Children's Rights Network - Newsletter February 2008

February 2008 Children's Network Newsletter
Co-ordinators – Joan & Peter Sutton

Editorial
We send New Year greetings to all members of the network and a warm welcome to another year of working for children’s rights.
This issue of the newsletter contains a number of news stories from around the world as well as the usual appeal letters. We hope that you find them interesting and informative; feedback from the network would be appreciated if you have any comment.

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER TO APOLOGISE
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will deliver an apology to the Aboriginal people for the “lost generation” when Parliament opens on February 13. Announcing the move, Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, said that the apology was the “first necessary step to move forward from the past”. She said that the apology would be made “on behalf of the Australian Government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people.”

The “lost generation” resulted from government policies between 1885 and 1969 which resulted in very many Aboriginal and half-caste children being forcibly removed from their families. They were placed with white families or in public and private institutions and they  were removed from contact with their families and their culture. Many of them were used as unpaid domestic servants while others suffered physical and sexual abuse. The children concerned were often alienated from both white and indigenous communities.

Aboriginal organisations welcomed the apology as long overdue and believe that it will contribute towards the  healing of  longstanding
grievances.

UN SEC-GENERAL CALLS FOR ACTION ON CHILD SOLDIERS
On January 29, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Security Council to impose sanctions on armies and groups in at least a dozen countries that make use of child soldiers.

Recruitment of children in armed conflicts was happening mainly in African and Asian countries, ranging from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to Myanmar and Sri Lanka, he said in his report.

Those responsible were rebel groups but also included government forces in countries like Chad, Somalia and Sudan. Some were guilty of killing and sexually abusing children, he said.

The Security Council should consider penalising those responsible by banning arms and military aid and slapping travel and financial restrictions on leaders, Ban said. Violence against children in conflict should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
UNICEF estimated last year that there were some 250,000 child soldiers worldwide.

Ban’s report said several precedents had been set over the last year. These included ICC charges against Congolese factional leader, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, for conscription of children. The court also issued arrest warrants for five senior members of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army on charges including using children in combat.

MYANMAR CHILD MINERS
The Los Angeles Times reports that it is  common for children in Myanmar to work in mines for small amounts of gems and precious metals to help feed and clothe their families. Meanwhile the military junta keeps firm control of all of the wealth coming from the mines

FRANCE  - ZOE’S ARK MEMBERS JAILED
A court near Paris ruled on January 28 that the six French aid workers convicted in Chad and sentenced to an eight year prison term for attempted kidnapping will serve that full jail term in France – though with no hard labour which is banned under French law. They were convicted in Chad for trying to secretly fly to France “for urgent care”, 103 children they claimed were orphans from Darfur. Investigations concluded that virtually all of the children were in fact relatively healthy Chadian nationals with at least one living parent.

The ruling brings the bizarre, at times tawdry, saga of humanitarian group Zoe’s Ark to its legal conclusion. However, emotions ran high as the judgment was read out. Relatives and friends of the six shook the courtroom with cries of protest and claims of political manipulation. (Condensed from Time article.)

MEXICO – Fear for Safety UA 31/08
Adriana Sarmiento Enriquez, aged 15, was last seen in the afternoon of January 18 2008 when she went to catch a bus home after attending school near the centre of Ciudad Juarez. When she had not returned home, her family reported her disappearance to the authorities. Women’s organisations, friends and relatives have distributed leaflets asking witnesses who had seen her to come forward. School friends held a demonstration demanding more action by the local authorities. Two other young women who had attended the same school had been abducted and murdered in 2003 and 2004.

According to local human rights organisations, at least four girls and women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2008. At least 430 women and girls have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez and the city of Chihuahua since 1993 and more than 40 women and girls remain missing.
On 29 January 2008, the National Human Rights Commission issued a report evaluating the steps taken by municipal, state and federal authorities to end th disappearance and murder of women in Ciudad Juarez . The report concluded that the three tiers of government had not taken sufficient measures to end the pattern of violence against women and girls.

Please write to the authorities making these points in your letter:-
• Express concern for the safety of Adriana Sarmiento Enriquez who was last seen on 18 January;
• Call on the authorities to ensure a rapid and effective police operation to investigate her disappearance and establish her whereabouts;
• Urge the prompt, full, effective and impartial investigation enjoying the full co-operation of municipal, state and federal institutions, of all cases of women who have been murdered or are missing in Chihuahua state;
• Call for the authorities to take effective steps to prevent, investigate and punish violence against women and girls in Chihuahua state and hold to account all officials implicated in acts of negligence or omission of previous investigations into such crimes.

ADDRESSES
Governor of Chihuahua State
Lic. José Reyes Baeza Terrazas
Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua
Palacio de Gobierno, piso 1, C. Aldama #901, Col. Centro Chihuahua, Estado de Chihuahua, C.P. 31000, MEXICO
Fax:  +52 614 4293300 ext. 11066
Email:  oacosta@chihuahua.gob.mx )
 (Dear Governor/Señor Gobernador)

Chihuahua State Public Prosecutor
Patricia González Rodríguez
Procuradora del Estado de Chihuahua, Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado
Vicente Guerrero 616, Col. Centro, Chihuahua 31000, Estado de Chihuahua, MEXICO
Fax:  +52 614 415 0314
E-mail: pagonzale@buzon.chihuahua.mx
(Dear Public Prosecutor/ Señora Procuradora General)

Federal Interior Minister
Lic. Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo
Secretaría de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso,
Col. Juárez, Del. Cuauhtémoc
México D.F., C.P.06600 MEXICO
Fax:   (+52 55) 5093 3414
E-mail:  secretario@segob.gob.mx
(Señor Secretario / Dear Minister)
MEXICO continued

COPY TO:
H.E. Mrs María Angélica Arce de Jeannet
Ambassador of Mexico
Level 8, Perpetual Trust House
P O Box 11 510, Manners Street
Wellington
Fax 04-496 3559
Email:mexico@xtra.co.nz
(Your Excellency)

IRAN – Juvenile Death Penalty
Amnesty remains extremely concerned at the number of child offenders sentenced to death or executed in Iran. As we continue the campaign, we have good news, bad news and further appeals.

