tagged w/ Children's Rights
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by Alex DiBranco
A 12-year-old girl in Kentucky was forced to sit, isolated from the other students, in the back of a school bus by order of the driver. For what cause? The student has two mommies, and objected to homophobic talk by others on the bus. But Michael A. Jones reports on Gay Rights that the bus driver, Ronell Mattingly, found the homophobia amusing, and when she found out the girl was the daughter of same-sex parents, also insulted and mocked her.
The girl informed the Mattingly she was a "jerk," for which she got suspended from the bus for a few days, and upon returning was sent to the back of the bus (reminiscent of segregation much?). The bus driver, on the other hand, seems to have been given a free pass. Oh, and when the girls' parents protested that their daughter was being punished for standing up for their family? The Assistant Principal said the 12-year-old should grow "thicker skin."
This isn't the first time a child has been punished by a school for having same-sex parents; just a couple days ago, we learned that a Massachusetts Catholic school was off-limits to an eight-year-old with two mommies, and in March, we heard that a four- and five-year-old in Boulder, Colorado, were going to be kicked out at the end of the year for the sin of having two parents who are both female. But this case is a little different, because the school in question is a public institution. So, do you want your tax dollars going to support homophobia?
One other thing: the bus driver, Mattingly, had the audacity to demand that the girl to apologize to her. She aggressively demanded a written apology, which the girl's family had already decided was definitely not going to happen, forcing the girl to stop riding the school bus again to escape being harassed. The only apology that should be happening is from the school, to the girl and her family, and the driver should be the one kicked off the bus.
Photo credit: Bruno Girinby Alex DiBranco
A 12-year-old girl in Kentucky was forced to sit, isolated from... more
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PART ONE...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/21/america.female.genital.cutting/index.html
Pressure for female genital cutting lingers in the U.S.
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
Photo: Despite cultural pressures, Fatima Mohamed, a Somali living in the U.S., refuses to allow her 11-year-old daughter to be cut.
(CNN) -- Fatima Mohamed, a 45-year-old Somali immigrant living in America, was faced with a question most parents will never worry about: Should my daughter be circumcised?
The United States has outlawed female genital cutting, but cultural and religious pressures to circumcise girls linger among some African and Muslim immigrant families. Mohamed says the decision was an easy one for her to make after going through the painful experience herself in Africa as a child. She strongly opposes the idea of cutting her 11-year-old daughter, an American-born Somali with long curly hair, who plays soccer and likes watching "American Idol."
But not every family in her African community in Massachusetts feels that way. Nor can they they swiftly make the decision to reject circumcising their daughters, because it's a cultural ritual integral a woman's identity, she says.
"They say they don't want to hear it," Mohamed says. "Some think I'm disrespecting my own culture. Some will say, 'You act like an American now. You forgot about who you are.' "
Women at risk of FGC
States with the highest estimated number of women who've been circumcised or are at risk for genital cutting:
California: 38,353
New York: 25,949
New Jersey: 18,584
Virginia: 17,980
Maryland: 16,264
Minnesota: 13,196
Texas: 13,100
Georgia: 9,531
Washington: 7,292
Pennsylvania: 6,508
(Courtesy of Brigham and Women's Hospital)
Female genital cutting is often a coming-of-age ritual practiced in various parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but the procedure isn't just invoking concerns in the developing world. Religious and cultural beliefs fueling female circumcision often follow immigrants and refugees who move to America. Rarely have cases of female genital cutting been documented in the U.S., but much more likely, cutting has moved underground in the U.S. and overseas, advocacy groups and doctors say.
In the U.S., an estimated 228,000 women have been cut -- or are at risk of being cut -- because they come from an ethnic community that practices female genital cutting, according an analysis of 2000 Census data conducted by the African Women's Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Census reports there are roughly 150 million women living in the United States.
The World Health Organization estimates up to 140 million women and children worldwide have been affected by female genital cutting. The WHO defines female genital cutting as a process that alters or injures female genital organs for nonmedical purposes.
There are several types of female circumcision. The most severe types require the inner or outer labia to be sewn together, a procedure performed in parts of Somalia and Egypt. Other forms include excising the entire clitoris or part of the clitoris.
