Child Rights in Humanitarian Crises

DRAFT – Toolkit on Child Rights in Humanitarian Crises and Post-Crisis Transition, July 2012

Toolkit

Child Rights in Humanitarian Crises

and Post-Crisis Transition

DRAFT – July 2012

NOTE: This draft toolkit is an excerpt from a chapter being developed by UNICEF for an EC Toolkit on Child Rights and is for information purposes only. For further information on the draft, please contact UNICEF Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF, New York.

SUMMARY

Children’s exposure to rights violations can increase dramatically during humanitarian crises and post-crisis transition contexts. The direct and indirect consequences of crisis can have a devastating impact on boys and girls of all ages, and can rob them of their family, security, education, health, psychosocial wellbeing and opportunities for development. Promoting, protecting and fulfilling child rights in such contexts is a challenging but critical part of the individual and collective obligations and duties of governments, donors, humanitarian and protection actors, civil society, communities and families.

This toolkit sets out the framework for a child rights-based approach to operating in humanitarian and transitional contexts. It presents an overview of child rights considerations in crisis and post-crisis contexts and outlines key normative protection frameworks that should inform any rights-based response. It summarizes the key principles of child-rights based programming, drawing out the particularities of how to adapt such an approach to humanitarian and transitional contexts and identifies key entry points for addressing child rights within relevant programme cycles. It also reflects on rights-based considerations in relief, reconstruction, development and peacebuilding measures, and highlights critical elements of participation and the important role of partnerships and donors in this effort.

This toolkit also includes a wide range of illustrative tools and examples from the field to help guide policy makers and programmers alike in applying child rights considerations in the context of their day to day work.

Table of Contents

SUMMARY

1.Introduction - Child Rights in Humanitarian Crises and Transition 1.1. Child Rights-based Approach 1.2.International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

2.Key Principles for Child Rights-Based Programming in Humanitarian Action and Transitional Contexts 2.1 Specific considerations for rights-based programming in humanitarian context

2.1.1 Protection and assistance

2.1.2 Advocacy - more consequences

2.1.3 A broader legal and ethical base for work 9

2.1.4 Improved monitoring 10

2.1.5 Justice and impunity 10

2.1.6 Transition 10

2.2. Needs versus Rights-based approaches in humanitarian contexts

3.Key entry-points for child rights-based programming

3.1Entry points for child-rights programming in humanitarian and transition programme cycles

3.1.1. Rights-based approaches to emergency preparedness 13 3.1.2. Rights-based assessment and analysis of humanitarian transition contexts 13

1. Rights-based Assessments 14
2. Causal Analysis 14
3. Stakeholder mapping and analysis 14
4. Capacity and will analysis 15

3.1.3. Rights-based approaches to programme design 15 3.1.4. Rights-based approaches to programme implementation 16 3.1.5. Rights-based approaches to programme monitoring 16 3.1.6. Preparing organizations to involve children in their work 16

4.Child Rights-based Approaches in Transitional Contexts

5.Child Rights Considerations in Peacebuilding

5.1Considerations for planning and implementing peacebuiding programmes

6.Child Participation in Humanitarian Action and Transition Programmes

6.1 Standards in Child Participation

6.1.1 Tailoring Child Participation Standards to the Crisis Environment 18 6.1.2 Roles for children 18 6.1.3 Informing children and building the capacity to participate 19 6.1.4 Preparing organizations to involve children in their work 20

7.Partnership for Child Rights

8.The Role of donors

8.1 Agenda Setting

8.2Assuring Resources are Available for Child Rights

8.3Funding Mechanisms

8.4 Setting Funding Priorities

8.5 Ensuring Continuity

8.6 Monitoring

9TOOLKIT

Tool 1: IASC Operational Guidelines on Human Rights in Natural Disasters

Tool 2. Emergency Risk-Informed Situation Analysis

Tool 3. Child rights considerations in key elements of recovery planning

Tool 4. Problem Tree – A Tool to Visualize Causality Analysis

Tool 5. Rights-based Capacity and Will Analysis Checklist

Tool 6. Checklist for Rights-Based Considerations in Programme Design

Tool 7. Indicators for rights based outcomes and processes

Tool 8. Considerations for Planning and Implementing Peacebuilding Programmes

Tool 9. Interaction with Partners to Protect and Promote Child Rights in Humanitarian Action and Transition Response

Tool 10. Rights-based Considerations Consolidated AppealsS

RESOURCES

List of Tables

Table 1. What challenges are there to the principle of non-discrimination when undertaking humanitarian action during conflict?

