"The way a society treats its children reflects not only its qualities of compassion and protective caring, but also its sense of justice, its commitment to the future and its urge to enhance the human condition for coming generations."
Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Secretary General of the UN

Respect for the human rights of children is vital to any society's future health and prosperity. To respect the human rights of children is to secure respect for human rights in the next generation.

It is in childhood that people form their view of the world and how to act within it. If children are socially and economically marginalized, know only poverty and hardship, discrimination and abuse, that experience will shape them as adults. If on the other hand society ensures the freedom and dignity of children, creating the conditions in which they can develop their potential, they have the chance to grow to a full and satisfying adulthood, assuming a constructive role in society.

In most societies, children, by reason of their physical and mental immaturity, ­are almost totally dependent on adult structures of political and economic power to safeguard and protect their rights and well-being. Instead of giving rise to special protection, this situation of dependence and vulnerability is often exploited by those with responsibility over children - in the name of economic expediency, culture or tradition. Children are effectively considered to be property whose individual rights must be subsumed in the interests of family, community and authority.

Children are endowed with all human rights, as set down in the 1948 UDHR and all human rights standards developed since. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989. The CRC is not only the first legally binding instrument to elaborate human rights specifically and uniquely for children. It is also one of the most comprehensive instruments in human rights law. The rights contained in the CRC range from the child's most basic subsistence needs (such as food, shelter and access to health care), to other fundamental requirements that children need to develop their fullest potential (such as the rights to education and freedom of thought and religion). The Convention also includes the right to be protected from abuse, exploitation and neglect, and the right to participate in one's community and in political life. The rights in the CRC are meant to be applied in the light of the four general principles, namely non-discrimination (Article 2); the best interests of the child (Article 3); the right to life, survival and development (Article 6); and respect for the views of the child (Article 12).

While the CRC emphasizes the family as the fundamental group of society and environment for nurturing the child, it protects the rights of children to express their own views and to be heard in judicial and administrative proceedings affecting them. It also places obligations on the state to protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation even where these are not carried out at the hands of state officials. The CRC amplifies other international instruments by providing a special obligation on the part of governments to respect the rights of children in situations of armed conflict. In this way, the CRC challenges the traditional misperception that states are not responsible for abuses committed within the sphere of the family or the community and recognizes the political dimensions of the systemic abuses committed in these spheres of society. While governments may not be the perpetrators of abuses such as domestic violence, bonded child labour or child prostitution, they are accountable for their failure to implement the protection of children to which they have committed themselves by ratifying the CRC. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has also adopted standards for the elimination of child labour. 

The Governments of most of the countries that have ratified the CRC have kept it as a blueprint to design the human development agenda to secure the rights of their children, besides the other human rights treaties and instruments. Let us now have a brief picture of the situation of children in the South Asia region.

In South Asia, children make up over 40 per cent of the population - around 539 million of more than 1.2 billion people are under 18 years old - with 13.3 per cent of the total number being under five. Together they constitute a quarter of the children in the world. Their experience is not just an important measure of the human rights situation in South Asian countries, but of the state of children in the world at large. The promotion and protection of their rights is vital to future development in the region - and to that of humanity as a whole.

The governments of South Asia have recognized this important responsibility. Each state has ratified or acceded to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), collectively, making children a priority area for cooperation and assistance programs through their regional grouping SAARC (the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation). SAARC countries have declared the 1990s the Decade of the Girl Child - and from the year 2001 they began the SAARC Decade of the Rights of the Child.

But in the face of this promise, South Asia's children remain prone to a litany of human rights violations at the hands of state agencies and abuses by armed opposition groups - from arbitrary detention, cruel punishments and torture, to killings and "disappearance" in armed conflict. In the wider community and the privacy of the family, children also suffer systemic abuse of their rights through such practices as bonded labour and trafficking for purposes of prostitution. Although state officials may deny their responsibility for these latter abuses, their complicity, acquiescence and indifference often serve to perpetuate them.

These violations are intrinsically linked to the more general deprivation of children's economic and social rights. According to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, each year 4.7 million children under the age of five die in South Asia, the majority from preventable and curable illnesses such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Two-thirds of surviving children are malnourished. Urbanization, poverty and the breakdown of family structures have left millions of children displaced or forced to fend for themselves on the streets where they are especially vulnerable to violence and exploitation. Girl children, and those from marginalized or minority groups, face additional discrimination and disadvantage.

Girl children face particular disadvantages in the South Asian context. The persistence of discriminatory attitudes towards girls means that the birth of a girl is often considered a liability to a family and less is invested in her health and education. In Afghanistan, the Taleban on the basis of the group’s extreme interpretation of Islamic teaching has systematically denied girls education. In many countries, gender-selective abortion and infanticide are common, and girls figure disproportionately in infant mortality and illiteracy statistics. This situation, together with the persistence of harmful practices such as dowry and child marriage, serves to feed other cycles of abuse, including domestic violence and sexual exploitation. Discriminatory treatment of the girl child deepens the marginalisation of women and perpetuates problems from one generation to the next.

