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	Plight of Children caught in Conflict Worsening by Leila Zerrougui Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, agencies   There has been an “increasing disregard for international law” in many conflict situations around the world, leading to a worsening of the plight of children, Leila Zerrougui told Member States today as she delivered her annual report to the United Nations General Assembly.   The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) highlighted multiple countries where conflict is ongoing or tensions and violence are rising – and said that children are paying a very high price in each of these situations. She also noted that children make up almost half the mounting number of refugees and displaced persons fleeing hostilities.   “Every year I have said that the plight of children in conflict has worsened,” SRSG Zerrougui said to the General Assembly. “Unfortunately, this trend has not changed.”   The 32-page report covers the period from August 2014 to July 2015.   She additionally drew attention to groups that perpetrate extreme violence, saying they have committed “unspeakable atrocities against children”.   However, she also cautioned that when responses to these groups fail to comply with international law, there is a risk of “aiding the very groups Governments seek to combat”.   She said that education is a “key factor in countering the extremist discourse of these groups and reducing the risk of radicalization”.   Other issues the Special Representative raised include attacks on education, child abductions, the arrest and detention of children on security charges and without due process, and the need for resources to facilitate reintegration of former child soldiers, including girls. She highlighted progress made in the “Children, Not Soldiers” campaign to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children by Government forces in armed conflict.   November 2015   Children as young as eight are being recruited by IS in Syria and Iraq as soldiers and suicide bombers, reports Evan Williams for SBS Dateline.   In one video made by IS, a young boy is seen hacking the head off a teddy bear, before holding up the knife to the camera. Others obtained by Evan Williams and screened on Dateline show large groups of children undergoing violent training sessions, preparing them to kill and be killed.   “How young would be the youngest boy that wants to be a suicide bomber?” he asks 14-year-old ‘Abu Ibrahim’, who managed to escape. “The youngest I saw do an operation was eight-years-old,” he says. “They said you should give them everything, even sacrifice yourself.”   The so-called Islamic State (IS) is believed to have tens of thousands of children under its control in Syria and Iraq – actively recruiting and radicalising them from a young age. They call them ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’.   Videos also show them beheading a Syrian officer and apparently executing two alleged Russian spies. And young recruits are forced to not only watch films like those, but real executions being carried out in front of them.   “They showed us how they kill President Bashar’s soldiers,” 11-year-old ‘Ahmed’ tells Evan. “Sometimes we tried not to watch, but when we did we were scared.”   Evan met 14-year-old ''Omar'', who was tortured for a month and a half after refusing to join IS and then publicly punished.   “They cut my hand off with a butcher’s knife,” he tells Evan just days after managing to escape Syria. “Then they cut off my foot and put them both in front of me for me to see.” The attack was carried out by a man known as ‘The Bulldozer’.   “They brought children and teenagers and told them, ‘all those who fight against us will have their hands and feet cut off’,” he says. “I have given up on life, I cannot walk, I cannot hold anything.”   Children are also taught to spy on their parents, who risk death if they object to their children joining IS.   * “The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in particular, the inclusion therein as a war crime, of conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years or using them to participate actively in hostilities in armed conflict. Access the 2015 reports by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the annual report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict via the links below:   http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/countries/syria/ http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/ http://bit.ly/1MPCw7Q http://bit.ly/1P4ZR7i http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/OPACCRC.aspx Visit the related web page
	G20 countries fail to keep their promises on fighting corruption by Transparency International, agencies   November 2015   G20 governments including the US and China have failed to deliver on their promise to fight corruption by adopting laws to end the secrecy that makes it easy for the corrupt to hide their identity and shift money across international borders.   As much as $2 trillion is laundered each year, much of it by hiding company ownership, yet only the United Kingdom in the G20 is actively working to make it harder for the corrupt to hide their cash, according to a new report from Transparency International.   The world’s biggest economies, the United States and China, are among the worst performers, falling into the “Weak Framework“ category. Both must intensify efforts to put the laws in place to stop the misuse of companies and other legal entities for corrupt purposes.   “Pick any major corruption scandal in recent history – Petrobras, FIFA, Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych – and you will find a secret company was used to pay a bribe, shift and hide stolen money, or buy luxury real estate in places like London and New York.   “It makes no sense that this gaping loophole for the corrupt remains open. What is stopping G20 countries from actively shutting down this vital avenue to corruption, despite promises to do so?” asked Transparency International Managing Director Cobus de Swardt.   It is now one year since G20 governments made the bold commitment (the G20 Beneficial Ownership Transparency Principles) in Brisbane to dismantle the legal structure that allows anonymous companies, trusts and other legal entities operating in the world’s 20 biggest economies to transfer and hide money often stolen through corruption.   Some countries have fallen behind on the most basic aspects of ensuring we know who is really behind companies, trusts and other entities. Brazil and South Africa have not even adopted a legal definition of beneficial ownership, the technical term used to describe the real person or persons ultimately in control.   G20 governments also need to tighten up their oversight on companies, banks and the people who help the corrupt to enjoy lavish lifestyles at the expense of their own citizens. Only two countries, India and the UK, require companies to record and keep up to date information about the real person who owns or controls them. That means in the rest of the G20 if a company does something illegal it may not be possible to hold the actual owner accountable.   Even more disturbing, in eight G20 countries that include the financial centres of New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney, even if banks can’t find out the identity of the real person behind the money, they can still go ahead and finish the transaction.   In seven G20 countries real estate agents don’t need to identify the real people who are behind the sales and purchases of property. As a result hundreds of billions of dollars of property in London and New York have secret owners. It is incredibly difficult to stop a corrupt politician from buying a luxury mansion with money stolen from public coffers if he uses simple measures to hide his connection to the funds.   Even though the UK is top-ranked in the survey its score under this assessment only covers domestic law and not the beneficial ownership standards for legal entities and trusts incorporated in the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The weaker performance in many of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies on key beneficial ownership issues threatens to undermine the UK’s implementation to the G20 principles as a whole.   "Governments need to supply the tools to make it easier for banks, accountants, lawyers and other businesses to stop corrupt customers. This means creating a central, public register containing beneficial ownership information, it’s that simple.   “The world looks to the G20 for leadership on political, economic and other important issues of the day. To avoid looking little more than a talk shop, they must keep their promises – including on tackling corruption,” said Cobus de Swardt.   * Access the full report via the link below, see also: http://www.taxjustice.net/2015/11/10/still-broken-major-new-report-on-global-corporate-tax-cheating/   Standing Doctrine and Anticorruption Litigation. (Open Society Justice Initiative)   In recent years, a range of private citizens and civil society organizations have become more active in going to court directly to challenge grand corruption. But their ability to do so depends on the court in question recognizing their legal right to be heard—their standing.   This paper seeks to provide a brief overview of standing doctrine in a number of jurisdictions, and its implications for private anticorruption litigation.   Written by Professor Mathew Stephenson of Harvard Law School, this is the first in a series of papers examining the challenges and opportunities facing civil society groups that seek to develop innovative legal approaches to expose and punish grand corruption.   This project has been developed from a day of discussions on the worldwide legal fight against high-level corruption organized by the Justice Initiative and Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, held in June 2014.   Professor Stephenson teaches administrative law, legislation and regulation, anti-corruption law, and political economy of public law. His research focuses on the application of positive political theory to public law, particularly in the areas of administrative procedure, anti-corruption, judicial institutions, and separation of powers. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Global Anticorruption Blog.   http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/standing-doctrine-and-anticorruption-litigation-survey http://globalanticorruptionblog.com/ Visit the related web page
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