Table 2. Civil-Military Relations and Neutrality

Table 3.Protective Learning and Community Emergency Services ("PLaCES")

Table 4. Humanitarian Advocacy

Table 5. Monitoring and Reporting on Child Rights Violations

Table 6.Rights-based Transition and Reconstruction

Table 7. Entry points for child rights programming in programme cycles

Table 8. Child Participation in Programme Design

Table 9. Save the Children Alliance Practice Standards in Children’s Participation

Table 10. Bringing Children Together in Maluku, Indonesia

Table 11. Rights-based Considerations Consolidated Appeals

Table 12. Rights-based Criteria for CAPs in Haiti

1.Introduction - Child Rights in Humanitarian Crises and Transition

During humanitarian crises, including armed conflict and natural disasters, children’s exposure to rights violations can increase dramatically as a result of the increased instability and insecurity that ensues. Due to their age and related lack of experience, lack of power, dependency and vulnerability, girls and boys of different ages may face distinct risks and suffer the disproportionate consequences of crisis. The direct consequences of humanitarian crises for boys and girls may include unlawful recruitment, sexual violence, forced displacement, killing and maiming, separation from family, trafficking and illegal detention. During armed conflict, children, and in particular adolescent girls, are vulnerable to gender based violence, especially sexual violence and exploitation, including rape, enforced pregnancy, forced prostitution, forced marriage and forced child bearing. Consequences of such violations may include increased and life-threatening exposure to sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, as well as lifelong physical, psychological and social scars. Conflict affected boys and girls may suffer additional violations including forced removal from families and homes, killing and maiming, abduction or recruitment into armed forces or groups, illegal detention, torture and other in humane treatment. Children may find themselves separated from their families, or they may become heads of households with responsibility to care for younger siblings.

The breakdown of traditional community and state protection mechanisms that often ensues after crisis, leave children even more vulnerable. Indirect consequences of crises can include the loss of basic services, such as water, sanitation, health and education, as well as the rise of malnutrition and disease. Some children may face discrimination practices (i.e. based on gender, disability, ethnicity, etc.) which severely reduce their access to basic social services. Furthermore, increased poverty resulting from crisis may drive families to push their daughters into early marriage, or their sons into early work, as a coping mechanism. The impact of crises on already vulnerable populations perpetuates poverty, illiteracy and early mortality and robs boys and girls of their childhood, family, security, education, health, psychosocial wellbeing and opportunities for development. [i]

In transitional contexts, when the crisis has abated and individuals, communities and societies begin rebuilding their lives, the need to promote and protect child rights continues to be critical. Low state capacity (including weak service delivery), poor governance, corruption, limited state legitimacy, insecurity, porous borders and organized crime, may all contribute to fragility in countries transitioning out of conflict-related crisis. These variables have direct and indirect impacts on children’s lives and affect the ability of duty bearers to fulfill and protect their rights.

1.1.A Child Rights-based Approach

A child rights-based approach to humanitarian action and transition aims to address both the direct and indirect consequences of crises and calls on a range of duty bearers to fulfill their responsibilities to protect, respect and fulfill children’s rights. This includes preventing and protecting boys and girls against violence, as well as ensuring that their full range of rights and needs are respected and fulfilled.

This imperative is echoed in the broader doctrine of humanitarian action which recognizes that providing humanitarian life-saving assistance in the face of human rights deprivations, without also providing protection from attack, persecution and/or other human rights violations or deprivations is not enough.[ii] While governments have the primary responsibility to protect civilians, humanitarian actors must mitigate and at times prevent violations to the extent that they can. This is particularly important in contexts where the government and/or de facto authorities are not able or willing to respond to human rights abuses.

A child rights-based approach puts children at the centre of the action, as active participants rather than recipients of assistance. It recognizes the important role of governments, as well as humanitarian actors as duty bearers during crises while at the same time recognizing the additional challenges of applying this approach in complex humanitarian situations and transitional contexts. A rights-based approach to humanitarian crisis and post-crisis transition aims to[iii]:

•fulfill children’s right to survival and to protection from violence

•access and protect the most vulnerable

•“do no harm” /avoid exacerbating the situation

•restore normality as swiftly as possible

•ensure humanitarian action and transition is in children’s best interests

•address inequalities and disparities in all elements of programming, recognizing that inequalities may cause or exacerbate vulnerabilities

•promote the participation of children and their families in the analysis, design and monitoring of humanitarian and transition programmes

•hold duty bearers accountable to fulfill their obligations

•strengthen the capacities of state authorities and NGOs and CSOs for effective humanitarian and transition response

•influence and change policies and programmes that have caused or contributed to a crisis

•enable children, as rights holders, to demand and promote their own rights, and advocate for the rights and voices of children

1.2.International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

There are two sets of standards designed to protect children in humanitarian crisis: human rights law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and international humanitarian law. The two are complimentary and aim to protect the lives, health and dignity of individual human beings.

1.2.1The UN CRC

The CRC and its Optional Protocols establish a solid normative framework for protecting, respecting, and fulfilling children’s rights.[iv]While most human rights treaties can be derogated from during times of extreme crisis, the CRC contains no provision for derogation, making a strong case for its applicability in times of war. As such, the CRC provides an important bridge from a time of stability to crisis to transition back to stability, as well as a framework to guide response throughout different elements of humanitarian action (from preparedness to response and early recovery). The CRC is also unique in that it covers both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights[v] and it refers to international humanitarian law[vi] and in so doing presents a broader notion of protection than each body of law separately. Applicable in crises as well as transitional contexts, the CRC calls on duty bearers to consider the realization of children’s rights is a priority at all times.