The experience of poor and disadvantaged children in South Asia serves as a powerful reminder of the indivisibility of human rights envisaged in the UDHR and CRC. The child's enjoyment of civil and political rights is fundamentally compromised by a lack of economic, social and cultural rights; and the economic, social and cultural development of the child cannot be advanced effectively without civil and political freedoms and protection.

Across South Asia, Governments are allowing children to suffer violations of their civil and political rights as well as their economic, social and cultural rights. Children are being tortured and ill treated by law enforcement officials. Others are being killed or are “disappearing” in situations of armed conflict. Children living on the streets are being arbitrarily detained, and millions of children are being exploited through bonded labour, child trafficking and forced prostitution, often carried out with official collusion.

Only when governments give clear signals that agents of the state should respect the rights of children and back this up with action against those who perpetrate violations, can the rhetoric of protection of children’s rights be fully believed.

Violations of the Right of Children in South Asian Countries

Let us now look at some of the violations of the main principles of the CRC in the countries of South Asia.
(Editors Note: All names of individuals in these case histories have been changed)

“I told people to bury them where they were as I did not know how much of them could be pulled out of that hole.”…

 These are the words of a mother on seeing the remains of her young son and daughter after an unexpected artillery attack on their home in Kabul in early 1994. During the attack, the parents had taken their youngest child to their basement, but did not have time to find their two other children. After a lull in the bombing, they ran upstairs and found the bodies of the two children driven into the ground by the force of a bomb.  

This is a living example of the violation of Article 6 of the CRC that states that every child has inherent right to life.  

During 19 years of bitter, civil conflict in Afghanistan, thousands of children have been killed in deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against their homes, schools or playing fields. Hundreds of others have been subjected to torture, including rape, at the hands of the numerous armed political groups.

Almost every family in Afghanistan has been affected by the conflict. Even children who have not been victims of human rights abuses themselves have witnessed acts of violence. Many people have been killed and injured in rocket or artillery attacks, or watched their homes destroyed by shelling. Young children have been left alone, either abandoned by their families for their own safety, or orphaned by killings. Often they have found themselves totally isolated, with no one or no organizations to turn to for help. Their families for whatever reason are not there to support them, and community protection systems have broken down.  Exposure to such horrors has taken its toll on Afghanistan’s children and many of them bear deep psychological scars.

If such is the situation of our children, to whom the State is bound by the principles of international humanitarian law to provide safeguards for the life and security of civilians, and therefore of all children, then we have a role to advocate for the rights of the people and urge to all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan to respect fundamental human rights standards and the principles of humanitarian law. These principles include the prohibition of killing, torture, rape or hostage-taking of anyone who is not taking an active part in the conflict and to create a climate that will take every effort to stop human rights abuses – of children as well as adults – that are more likely to occur

 BANGLADESH : Girl children raped in custody

Yasmin Akhter was 14 years old when she was raped and killed by three police officers in August 1995. The police in their patrol car picked her up as she was on her way to her mother’s house in Dinajpur. The police officers assured Yasmin that they would see that she got safely home. They lied. Instead, they brutally raped and strangled her and dumped her body by the roadside. 

The custodial rape of Yasmin Akhter is not an isolated incident. Two months after Yasmin’s rape and death, two police officers and a local man at Chaudanga allegedly raped another 14-year-old girl. The girl had been travelling without a ticket. The authorities announced an investigation into the incident, but there have been no reports of any charges being brought.  

In the above cases, as in others, police officers in Bangladesh abused their position of authority. At times, it distinctly appears as if police have arrested girl children and women in order to rape them. Whatever the case may be we find the violation of the rights of the child as stated below from the CRC:

“No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”
Convention on the rights of the child, Article 37 (a) ratified by the government of Bangladesh in 1990.

“Every child has the inherent right to life”  
CRC, Article 6

The ill treatment and torture, including rape that girl children and young women are particularly at risk of in the custody of police officers in Bangladesh is a reflection of the violence that women are subjected to in society as a whole. This violence is rooted in discriminatory attitudes that deny women their fundamental rights to education, employment, political participation and even life, as equal to men.

Girl children and young women in Bangladesh cannot rely on the authorities to protect their human rights. Not only do the police fail to investigate reports of human rights abuses perpetrated against girl children and women, but also are themselves responsible for such violations, including custodial rape. And while it may be that only a fraction of reported rapes are committed by police officers, the fact that law enforcement officials are in most cases seen to be able to rape women with impunity, signals to society at a large that the authorities do not treat the crime seriously.