Genital cutting dates back at least 5,000 years, says Marianne Sarkis, a professor of international development at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Some women desire the procedure because they believe they are dirty or unmarriageable if they are not cut, she said. There are cultures that begin cutting women as early as infancy, while some wait until adolescence.
Communities divided
Not all families in communities where female genital cutting is commonplace will want to participate. In Mohamed's immigrant community in Massachusetts, families are divided, she says. Some refuse to allow the procedure, as she does. Others say they want it, and many remain silent.
Some will say, 'You act like an American now. You forgot about who you are.'
--Fatima Mohamed, Somali immigrant in the U.S.
Occurrences of the practice have been documented in the U.S. In March, a Georgia mother was charged with female genital mutilation after the father noticed an infant's genitals "appeared to be have been circumcised," according to the Troup County Sheriff's Office. Officers wouldn't comment further on the family.
Several advocacy workers say the more common scenario involves sending girls back to their home country to have the ritual performed. Over the past few years, Taina Bien-Aimé, president of the women's advocacy group Equality Now, has heard several anecdotal stories of girls being sent back to have the procedure.
With summer vacation approaching, one 34-year-old mother from Senegal, living in New York City, says she knows several African families in limbo about genital cutting. One of her female friends abandoned her husband earlier this year when he asked for their 6-year-old daughter to be cut in Africa this summer. The friend, who speaks little English and is jobless, fled to a shelter with her daughter.
"A lot of them, it doesn't matter if they [the daughters] were born here, they want the procedure done," said the mother, who declined to be named out of fear of being ostracized by her community. She was also cut in Africa as a child.
National surveys determining U.S. immigrant attitudes toward female genital cutting are nonexistent, because cutting affects few American families, advocacy groups say. Neither have studies been completed to track whether parents are sending their girls to their country of origin to be circumcised. Conducting such studies, doctors and advocacy groups say, would be near impossible since most families remain hushed about the taboo topic.
CONTINUED...PART ONE...... more
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Rome, Italy (CNN) -- A priest convicted of sexually abusing children -- and whose subsequent move from one location to another the pope approved when he was a German cardinal -- has been suspended, his archdiocese announced Monday.
The priest, identified only as H, violated the terms set out for him after his conviction, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising said in a statement. It did not say what the violation was, but at the time of his conviction by a German court, he was ordered to pay a fine and not work with children again.
The priest's superior also resigned, the church said.
The pope -- then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- approved the man's move from Essen to Munich in the early 1980s, but the archdiocese said the cardinal was never personally aware of the details of the man's case.
The priest was in therapy for having abused children when he was transferred, the archdiocese said.
Officials said the priest was released from church service in 2008 and was no longer serving actively as a priest. He was a church counselor for tourists.
The move comes as hundreds of alleged victims have come forward in Germany, claiming priests abused them. Some allege the abuse was sexual, while others refer to physical violence such as slapping.
German lawyers representing alleged victims said there are more than 300 cases across Germany.
Ursula Raue, who is representing alleged victims of sex abuse by a Jesuit order in Berlin, said she "must have had around 1,000 calls, none of them less than half an hour long."
"Many people keep saying to me that this is the first time anyone has actually listened or believed my story," she said.
Although she's a lawyer, in this instance she describes herself as a go-between between the alleged victims and the Jesuit-run Canisius College in Berlin. She has 160 cases she's looking into throughout Germany, she said.
The Vatican has been working hard to defend the German-born Pope Benedict XVI as the scandal spreads.
As the head of the Vatican's doctrinal arm in Rome before he became pope, Ratzinger "initiated intense activities to confront, judge and adequately punish the crimes in the context of ecclesiastical legislation," Vatican spokesman the Federico Lombardi said Saturday.
"The line he followed was always one of rigor and coherence in dealing with even the most difficult situations," he said. Read why the allegations could mean trouble for the pope
Also on Saturday, a top Vatican official said Catholic Church officials never prosecuted more than half the roughly 3,000 priests accused of sexual impropriety in the last decade.
There has been "no trial" in 60 percent of cases, mostly "because of the advanced age of the accused," said Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, head of the Vatican office that investigates crimes the church considers most serious.
The priests in those cases were subject to "administrative and disciplinary provisions" such as instructions not to celebrate Mass or hear confessions, Scicluna told L'Avvenire, the Italian Catholic bishops' newspaper.
