Child
Rights Glossary : G
GENDER
Refers the roles which society assigns both men and women, which
define, among other things, who do what work and who has what
level of status and access to power. Generally, girls are more
vulnerable to various forms of child rights violations than boys
due to many reasons bordering on gender perceptions, as can be
seen in the factsheet below:
Girls are more likely to:
Begin working at an earlier age
» In Togo 16% of
all child domestic workers were found to be under 10 years 50%
under 14 years of age and 65% under 15.
» 20% of rural girls
in Ethiopia start working before they turn 5 year old.
Girls get paid less, or receive less
» One study found
that more than 50% of employed girls received no cash payment
for their work, as compared to only 7% of boys and where they
did receive payment, 96% handed over their entire salary to
their family, as compared to 5% of working boys.
Be concentrated
in sectors and areas having low pay and long hours
» For example one
study in the cotton picking Industry in India found that 85-90%
of all child labourers were girl bonded labourers. The wage
rate currently hovers at around 70% of the adult female wage.
» In Togo Domestic
labourers regularly do a 15 hour day.
Work in hidden and unregulated sectors,
making them more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse
» In Latin America,
it is not uncommon for a child servant to be hired in order
to work as a servant and also to satisfy the sexual desires
of the employer’s son. A survey in Lima, Peru showed that
60% of men who grew up with a domestic servant in their home
had their first sexual experience with that servant.
Be victims of trafficking for the purpose
of sexual exploitation or other extreme forms of work
» About 10% of prostitution
in northern Italy involves girls aged between 10 and 15 years,
and 30% of girls aged between 16 and 18. According to the Helsinki
Committee, one-third of all prostitutes in Italy are Albanian,
most of who are smuggled across the Adriatic.
» Girl trafficking
for prostitution is the third biggest illegal trade in south
Asia after trade of arms and ammunition and drugs.
» Between 5,000 and
7,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked every year across the border
to India. Most end up as sex workers in brothels in Bombay and
New Delhi. An estimated 200,000 Nepalese women, most of them
girls under 18, are sex workers in Indian cities.
» Girls as young
as 13 (mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe) are trafficked as
“mail-order brides”. In most cases, these girls
and women are powerless, isolated, and at great risk of violence.
» 90% of the large
numbers of children that are being trafficked in West and Central
Africa, for domestic work, sexual exploitation, to work in shops
or on farms, or to be scavengers or street hawkers are girls.
Be excluded from education, or suffer the
triple burden of housework, school work and economic work
» There are 65 million
girls’ around the world not going to school, many more
will only complete a few years of schooling.
» In Ethiopia, 76%
of rural girls have never been to school, while stunningly only
0.8% of girls in rural area complete basic education.
In defining globalisation, the International Youth Parliament (IYP),
a network of young leaders in 150 countries with a vision of "youth
building an equitable, sustainable and peaceful world, has split
the definition into two components.
On functional level, globalisation is the 'accelerating integration
of the world and its peoples' (see Horizons, Vol. 1, no. 3 2001,
editorial), or the 'intensification of worldwide social relations
which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings
are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa'
(Giddens, 1990).
The controversy surrounding the concept of globalisation becomes
more apparent when defining it from a political perspective. This
definition incorporates not only what globalisation is, but also
what impact it has and what consequences it produces. The problem
is that, depending on your perspective; the implications of globalisation
are both positive and negative. As Klaus Toepfer, the Executive
Director of the UNEP has pointed out:
Why has IYP chosen to campaign on enabling
youth/children to reshape globalisation?
It is because the rules, processes and impacts of globalisation
must be made to work for young people. Preliminary findings show
that globalisation is only working for some youth, not all.
Our challenge in reshaping globalisation is to promote sustainable
livelihoods and equity in development, which recognises young
people's rights and protects our environment. Our challenge is
to also maximise the positives that have emerged from globalisation.
Young people have a legitimate part to play in shaping the world
we live in. In order to begin to achieve a more equitable distribution
of the benefits of globalisation:
» Young people must
have the opportunities to engage in meaningful work, in conditions
that do not further impair the health, or their economic or
social standing.
