Children

Are International Human Rights Mechanisms Enough for Protecting Children’s Rights in Iran?

Leave a Comment / Children, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

Following the killing, arrest and beating of children during the protests against the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, the passivity and silence of international mechanisms and organisations have been criticised. The establishment of a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations in Iran may turn out to be an effective international measure for accountability, but more needs to be done urgently.

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The Taliban Rule and the Radicalisation of Education in Afghanistan

Leave a Comment / Central Asia, Children, Gender, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

Since their takeover of power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have made several decisions to radicalise the education and higher education systems, on the basis of an extremely conservative interpretation of Sharia. The consequences are dire and far-reaching, affecting certain disadvantaged groups more than others. The most affected are young girls whose access to secondary education is banned.

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Human Rights Education: A way of overcoming division?

Leave a Comment / Alumni Regional Correspondents, Children, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Preparedness, Southeast Europe / Gaia Balbo

As Nelson Mandela said: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. Reshaping the Balkans’ partitioned schools to focus on inclusion and human rights could help challenge societal divisions and prejudices.

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Not an Optional Extra: Engaging with children, and their human rights, in times of emergency

Leave a Comment / Children, Global, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

There is no adequate protection without meaningful participation: we cannot protect children at any time, but arguably especially in emergencies, if we do not listen to their experiences and engage with their views.

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The Right of Children to a Healthy Environment: Intergenerational rights are children’s rights

Leave a Comment / Children, Environment, Global, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

The term ‘intergenerational equity’ relates to the rights of ‘future generations’ which is often taken to refer to those ‘yet to be born’. Child/youth climate activists are however demonstrating that present children intersect with future generations, and that intergenerational rights are children’s rights.

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Children’s Rights, COVID-19 and Preparing for Digital Disasters

Leave a Comment / Children, Curated 3, Curated Series, Global, Preparedness, Science & Technology / Gaia Balbo

Experts have been ringing the alarm bells about children’s privacy online for some time, but the pandemic exacerbated the need to focus on children as right bearers in the digital age. So, what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that children are treated as such and we can build a society resilient to the digital crises of the future?

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Social Media Opened a Gateway to Traffickers During India’s Deadly Second Wave of COVID-19

Leave a Comment / Asia-Pacific, Children, Curated 3, Curated Series, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

Technology played a significant part in traffickers taking advantage of COVID-19’s second wave in India. A number of children lost both their parents and for a few weeks, ‘COVID orphan adoption’ messages proliferated across social media. State institutions and civil society were unprepared for this challenge.

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COVID-19 Driving Child Marriage for Refugee Girls in Middle East North Africa (MENA)

Leave a Comment / Alumni Regional Correspondents, Arab World, Children, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

Children’s rights activists and international aid agencies in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region claim school closures, rising poverty rates and lack of legal barriers mean more underage refugee girls being forced to marry during COVID-19.

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Realising the Rights of Pregnant Girls During and After COVID-19 School Closures

Leave a Comment / Children, Global, Preparedness / Gaia Balbo

COVID-19 school closures have put girls at increased risk of unintended pregnancies. This in turn puts them at increased risk of dropping out or being excluded from school. Article 10(c) CEDAW obliges States Parties to eliminate the gender stereotypes that block girls’ education rights.

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