Those cases include some of the most "sensational... which have caught the attention of the media," he said, without revealing more details.
Scicluna insisted the priests in question had not been absolved of their sins.
Scicluna was talking only about investigations by the church, not by civil authorities.
The Vatican released an official English translation of the remarks, which come as accusations of child abuse by priests sweep across Western Europe.
A damning Irish government-backed report into child abuse by priests led four bishops to resign in December, and Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue a formal statement, or pastoral letter, about it before Easter.
The Netherlands, Austria and Germany also are facing new allegations of child abuse -- including ones in a diocese once directly connected to the pope and to his brother, Georg Ratzinger.
The coming months are likely produce more sexual abuse allegations across Europe.
"It is like a tsunami or an extensive fire," said the Rev. Andreas Batlogg, editor of the German Jesuit magazine Stimmen der Zeit. "The estimated number of undetected cases seems to be far higher than the yet known ones."
Nearly every day since the end of January, more Germans have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, with roughly 170 reporting such abuse.
Two self-identified German victims were connected to a boy's choir that was directed by the pope's brother from 1964 to 1994.
Scicluna's disclosures about the number of complaints and the results come as the Vatican fights to show it is handling the problem properly -- and to protect the pope.
About 20 percent of priests accused of "delicta graviora" faced full trial by church officials -- many of which ended in convictions, he said. Ten percent requested a discharge from the priesthood, and the pope summarily dismissed 10 percent, Scicluna said.
A small minority of the 3,000 complaints against priests accused them of abusing children, he added.
"About sixty percent of the cases chiefly involved sexual attraction toward adolescents of the same sex, another 30 percent involved heterosexual relations, and the remaining 10 percent were cases of pedophilia in the true sense of the term," he said.
About 300 priests were accused of child abuse between 2001 and 2010, he confirmed.
He said the problem was "not as widespread as has been believed."
"Please don't misunderstand me. These are of course too many," he said.
There are about 400,000 Catholic priests around the world, he said, in an attempt to illustrate that the number of complaints against priests is relatively small.
Most of the complaints came from the United States, he said.
Scicluna said the Vatican should reconsider its policy of not prosecuting particularly old complaints.
The Vatican has a 10-year statute of limitations on child abuse, starting from the date the alleged victim turns 18. Pope John Paul II introduced the policy in 2001, at the height of scandals in Boston, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles, California.
"The limit of 10 years is not enough in this kind of case," Scicluna said. "It would be better to return to the earlier system of 'delicta graviora' not being subject to [a] statue of limitations."
CNN's Hada Messia in Rome and Dan Gilgoff in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this reportRome, Italy (CNN) -- A priest convicted of sexually abusing children -- and whose... more
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Groups protest decision not to re-enroll child of lesbians
March 8, 2010 9:01 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- Gay and lesbian groups are attacking a decision by the archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, not to re-enroll a child in a Catholic school in Boulder, Colorado, next year because the child's parents are lesbians.
The issue centers on the Sacred Heart of Jesus School, where the pre-schooler is currently enrolled.
"The Archdiocese of Denver has acted very unjustly in singling out this child for exclusion," said DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke in a written statement Monday. "Until every student's parents are tested on Catholic teaching, this action by Catholic officials cannot be understood as anything other than discrimination on the back of a child. At a tender age, this child has learned that Catholic officials are willing to inflict pain on children and families."
The decision was made public last week.
"These actions by the Denver Archdiocese harm the student by taking the child away from friends, teachers and community," said Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "It's deeply troubling to see any school remove a child from their educational program simply as the means of rejecting that child's parents."
But the archdiocese defended its decision.
Video: School blocks gay parents' kid
"Parents living in open discord with Catholic teaching in areas of faith and morals unfortunately choose by their actions to disqualify their children from enrollment," it said in a statement posted on its Web site. "To allow children in these circumstances to continue in our school would be a cause of confusion for the student in that what they are being taught in school conflicts with what they experience in the home.
"We communicated the policy to the couple at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School as soon as we realized the situation. We discussed the reasons with them and have sought to respond in a way that does not abruptly displace the student but at the same time respects the integrity of the Catholic school's philosophy."
In a posting of his sermon, the Rev. Bill Breslin, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, supported the move.