The CRC presents a set of core principles which should guide any rights-based work with children in humanitarian and transition contexts, including:

• The Best Interests of the Child: stresses that both government and civil society have clear obligations to children and their best interests. This principle should be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, whether by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative or legislative bodies or civil society.
• The Rights to Life, Survival and Development: While all child rights have equal weight and value, the principle of the right of the child to life, survival and development is a foundation that can guide the selection of the most relevant goals given scarce resources. The right to life implies protection from those things that threaten to take the life of the child, including in situations of conflict and other emergencies; while the right to survival implies that countries have to take all measures to ensure the child does not die as a result of disease, malnutrition or other causes. Humanitarian action and post-crisis recovery should link to all three of these rights.
• Respect for the Views of the Child: A child who is capable of forming his or her own views has the rights to express those views in all matters affecting him/her, and these views must be taken into account whenever decisions are taken concerning the child’s well-being. Children should be given the opportunity to participate in decisions that affect them, in a manner appropriate to their age and evolving capacity.
• Non-Discrimination: The Convention applies to all children, whatever their race, religion or abilities; whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from. It doesn’t matter where children live, what language they speak, what their parents do, whether they are boys or girls, what their culture is, whether they have a disability or whether they are rich or poor. No child should be treated unfairly on any basis.

Table 1. What challenges are there to the principle of non-discrimination when undertaking humanitarian action during conflict?

The challenge of eliminating discrimination in humanitarian action rests in part with the methods used to target aid for affected communities. Emergency relief may result in the provision of goods and services to the target group which is superior than those supplied to people of the same country who are not directly crisis-affected. Discrepancies at times exist even between two different crisis-affected groups. For example, following the Indonesian Tsunami (2004), initially a disproportionate amount of aid flowed to the tsunami-affected group, while those persons living in conflict-affected areas (including tsunami IDPs), and who were worse off in terms of basic health and nutrition indicators, received less attention.[1]

1.2.2 International Humanitarian Law, Soft Law and Humanitarian Principles

In addition to the CRC, provisions for protecting children during humanitarian crises draw from the broader framework of international law including international human rights law, international humanitarian law, refugee law and international criminal law. In addition to international conventions, relevant UN Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and other soft law instruments provide normative frameworks for protection. During humanitarian crises, humanitarian principles should guide all action including:

• The Humanitarian Imperative– All humankind shall be treated humanely in all circumstances by saving lives and alleviating suffering, while ensuring respect for the individual.
• Neutrality – A commitment not to take sides in hostilities or in controversies based on political, racial, religious or ideological identity. Transparency and openness are critical in maintaining neutrality. In keeping with human rights principles, neutrality does not imply, however, that no action against particular child rights violations should be undertaken. In other words, relief agencies are to take no other side than the side of children. Neutrality requires that humanitarian actors be clear about the specific and limited military assets which can be used only as a last resort, and provided the relief operation remains under the overall authority and control of humanitarian organizations.

Table 2. Civil-Military Relations and Neutrality

Humanitarian workers’ contact with armed forces in situations in which those troops are belligerents in the conflict is problematic. Part of the challenge is perception. Involvement of militaries and private security contractors in “stabilization” operations and reconstruction, activities which closely resemble humanitarian assistance, creates a situation in which humanitarians are viewed as part of the war effort. In order to preserve neutrality, humanitarians should limit their dependence on and programmatic cooperation with armed forces.

• Impartiality – Assistance is delivered to all those who are suffering, based only on their needs and corresponding entitlements, equally and without discrimination, without submitting to limitations, by virtue of the needs of vulnerable people and on the basis of their shared humanity.
• Do No harm – Humanitarian action should not exacerbate disparities, and should avoid discrimination between affected populations based on the particular cause of the crisis; humanitarian action must be implemented so as not to not create or exacerbate environmental distress; and humanitarian action must not create or exacerbate conflict and insecurity for affected populations.
• Independence – Humanitarian action must be free from interference, whether political, ideological, economic or military.

While Humanitarian Law is generally applicable in situations of conflict, the principles as explained above also apply to natural disasters and other types of emergencies. Humanitarian principles are reinforced by raising awareness, building trust and advocating for children’s rights in humanitarian situations, together with state authorities, non-state entities and communities.

2.Key Principles for Child Rights-Based Programming in Humanitarian Action and Transitional Contexts

A child rights-based approach to programming entails that the process by with outcomes and inputs for children are achieved are as important as the achievement of desirable outcomes. The key principles and approaches informing this process include non-discrimination, accountability, transparency, participation, capacity-building, local ownership, sustainability and advocacy. These principles are applicable in all programme sectors and in all stages of humanitarian well as in transitional contexts.