» Young people and
their families must be able to rely on a standard of living
adequate for health and well being.
» Young people have
a right to life, liberty and security of person. They must have
the right to freedom of expression and their voices should be
heard in processes of decision-making.
» Young people have
a right to a healthy and safe environment, not only at home,
at school and in the work place, but also in terms of environmental
sustainability.
» Young people have
a right to an education, to prepare them for a place in their
community. Young people have a right to an identity. In particular
girls and young women have a right to the same opportunities
as boys and young men.
GLOBAL CAMPAIGN ON EDUCATION (GCE)
In October 1999, at the eve of the World Education Forum, a coalition
of civil society organisations joined forces to launch "Global
Campaign for Education". The GCE was founded by ActionAid,
Education International, Oxfam International and the Global March
Against Child Labour, and currently represents developmental NGOs
and teachers' unions in more than 100 countries. The Global March's
Education Campaign collaborates closely with the GCE to take action
for increasing resources for education and ensuring that education,
as key to ending child labour, remains high on the political agenda
among the governments of developing and donor countries.
Statistics show that 125 million children are not attending school
to learn their full potential. 880 million adults have already
seen their lives pass by without being able to read or write.
The fundamental right to education is denied to millions, despite
the fact that having a fully educated society will end economic
exploitation of children and break the cycle of poverty.
GO GIRLS’ EDUCATION CAMPAIGN
UNICEF’s '25 by 2005' campaign is a major initiative to eliminate
gender disparities in primary and secondary education in 25 priority
countries by the year 2005. The campaign, which includes fifteen
countries in Africa and Asian countries such as Afghanistan and
Bangladesh, focuses on countries where girls’ education is
in a critical situation and progress would make a real impact.
UNICEF will work closely with national governments and other
partners to identify girls who are not in school. In each country,
UNICEF will work with the government to mobilise new resources,
build broad national consensus about the need to get girls to
school, and help improve schools themselves to make them more
welcoming to girls.
UNICEF has chosen a manageable number of countries and based
its selection on criteria that looked for countries with one or
more of the following: low enrolment rates for girls; gender gaps
of more than 10% in primary education enrolment; countries with
more than one million girls out of school; countries included
on the Education For All Fast Track initiative; and countries
hard hit by a range of crises that affect school opportunities
for girls, such as HIV/AIDS and conflict.
Fox Kids Europe/UNICEF partnership
On 5 February 2003, Fox Kids Europe N.V. (FKE) (AMEX: FKE; Reuters:
FOXK.AS; Bloomberg: FKE.NA), the leading pan-European integrated
children’s entertainment company, announced a partnership
with UNICEF to promote UNICEF’s “Go Girls Education”
for Every Child campaign via the Fox Kids Cup, FKE’s global
six-a-side football tournament for boys and girls under 13 years
of age.
FKE and UNICEF will work together on a series of promotional
initiatives throughout the five-month build-up to the Fox Kids
Cup international final, which will take place in the Netherlands
during June 2003. All children participating in the Fox Kids Cup
will be asked to collect pledges from spectators, fans and friends
in support of girl’s education and UNICEF’s Go Girls!
Campaign. The pledge outlines what it takes to ensure every child
has the best possible education. Fox Kids channels and online
divisions across Europe, the Middle East and the affiliate Latin
America channel will also promote the campaign on a local basis.
UNICEF is also working closely with national governments on the
campaign.
The Fox Kids Cup 2003 event will be the biggest in its history
with an expected participation of more than 200,000 players from
20 or more countries around the world. Each participating country
will host tournaments in association with national football federations
or schools’ associations. The tournaments will commence
in February 2003 and will take place in more than 130 cities around
the world.
FKE and UNICEF first teamed up last year to promote Say Yes for
Children, a campaign in which over 94 million people pledged support
for ten basic principles to protect and improve the lives of children.
The Go Girls! Education for Every Child builds on the results
of Say Yes for Children, which identified education as the top
global priority.
GRASSROOTS
Activity at the local or community level.
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