"The issue is not about our not accepting 'sinners,' " he said. "It is not about punishing the child for the sins of his or her parents. It is simply that the lesbian couple is saying that their relationship is a good one that should be accepted by everyone; and the Church cannot agree to that."
About 30 opponents of the move -- "mostly hetero allies of the gay community" -- protested Sunday outside the church during Mass, said Dave Ensign, board president of Boulder Pride, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center and services organization.
Ensign handed out flyers to the protesters and then joined the parishioners as they listened to the sermon defending the church's move. "I was disappointed, but it was pretty much what I was expecting to hear," he said.
He added that the larger community's reaction has been positive, saying, "When people hear about this, they speak up, and I think that says a lot about our community."
The child has not been identified publicly. No one at the archdiocese or at the school immediately returned calls Monday seeking comment.Groups protest decision not to re-enroll child of lesbians
March 8, 2010 9:01 p.m.... more
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HEALS is a story of hope for former child soldiers and other war-affected children in northern Uganda. The Ugandan based organization, H.E.A.L.S (health, education, arts, literacy and sports), helps heal war-affected children and give them hope for their future.
HEALS received the Honorable Mention Award in the Short Documentary category at the 2009 Commffest Community Film Festival, TorontoHEALS is a story of hope for former child soldiers and other war-affected children in... more
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As many as 225,000 children in Haiti live and work as unpaid domestic servants, the first study to closely examine the issue concluded.
The existence of these arrangements are not new, but the scope is larger than previously thought, a new study by the Pan American Development Foundation found. The foundation conducted the largest field survey of human rights violations in Haiti.
Known as restaveks, these extremely poor children are sent by their families to other homes.
"In principle, parental placement of a restavek child involves turning over child-rearing responsibility to another household in exchange for the child's unpaid domestic service," the study says.
__________
The study's aim was to answer the question: "What is the scale of the victimization?"
What researchers found was that 22 percent of children surveyed were living away from home, and that 30 percent of households had restavek children.
Using census projections for 2010, the study extrapolated that as many as 225,000 children in Haiti's urban areas could be living as restaveks.As many as 225,000 children in Haiti live and work as unpaid domestic servants, the... more
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Afghan refugees who fled the war-torn south have claimed they are so neglected by government in Kabul that their children are dying from hypothermia for want of the most basic supplies.
Families that left Helmand, Kandahar and other southern provinces to escape the fighting between US-led forces and a resurgent Taliban say the cold is much more lethal.
Living in a make-shift camp on the edge of Kabul, residents told Al Jazeera's James Bays that no government official has ever come to see how they have been forced to live.
The claim comes as UN officials say Afghan children are suffering disastrous levels of abuse and deprivation.
Rights of the child
At a news conference marking the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child this week, officials said children’s rights were being neglected despite vast flows of Western aid into the country.
“Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world," said yCatherine Mbengue, country representative for the UN children’s fund Unicef.
“Seventy per cent of the population has no access to safe drinking water. Thirty percent of children are involved in child labour. Forty-three per cent of girls are married under-age,” she said.
More than one in four children born in Afghanistan die before the age of five, according to Unicef estimates.Afghan refugees who fled the war-torn south have claimed they are so neglected by... more
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In this case, a single father actually wins a round in family court. It's not over yet, for reasons I don't understand, but read the court's opinion here and maybe you can figure it out.
Shawn and Samantha lived together in the little Texas town of Granbury just southwest of Fort Worth. They weren't married, but they had a daughter, Kaylee in 2003. In late 2004, Samantha moved out of the house and within weeks was living with Darrell. A few months later, she announced that she was pregnant and intended to place the child for adoption. Shawn immediately told her that, if the child were his, he wanted custody and would not agree to any adoption.
Samantha learned of a couple, Travis and Sabra Hess, who lived in Boise, Idaho, who wanted to adopt. The Hesses were using the services of LDS (think "Latter Day Saints") Family Services, which coincidentally was one of the adoption agencies involved in the Utah case I blogged about earlier. Samantha spoke with LDS caseworker, Kimberly Sidwell and according to the court,
Sidwell met with Samantha two weeks before the baby was due to be born. At that time, Sidwell asked Samantha whether she knew the identity of the baby's father. Samantha told Sidwell that Shawn was the father and indicated he was not aware of her pregnancy. Sidwell asked for an address to contact Shawn, but Samantha said she did not know where he was. Samantha did, however, provide Sidwell with Shawn's date of birth and social security number. After the meeting, Samantha asked LDS if she could work with a different caseworker due to a “personality conflict” with Sidwell.
