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	Ruling by children’s rights committee step forward in fight to eradicate slavery in Mauritania by Anti-Slavery International, Minority Rights Group   26 Jan. 2018   Ruling by the African Union’s committee a major step forward in fight to eradicate slavery in Mauritania, rights groups say.   Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and Anti-Slavery International warmly welcome the landmark ruling of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) in the case of Said and Yarg Salem against Mauritania.   The decision in the case of two brothers born into slavery in Mauritania, whose former masters were prosecuted for slavery in the first ever such case in the country, but given extremely lenient sentences, was announced on 26 January 2018 by the ACERWC.   The ACERWC found that Mauritania’s authorities have failed to take adequate steps to prevent, investigate, prosecute, punish and remedy the widespread practice of slavery which particularly affects the state’s ethnic Haratine community, resulting in a situation of impunity.   Ruling that Mauritania’s Anti-Slavery Law does not provide adequate protection against slavery in practice, it found the state to be in violation of its obligations to protect children’s rights under the African Children’s Charter, including a failure to act in their best interest and protect them from discrimination, child labour, abuse and harmful cultural practices, as well as to provide for their survival and development, education, and leisure, recreation and cultural activities.   Mauritania is now required to provide the two child victims with compensation, psychosocial support and education and ensure that all the perpetrators are brought to justice. It must also take wider steps to eradicate child slavery in Mauritania, including providing special measures for child victims and making the elimination of slavery a priority.   ‘This ruling has the potential to bring about real change in how Mauritania addresses the criminal prosecution of slavery in Mauritania.’ says Lucy Claridge, MRG’s Legal Director and member of the team presenting the case to the Committee in 2016. ‘MRG has supported this case since 2011 as we believe that the law can be used to improve lives. We now urge the Mauritanian government to fully respect the ruling and set about putting the ACERWC’s recommendations in to action.’   Acting on behalf of the Salem brothers, MRG and Mauritanian NGO SOS-Esclaves took the case before the ACERWC, a body of the African Union whose role is to urge states to comply with their obligations under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The case was first heard by the ACERWC on 27 October 2016, and the Committee carried out a country visit in March 2017 to further investigate the allegations.   “I’m really happy for the boys; they’ve been waiting so long for justice”, Said Jakub Sobik, a spokesman for Anti-Slavery International, which helped bring the original case into the Mauritanian courts in 2011 and supported the current case.   “This ruling offers recognition that they were wronged and that they were failed by their own government. The message from African Union to the Mauritanian Government is extremely clear: ensure that their masters are prosecuted with the full force of the law.   “I’m also happy for all the other survivors of slavery who are waiting for justice as their cases get ignored by Mauritanian courts. If the Mauritanian Government is unwilling to prosecute slavery of its own volition, we will have to make it happen through international pressure.”   SOS Esclaves welcomed the ruling and urged the Mauritanian government to implement it. “The Government should ensure the effective promotion of all human rights and the total eradication of slavery by the firm application of the law that criminalises slavery. The African Commission and the international community must do everything possible to help achieve this goal”, the organisation said in a statement.   http://www.antislavery.org/big-win-mauritania-slavery/ http://www.antislavery.org/anti-slavery-charter/ http://minorityrights.org/2018/01/26/ruling-african-unions-childrens-rights-committee-represents-major-step-forward-fight-eradicate-slavery-mauritania-rights-groups-say/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/12/interview-mauritanias-taboo-topics http://www.freedomunited.org/news/african-union-mauritania-must-crack-slavery/ Visit the related web page
	One in six children globally living in areas impacted by conflict by Save the Children, UN Children''s Fund   One in six children globally living in areas impacted by conflict. (Save the Children)   More children than ever before—at least 357 million globally—are now living in areas affected by conflict, a new report by Save the Children reveals.   The War on Children: Time to End Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict shows this number has increased by 75 per cent since the early 1990s, with one in six children globally now living in impacted areas.   Nearly half of these children are in areas affected by high-intensity conflict where they could be vulnerable to the UN’s six grave violations—killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children, sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian assistance.   The report shows there are significant gaps in child and gender-specific data in conflicts that need to be addressed by improved monitoring and reporting mechanisms. Despite this, some trends are clear—and deeply worrying.   Since 2010, the number of UN-verified cases of children being killed and maimed has gone up by almost 300 per cent, while incidents of denial of humanitarian access have skyrocketed by more than 1,500 per cent. The widespread stigma around rape and sexual assault means it is an especially under-reported aspect of conflict, but it is clear that this issue remains prevalent and that both girls and boys are at risk.   This has been fuelled by a growing disregard for the rules of war, and indiscriminate violence in countries like Syria, South Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan.   The War on Children report attributes the worsening situation to the increasing urbanisation of war, the growing use of explosive weapons in populated areas, as well as the protracted and more complex nature of modern conflict that has put children and civilians on the front lines. It also reveals that:   Brutal tactics are increasingly used to target children in warfare—including the use of children as suicide bombers, direct targeting of schools and hospitals and the widespread use of indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions, barrel bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).   Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia were the most dangerous conflict-affected countries to be a child in 2016.   Children in the Middle East are most likely to be living in a conflict zone, with two in five children in that region living in a conflict-affected area—the highest rate globally.   Africa is second, with 1 in 5 children affected by conflict. Asia has the highest overall number of children affected by conflict.   Save the Children International CEO, Helle Thorning Schmidt, said: “We are seeing a shocking increase in the number of children growing up in areas affected by conflict, and being exposed to the most serious forms of violence imaginable.   “Children are suffering things that no child ever should; from sexual violence to being used as suicide bombers. Their homes, schools and playgrounds have become battlefields.   “Crimes like this against children are the darkest kind of abuse imaginable, and are a flagrant violation of international law. World leaders must do more to hold perpetrators accountable.   “This failure to protect children in conflict not only robs them, but also their countries—and the entire world—of a better future.   “We face a stark choice. Will we stand by while more children die at their school desks and in their hospital beds, are denied life-saving aid or are recruited into armed groups? Or will we tackle the culture of impunity and end the ‘war on children’ for good?”   Save the Children is calling on states, militaries, and all actors with influence over the lives of children in conflict to commit to practical actions on four key themes:   Preventing children being put at risk: Investments need to be made in conflict-prevention initiatives and peacekeeping, and training for military forces on child protection.   Upholding international laws and standards: All states and actors should abide by their commitments under international law, and should endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and Paris Commitments & Paris Principles.[iii] States and armed groups must commit to avoiding the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.   Holding violators to account: We urgently need stronger monitoring and reporting mechanisms to properly track civilian harm and child casualties, and stronger justice systems that address violations of children’s rights in conflict.   Rebuilding shattered lives: We must put children at the centre of reconstruction efforts and invest in support for children affected by conflict, including providing appropriate mental health care for children, training local mental health and social workers and assisting children with disabilities.   Funding for the rebuilding of children’s lives wrecked by conflict must also be made available. http://bit.ly/2tkB4LG   http://www.savethechildren.net/waronchildren/   Children under attack at shocking scale in conflicts around the world, says UNICEF.   Children in conflict zones around the world have come under attack at a shocking scale throughout the year, UNICEF warned today, with parties to conflicts blatantly disregarding international laws designed to protect the most vulnerable.   “Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”   In conflicts around the world, children have become frontline targets, used as human shields, killed, maimed and recruited to fight. Rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement have become standard tactics in conflicts from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, to Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar.   In some contexts, children abducted by extremist groups experience abuse yet again upon release when they are detained by security forces. Millions more children are paying an indirect price for these conflicts, suffering from malnutrition, disease and trauma as basic services – including access to food, water, sanitation and health – are denied, damaged or destroyed in the fighting.   Over the course of 2017:   In Afghanistan, almost 700 children were killed in the first 9 months of the year.   In the Central African Republic, after months of renewed fighting, a dramatic increase in violence saw children being killed, raped, abducted and recruited by armed groups.   In the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, violence has driven 850,000 children from their homes, while more than 200 health centres and 400 schools were attacked. An estimated 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute malnutrition.   In northeast Nigeria and Cameroon, Boko Haram has forced at least 135 children to act as suicide bombers, almost five times the number in 2016.   In Iraq and Syria, children have reportedly been used as human shields, trapped under siege, targeted by snipers and lived through intense bombardment and violence.   In Myanmar, Rohingya children suffered and witnessed shocking and widespread violence as they were attacked and driven from their homes in Rakhine state; while children in remote border areas of Kachin, Shan, and Kayin states continued to suffer the consequences of ongoing tensions between the Myanmar Armed Forces and various ethnic armed groups.   In South Sudan, where conflict and a collapsing economy led to a famine declaration in parts of the country, more than 19,000 children have been recruited into armed forces and armed groups, and over 2,300 children have been killed or injured since the conflict first erupted in December 2013.   In Somalia, 1,740 cases of child recruitment were reported in the first 10 months of 2017.   In Yemen, nearly 1,000 days of fighting left at least 5,000 children dead or injured, according to verified data, with actual numbers expected to be much higher. More than 11 million children need humanitarian assistance. Out of 1.8 million children suffering from malnutrition, 385,000 are severely malnourished and at risk of death if not urgently treated.   UNICEF calls on all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law to immediately end violations against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.   UNICEF also calls on States with influence over parties to conflict to use that influence to protect children. Across all these countries, UNICEF works with partners to provide the most vulnerable children with health, nutrition, education and child protection services. http://uni.cf/2zFzSjZ Visit the related web page
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