comparatively higher than any
other region; the act of debt child servitude is based on old
cultural beliefs, a scenario that makes it even extremely challenging
to eliminate it, as it entails changing the ingrained mindsets
or attitudes of society.
A 1996 Human Rights Watch report on bonded child labour in India,
dubbed The Small Hands of Slavery attempts to answer the question:
Why does India – the Indian government, the ruling elite,
the business interests, the populace as a whole – tolerate
this in its midst?
“Bonded child labour is convenient, cheap, compliant, and
dependable. It depresses wages. It is easily replenishable. Bonded
labour among both adults and children is not a new phenomenon
in India. It is an old arrangement, and a convenient one for the
lucky top layers of privilege. Those who have the power to change
this arrangement are, by all measures, uninterested to do so.”
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CRIDOC was established to create access to information on child rights & related issues. Its Director, Mr George Mwika Kayange, recently ran a column in The Malawi News entitled "Know About Acess to Information Bill." To access the articles, please 
The Children's Manifesto published by CRIDOC ahead of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections on 19th May 2009 outlines all the major issues affecting children and young people in Malawi which the incumbent government must address urgently.