GOOD NEWS

Sina Paymard, aged 18, was released in December 2007 after payment of the 1.5 million Iranian rials (US$160,000) in diyeh (blood money) demanded by the family of the murder victim. His story was included in appeals to the Iranian authorities in our newsletter of August 2007. He was 16 years old at the time of the killing.
Initially Sina Paymard’s family could only raise US$70,000 but donations from human rights groups and others in Iran raised a further US$90,000 to enable him to pay the diyeh demanded.

BAD NEWS

Amnesty regrets to announce that the appeals to the judiciary and authorities in Tehran, Iran, failed to save Makwan Moloudzadeh, aged 21, from execution. He was hanged on 4 December 2007 in Kermanshah Central Prison for the alleged rape of three boys in 1999 when he himself was 13 years old. His case was included in appeals in our newsletter of November/December 2007.

APPEAL LETTERS

Saeed Jazee (UA 08/08) Sculptor Saeed Jazee, aged 21, was convicted of the murder of a 22 year-old man when Saeed was 17 and he is now at risk of execution. According to reports, the murder happened when Saeed Jazee helped himself to a sandwich is his friend’s sandwich shop. There was a scuffle when a man who had just started working in the shop argued with him and attacked him with a knife which fell to the floor. As Saeed picked the knife up, the shop assistant rushed at him and was wounded and eventually died. Under Iran’s Criminal Code, murder is classed as ‘premeditated’ “in cases where the murderer intentionally makes an action which is inherently lethal, even if (the murderer) does not intend to kill the person.
“Behnoud” UA 09/08)(aged approx. 19 years). This young man has been convicted of a murder committed before he was 18 years old and is in danger of execution. He was convicted of beating to death a 19 year-old man known as Ehsan, with a bottle during a street fight in 2005. He was aged about 17 at the time.

Behnoud was sentenced to qesas (retribution) and his sentenced was upheld by the Supreme Court. According to the Iranian News Agency (FARS), Ehsan’s family demanded that Behnoud be executed. However the case has been referred to conciliation in order to allow both families to negotiate the payment  of diyeh
in exchsnge for pardoning Behnoud.

Amir Amrollahi UA 15/08 (aged 17 or 18). Amir Amrollahi is in imminent danger of execution for a murder committed when he was 16 years old. His execution order has been approved by the Supreme Court and passed to the Office for the Implementing of Sentences which organises executions. In a fight with another boy in November 2006, Amir stabbed the other boy in the chest because he thought he was about to be attacked by him. He then panicked and ran off. Medical attention did not reach the victim for at least half an hour and his wound proved fatal.
His family is poor so he could not afford a competent lawyer at his trial. According to a lawyer who recently took over his case, the court did not hear that the killing had been unintentional or that Amir was prescribed heavy doses of sedatives while awaiting trial. His mental state at the time of the incident was not properly considered.

Please write to the Iranian authorities making the following points:-
• Call on the authorities to halt the executions of Saeed Jazee, “Behnoud” and Amir Amrollahi;
• Express concern that they were sentenced to death for offences committed before they reached the age of 18 years;
• Call on the authorities to commute the death sentences;
IRAN continued
• Remind them that Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child which both prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under the age of 18;
• Urge the authorities to pass legislation urgently  to abolish the execution of anyone for a crime committed when they were under the age of 18 years.

ADDRESSES
Head of the Judiciary
H. E. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice,
Panzdah Khordad (Ark) Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
(In the subject line: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986 (please keep trying. If a voice answers, say, "Fax please.")
(Your Excellency)

Leader of the Islamic Republic
H. E. Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
 The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
( Your Excellency )

COPIES TO:
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
(via website) http://www.president.ir/email/
( Your Excellency )

Director, Human Rights Headquarters of Iran
His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani
C/o Office of the Deputy for International Affairs
Ministry of Justice,
Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad (Ark) Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 5 537 8827 (please keep trying)
Email fsharafi@bia-judiciary.ir
(Subject line FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani)
(Dear Director)

H.E. Mr Morteza Rahmani Movahed
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran
P O Box 10 249
WELLINGTON
Fax 04-386 3065
Email:info@iranembassy.org.nz
(Your Excellency)
 

ISRAEL – Administrative detention
Obeida ‘Assida is a Palestinian teenager who has been detained in Israel since 23 May 2007 when he was arrested by the Israeli army at his home in Tell village, near the West Bank city of Nablus. Obeida is currently being held under an “administrative detention” order, without charge or trial or any intention to bring him to trial. Aged 17 at the time of his arrest, Obeida has been allowed almost no visits from his parents, and has been prevented from completing his secondary education.
Twice since his detention, the Israeli army has arrested him on the day ordained for his release and placed another administrative detention on him. Since  Obeida’s  arrest in  May 2007,  his father has never been allowed to visit him and his mother only been allowed once, in October 2007. Obeida’s mother, Zaheeda, told Amnesty International that he has not been able to continue his studies, as the Israeli prison authorities have prevented him from receiving the books that he needs. He has effectively lost two years’ of his secondary education.

We thank you for your efforts and wish you a happy and prosperous year in 2008.

This newsletter is prepared for Amnesty International by Joan & Peter Sutton
Email: childrensrightsnetwork@amnesty.org.nz