Samantha next met with Eric Larsen from LDS. Larsen also asked about the paternity of the baby, and Samantha told him she was fairly certain that Shawn was the father. Samantha also stated, however, there was a possibility that the father was Darrell. When Larsen asked where he could find Shawn, Samantha told him she thought he was either living in Dallas or going to school in Florida. After being asked multiple times how to contact him, Samantha finally admitted that Shawn lived in Granbury and gave Larsen a phone number for Shawn's mother, Sandra.
Both Sidwell and Larsen were informed by Shawn and his mother that Shawn had no intention of relinquishing his parental rights if the child were his. When Shawn and his mother found out what hospital Samantha was in, they both talked to a social worker there and told her Shawn would request a DNA test to determine paternity and assert his rights.
At that point, everyone involved in the case knew very well that Shawn refused to give up his parental rights. The sensible thing - the humane thing - to do would have been to perform genetic testing and, if Shawn were the father, turn the baby over to him. But that is not what happened.
In fact, Samantha, LDS Family Services, the Hesses and the hospital all worked hand in glove to keep the baby from Shawn. That included the hospital's designating Samantha a "no information" patient. That meant that the hospital could only release information about the baby to people Samantha approved. Needless to say, that did not include Shawn. Despite knowing of Shawn's intentions, the Hesses took the baby boy back to Idaho, Samantha signed a relinquishment of her parental rights and presumably, LDS got paid.
But Shawn was not deterred so easily. He filed the correct forms with the Texas Paternity Registry within the 30 days alotted him. He talked to several attorneys, contacted the FBI and even wrote a letter to the governor.In this case, a single father actually wins a round in family court. It's not... more
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Women's Rights in Aghanistan-Progress, Impediments and Poitics in the Face of Western Presence Pt 2/3
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/262203
Pt 2/3
Homemakers Magazine editor in chief Kathy Ullyott speaks with reporter Stephen Dohnberg about the struggle of women and what she witnessed during her visit to Kabul, Afghanistan The conversation reveals what a complex situation the Western presence in Afghanistan is by any measure.
Invited by C.A.R.E. Canada, in May Kathy Ullyott, made her way to the city of Kabul for a week-long look at the work and commitment of an NGO such as C.A.R.E., who have been an early presence since 1996, assisting widows with food aid. Even an issue of basic aid is fraught with concerns that span the range of issues from western presence to cultural mores. Although we initially planned to discuss the ascent of women’s rights in Afghanistan, the intersection of so many other disparate concerns clearly illustrates that no single issue will resolve itself independent of others.Women's Rights in Aghanistan-Progress, Impediments and Poitics in the Face of... more
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The United Nations' 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first legally binding international law to incorporate the full range of human rights for children. It is said to have significantly increased the profile of children's rights worldwide.
Sadly, the United States is one of only two countries in the world which have refused to ratify The United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This article includes a number of very touching photographs, a memorable documentary video about children's rights and an emotionally moving photo-gallery.
Please have a look!The United Nations' 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first... more
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M.I.A. meets child rights leader Kimmie Weeks. They visit with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, fix a playground and throw an block party in Monrovia.
www.4real.com
M.I.A. meets child rights leader Kimmie Weeks. They visit with Liberian President... more
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A public talk by Shirin Ebadi of Iran
2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner
She's an Iranian lawyer, writer and teacher who took an unwavering stand to promote
democracy and human rights in Iran. Especially for women and children. She distributed
evidence implicating government officials in the murders of students. She has been
jailed, disbarred, fined and receives death threats to this day. And still she speaks.
Undaunted.
Come hear what she has to say about democracy, and feel the courage of a person who
actually knows the kind of sacrifice that our country's founding fathers knew.
"Defending the Rights of Women and Children" By Shirin Ebadi
Sunday, April 20th, 7:30PM
Western Michigan University, Bernhard Center, Kalamazoo, MI
Sponsor by: PeaceJam, Great Lakes Region (PeaceJam.com)A public talk by Shirin Ebadi of Iran
2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner
She's an... more
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