In Bhutan, several young children were reportedly taken into custody together with their mothers in October 1997 to force their fathers to hand themselves over to the authorities. The fathers were suspected of being members or sympathizers of the Druk National Congress, a political party set up in exile in Nepal in 1994. Among those detained were Nima Oezer, a two-year-old girl, and her mother Daza who were arrested to force Karje, the father and husband, to surrender to the authorities. Similarly, Tshering Chhoezom, the wife of Sangay Dorji, together with Sangay Lhadon, their three-year-old daughter, were taken into custody. Karje and Sanjay Dorji had reportedly escaped from a temporary detention camp at Gomdar, Samdrup Jonkhar district in the east of Bhutan.

Breaches of the law and failings in the juvenile justice system see children lost in the custodial system, sometimes for years on end, without judicial supervision or trial. As a result of abuses in process and the lack of facilities, they are often held in normal jails with adult prisoners where they are at risk of further abuse. Conditions in South Asia's jails are uniformly harsh, and distinction is rarely made between children and adults, convicted prisoners and those in protective custody. This situation contravenes one of the most fundamental principles of the CRC - that the best interests of the child should always be paramount. Far from ensuring their development and reintegration into the community, the experience of the justice system often leaves children hardened and scarred for the future.

Gudiya Putul, a Lohra tribal from a village in West Bengal in India, is barely fourteen years of age. Her bad days started when her father died two years ago. Her mother remarried an alcoholic and shifted to her stepfather’s village. Her stepfather’s drunken brawls often ended in a sound thrashing of mother and daughter.

Putul’s dream of studying was shattered before she realized what was done to her. She was rescued from the misery of life with her stepfather by a “sympathetic aunt” from the neighbourhood. The promises of a better life took her to Sonagachi, (known for the flesh trade in West Bengal) and “one day…”, in Putul’s own words, “…the door opened around midnight. An old man came in to the room…it was a hellish existence….I was physically tortured whenever I refused…”

 “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”
Convention on the rights of the child, Article 37 (a) ratified by the Government of India in 1992     

“No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily”
Convention on the rights of the child Article 37 (b)

Seema was barely twelve years old when she was invited to enjoy a ride to the city by bus and trains. Thrilled by the proposal she jumped into the offer. They were a group of girls accompanied by the brother of a girl.  Seema’s joy knew no bounds when she left for the tour. Today, she continues touring to different places, most of the times not even remembering the names of the places she has visited. She along with the other girls works for a circus company performing on the trapeze section, with one meal a day as her daily wage.

Seema and her friends are not only the few ones who are trafficked to India. According to an estimate over five thousand to seven thousand girls are trafficked from Nepal to India for exploitative labour mostly for commercial sexual exploitation.

“…Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without the possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.

Convention on the rights of the Child (CRC) Article 37 (a), ratified by the Government of Pakistan in 1990

Shamun Masih was executed in Hyderabad Central Jail on 30 September 1997. He had been arrested and charged in connection with a murder and bank robbery that took place in Karachi in 1988. He was 13 or 14 years old at the time he committed the offence for which he was tried and sentenced to death in 1990.

Unfortunately, Shamun Masih’s case is not unique. Pakistan remains one of the few countries in the world that allows children to be sentenced to death.  A report by Amnesty International states that according to the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan there are currently 52 children on death row in the province of Punjab alone.

In Pakistan the death penalty can be legally imposed for a variety of offences, including blasphemy, armed robbery, theft, rape, fornication, and certain offences against the state. Under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) an offender above the age of 12, or between the ages of seven and 12, if he or she has attained “sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of (his) conduct” can be sentenced to all the relevant punishments, including death. The PPC does not set an age limit below which the death penalty cannot be imposed.

Under the Hudood laws of 1979 the protection of children is further reduced. These laws prescribe hadd, or fixed punishments, including stoning to death, judicial amputation or public flogging for those found to have committed armed robbery, theft, rape, fornication, false accusation of fornication or alcohol consumption. The Hudood laws consider that a child who has reached puberty may be subjected to the above punishments.

SRI LANKA: Children “Disappeared”

“No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily.”
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), article 37 (b) ratified by the Government of Sri Lanka, 12 July 1991.

“Every child has the inherent right to life” CRC, Article 6

Natkunasingam Sivathisini, a three year old girl, and Venuraj, her four-month-old brother have not been seen since 9 September 1990, when they were detained from their village by soldiers from the boys Town Army Camp. Sixty-eight Tamil children “disappeared” after being detained on that day in Batticaloa with members of their families.   

It is feared that they were subsequently extra-judicially executed. As of March 1998, eight years after the incident, no one was prosecuted for the “disappearance” according to Amnesty International.

