Photo: World Bank/Celine Ferre
15 June 2015 – The distressing crime of elder abuse often occurs in quiet, private settings, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, as he reminded people around the world of the importance of making “a vocal, public response” to support the rights of older persons to a life free of violence and abuse.
“It is a disturbing and tragic fact in our world that members of the older generations are too often neglected and abused,” the UN chief said in a message. “This painful reality generally goes ignored by mainstream society.”
“At the same time,” Mr. Ban said, “the ageing of the world's population has added urgency to promoting and defending the rights of older persons, who are expected to make up more than 20 per cent of the global population by 2050.”
(GENEVA, Issued as received) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, called on governments across the world to fully recognize the rights of trafficked persons, “who are entitled to assistance, protection and access to justice and remedies regardless of their residence status or whether perpetrators are identified, investigated or prosecuted.”
“Not all migrants are trafficked. However, a significant portion of migrants are trafficked but are not recognised as such by national authorities,” the expert stated in her latest report* to the Human Rights Council, in which she reminds States of their obligation to ensure policy coherence between anti-trafficking policies and migration and asylum policies.
“Moreover, a much greater portion of migrants are at high risk of being trafficked, especially when they are forced to leave their countries as a consequence of conflicts, violence, persecution, torture or other human rights violations, or extreme poverty,” she warned.
Ms. Giammarinaro stressed that the fight against trafficking, forced labour or slavery “is hampered by criminalisation and detention of migrants, restrictive migration policies denying any opportunity to migrate regularly including for work purposes, or not allowing migrants, asylum seekers and refugees to work regularly once in the country.”
In her report, the human rights expert stresses that governments should be aware that pushing back people fleeing conflicts not only is contrary to their international obligations, but also results in denying trafficked persons the possibility to claim their rights.
GENEVA (Issued as received) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns, has called on the UN system and other international human rights bodies to “catch up” with rapidly developing innovations in human rights fact-finding and investigations. “The digital age presents challenges that can only be met through the smart use of digital tools,” he said.
In his latest report to the Human Rights Council, Mr. Heyns highlighted that information and communication technologies (ICTs) —the hardware and software that produce and transmit information in the digital space— can play an increasing role in the protection of all human rights, including the right to life, by reinforcing the role of ‘civilian witnesses’ in documenting rights violations.
“We have all seen how the actions of police officers and other who use excessive force are captured on cell phones and lead to action against the perpetrators. Billions of people around the world carry a powerful weapon to capture such events in their pockets,” the expert said. “The fact that this is well-known can be a significant deterrent to abuses.”
The expert described in his report how various organizations are developing alert applications that journalists, human rights defenders and others can use to send an emergency message (along with GPS co-ordinates) to their friends and colleagues if they feel in immediate danger.
Human Rights Council holds panel discussion on women’s participation in power and in decision-making
The Human Rights Council this afternoon concluded its annual day-long discussion on the human rights of women with a panel focusing on women’s participation in power and in decision-making. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Flavia Pansieri, delivered the opening statement.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Pansieri said that although women had increased their participation in political and public life, progress was coming at a snail’s pace. At present, their participation remained a distant cry from the 50 per cent parity that should be their objective. Women represented a mere 20 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians and 17 per cent of the Heads of State. In the economic sphere, women continued to be paid less for work of equal value and in top leadership bodies they were severely underrepresented. Furthermore, too many of them were trapped in the informal economy and unpaid work at home. In order to ensure women’s equal enjoyment of the rights to economic and political participation, laws mandating the equality of women and their equal access to resources and opportunities were needed. In addition, States had to abolish laws which discriminated against women and limited their opportunities, and political systems needed to fully represent women as well as men. Lastly, there was a need for enabling environments that valued and promoted young women’s voices and equipped them with the skills to become leaders.
The moderator of the panel discussion was Emna Aouij, Chair of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. Participating in the panel were: Arancha González, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre; Shirin Akhter, Parliamentarian and trade union activist from Bangladesh; Lucrèce Falolou, Project Officer of World Young Women’s Christian Association in Benin; Michèle Ollier, Partner at Index Ventures in France; and Lilian Soto, Researcher on gender, public policies and public administration from Paraguay.
All cases of sexual abuse of children – no matter if they are a result of a physical meeting, or committed purely online – should be criminalized, says a new Council of Europe’s opinion on “online grooming” presented in Strasbourg today.
The opinion was adopted by the Lanzarote Committee bringing together all 36 states who ratified the Council of Europe’s legally binding Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Convention).
Drafted in 2007, the Lanzarote Convention may not meet today’s and, more importantly, tomorrow’s challenges with regard to online grooming, the document says: the definition of solicitation for sexual purposes and its limits are unclear; some forms of online behaviour that can be traumatic for children are not explicitly covered.
The text of the Convention will not change, but the opinion provides useful guidance for states who want to go one step further in fighting online grooming and criminalize it. The responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of online grooming should remain with law enforcement authorities and the criminal justice. Specialized NGOs can provide assistance, but should not replace law enforcement.
