Child
Rights Glossary : V
VICIOUS
CIRCLE
A situation in which one problem causes another problem that then
causes the first problem again, so that the whole process continues
to be repeated.
Child Labour
Globally speaking, there is no single cause of child labour nor
any single model adequately explain complex phenomenon of child
labour. Nevertheless, some of the factors affecting child labour
are identified as low income, indebting of family (part of repaying
the debt involves a child becoming an indentured labour to the
creditor party), big family size and fertility (household with
more children end up providing less education for each child and
may need to send children to work to help earn income to meet
needs), household structure and migration, difficulty in easy
access to qualitative schooling, and demand within a given society
for child labour. However, according to a study the most common
cause behind child labour in Pakistan remains of death or illness
of adult member of the family.
“Child labour is caused by poverty and vice versa,”
says Anees Jeelani, leading child rights activist. He suggests
that strategy to eliminate child labour involves poverty alleviation
measures, making education free and compulsory up to the secondary
school level, implementing child labour laws up to the informal
sectors, particularly rural areas. The civil society groups are
yet to figure out what entry point would be to tackle the issue.
We have to break the vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy to
end child labour.
VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN
Despite these new promises and the nearly universal ratification
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children's rights
were widely disregarded and many countries failed to muster the
political will to fulfil their legal obligations towards children.
Violence against children-frequently carried out at the hands
of the state-remained an issue that governments were loath to
address. Countless children continued to suffer violence resulting
in physical injury, psychological trauma, and even death. Street
children were subject to arbitrary detention and abuse by police;
children in correctional or other institutions were beaten or
tortured by staff; their teachers subjected children in schools
to severe beatings; others were victims of summary and arbitrary
executions. In many cases, the failure of law enforcement bodies
to promptly and effectively investigate and prosecute cases of
abuses allowed the abuse to continue.
As in past years, street children continued to suffer serious
abuses at the hands of authorities. An egregious example was Honduras,
where Casa Alianza reported that over 165 street children under
the age of eighteen were killed between January 1998 and September
2000; a total of 320 street youth between the ages of nine and
twenty-four were killed during this period. Police and security
forces were found to be responsible for the deaths in thirty-six
of the 320 cases. Nearly three-quarters of the cases remained
unsolved.
In a welcome development, the Committee on the Rights of the
Child agreed to focus on state violence against children for its
annual day of discussion in September 2000. The committee invited
written submissions and participation in two areas: state violence
suffered by children in conflict with the law and by children
living in the care of the state, including orphanages and other
institutions. Based on the discussion in two working groups, the
committee recommended that the U.N. General Assembly request the
U.N. secretary-general to conduct an in-depth international study
on the issue of violence against children. The committee recommended
that such a study be as thorough and influential as the landmark
1996 Graça Machel study on the Impact of Armed Conflict
on Children and include recommendations of effective actions to
address violence against children.
During the year, governments began to prepare for the U.N. General
Assembly's Special Session on Children in 2001, scheduled to follow
up the 1990 World Summit on Children. At the 1990 Summit, an unprecedented
number of world leaders adopted a declaration and plan of action
devoted primarily to improving the health and education of children.
The 2001 Special Session will review progress towards the goals
set in 1990 and identify new commitments that must be made to
address current threats and challenges facing children.
From May 30 to June 2, governments met for the first preparatory
committee meeting in advance of the Special Session. Representatives
admitted that many of the 1990 goals had not been met, that insufficient
resources had been allocated to children, and that the continued
prevalence of poverty, armed conflict, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic
in particular posed continuing and even increased threats to the
well-being and rights of children. However, it was unclear whether
governments would be willing to make new commitments to implementing
the full range of children's rights and move beyond the survival
and development agenda that dominated the 1990 Summit.
Nongovernmental organizations struggled in particular to place
exploitation and pervasive violence against children on governments'
agendas and to insist that governments use the Special Session
to commit to full implementation of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. A broad Child Rights Caucus formed to demand that
issues such as violence, child labour and contemporary forms of
slavery, sexual exploitation, trafficking, juvenile justice, and
protection during armed conflicts be addressed in any new commitments
resulting from the 2001 Special Session.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), charged with producing
a draft "outcome" document for the Special Session,
was reluctant to address adequately the protection needs for children
at risk of violence and exploitation. Despite a stated commitment
to uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the full
range of children's rights, early drafts reflected a traditional
agenda, focused on health, nutrition, basic education, and opportunities
for adolescents to participate in and contribute to their societies,
but largely ignoring the right of children to protection from
exploitation, violence, and abuse.
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