Scores of children, aged between several months and 17 years, are among the thousands of people who are reported to have “disappeared” after detention by security forces and members of armed groups engaged in hostilities, during the last 15 years of civil conflict in Sri Lanka. Many, who subsequently “disappeared”, were arrested arbitrarily. Children continue to “disappear” in the custody of agents of the state in the north and east of the country.

In ratifying the CRC, the governments of South Asia committed themselves to protecting the fundamental human rights of children and promoting their full development in the civil, political, social, economic and cultural spheres.

The CRC reaffirms the rights of the child to an adequate living standard and adequate health care, social security and education. It establishes the right of the child to be free from the dangers of sale or trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation, and the illicit use of drugs. It commits states to protecting children from economic exploitation and work that may interfere with education or be harmful to their health and well-being. Delivering on this commitment is an enormous challenge for any government, requiring a combination of legal, economic and social measures. The task is especially daunting for many of the countries of South Asia, with large and diverse populations, limited resources and weak institutions.

The spectrum of abuses faced by children in the family and community across South Asia is too wide, ranging from ill treatment in institutions to violence in the family, from child trafficking to child bonded labour.

The vulnerability of children to these abuses is heavily influenced by other aspects of their identity - such as gender, ethnicity, caste or economic status - which are part of a wider context of discrimination, deprivation and disadvantage in South Asian societies. This serves as a powerful reminder of the indivisibility of human rights. The denial of one set of rights leads to the abuse of others. Children denied an education because they are girls or are poor and forced to work are condemned to a cycle of marginalisation and powerlessness that involves further violations of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

Scripture clearly shows that God is outraged about what is happening to children. Our own anger is but a pale reflection of God's own fury and indignation. Our compassion for hurting children and the righteous anger that arises within us reflects nothing less than the jealous love and righteous anger of our Heavenly Father. Our anger is predicated upon God's anger, and our actions on His actions. Over and over again God's warning throughout the Bible is "Don't touch my precious children!" (Exodus 22:22-24; Psalm 68:5, Ezekiel 16:4-14, Deuteronomy 24:17 etc.)  He indicates terrible consequences for anyone harming his children: "...it would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck and [he] be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matthew 18:6).
Thus we find ample justification for special possessive and protective guardianship of children at risk clearly demonstrated and mandated throughout the Scriptures.  Moreover, Jesus uses the simple faith and courage which marks the heart of children as a model for adults seeking to be a part of His Kingdom:
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:14b-15 NIV).
As Christians then, we gladly acknowledge that our profound concern for children at risk flows from God himself and our commitment to Jesus Christ. Most fundamentally, we affirm that children, born and unborn, along with the rest of humanity, are created in the images of God and therefore have intrinsic worth. (Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139:13-14) Any actions that demean, devalue or otherwise diminish children are sinful. Unfortunately, we live in a world where an attitude of cynicism towards the dignity of human life has resulted in a tragic loss of respect for humankind. Increasingly, children are the undeserving victims of human and demonic forces. The criminal waste of children's lives is an indictment upon all societies and cries out to God for vengeance.

Jesus says in Mathew 25: 34- 45, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”.

The children are among those of the “least” Jesus referred to in Mathew 25: 34-40. If that is true, then why do we still have this huge statistics of children in need of love and protection? What is the Church doing? What has it done so far? Where has it failed? These are just few questions that we need to ask ourselves and respond to, before Jesus passes on His ultimate Judgment to us as His Church, as He said in Mathew 25:41-46,

“Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels: ‘for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”’

“And they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“Then He will answer them, saying, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”” 

Jesus is talking about the Final Judgment. It is about salvation; who qualifies and who does not; who are the true worshippers and who are not. Salvation is not as easy as just professing faith. Again in Matthew 7:21 Jesus states; ‘Not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord’” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.’ In the light of salvation, we hear the urgency of action. Faith is about action, not just about words, and we hear the echo of this emphasis in James 2: 14 – 17:
“My brothers, what good is it for someone to say that he has faith if his actions do not prove it? Can that faith save him? Suppose there are brothers and sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!” – If you don’t give them the necessities of life? So it is with your faith, if it is alone and includes no actions then it is dead.”

A story told by Mettanando Bhikku, a Buddhist monk from Thailand, illustrates the nature of our responsibility. A woman approached the Buddhist monk and said,
“When I was twelve, my parents sold me to a brothel and I have had to do this work ever since. I beg for forgiveness from you.”
The monk replied,
“I must beg your forgiveness for me. It is I and the world who should beg your forgiveness, for we have not done enough to protect you. Please forgive me and the world who have not done enough to protect you.”

Indeed it is time for us to wake up and seek the forgiveness of those who suffer, because we haven’t done enough and most importantly “do” what we should be doing, struggle to engage ourselves actively in breaking down barriers that come in way of restoring the dignity of God’s beautiful creation which is seen in children. Yes, let us join hands and affirm to restore them their lost childhood.