Most migrant children within the European Union are from member countries like Romania and Hungary, as well as from Turkey. Credit: Daan Bauwens/IPS

By Sabine Clappaert
BRUSSELS, Apr 2 2013 (IPS)

Twenty-two-year-old Dario (not his real name) came to Belgium from Brazil in 2005. Just a teenager at the time, he told IPS he “came to escape the economic, social and political conditions in Brazil and to learn another language”.

“In the beginning it was hard. Not speaking the language prevented me from doing certain jobs and there was also the risk of getting sick because I have no health insurance.”

Luckily, he says, the large Brazilian community in Brussels welcomed him with open arms.

“Of course one also suffers from the financial and moral exploitation of certain people who take advantage, but I don’t complain. Life is a sequence of good and bad experiences; it is part of the risk I took to better my life.”

The promise of a better future remains the principle reason why scores of children – some as young as three years, others as old as seventeen – flock to Europe, even though there is no guarantee that what they find here will be worth the trip.

While it is estimated that there are between 1.6 and 3.8 million irregular migrants in the European Union, there are no reliable figures on the percentage that are children.

Hard data is almost impossible to pin down since these children represent a multifaceted and diverse group, experts say. Most hail from other European countries like Turkey, Hungary and Romania, but a large number also come from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Some enter the EU independently, some come with families, or were born to parents without legal status in a particular country.

Motives for migration also vary, and include family reunification, protection from persecution, or better living conditions, education and economic opportunities. A large number of these children, mostly those from Hungary and Romania, are also victims of trafficking.

Last year the UK police, with the help of Romanian authorities, rolled up a complex trafficking network run from Romania, which was using children to rake in hundreds of thousands of pounds through street crime and benefit fraud.

In a series of dawn raids codenamed “Operation Norman” officers found 103 migrant children crammed into just 16 addresses in London.

The operation took place against the backdrop of a steady rise in the number of children arriving unaccompanied in Europe, risking detention. Although some manage to enter state welfare systems, others end up living in hiding.

The financial crisis has intensified the situation, especially in EU border countries like Greece.

“Despite the European Commission’s efforts to promote harmonised regulations, the normative framework in the EU27 for the protection of undocumented migrant children is still quite diverse,” Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, special representative and coordinator for combatting trafficking in human beings at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), told IPS.

“The implementation of national legislation is even more fragmented. Therefore, unfortunately, a common and effective child protection system does not exist at the EU level.”

Organisations like the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) have raised the alarm about the need to guarantee the basic human rights of Europe’s “invisible” children.

“Undocumented children are in a position of triple vulnerability: as children above all, as migrants and because of their irregular status,” Michelle LeVoy of PICUM told IPS. Many families are simply unaware of their rights to housing, food and education, she said.

Despite numerous explicit and legally binding international and regional instruments that guarantee children access to their civil and social rights, countless barricades stand between rights on paper and rights in practice.

“In Spain, for instance, undocumented children in theory have the same access to healthcare as Spanish nationals do,” said LeVoy. But implementation of a new healthcare law in September 2012 aimed at restricting undocumented adults’ access to healthcare services also impacted their children.

In some countries only “essential” or “urgent” medical care may be free of charge for undocumented children, broadly defined terms that often lead to discretionary and unpredictable application of healthcare legislation.

Barriers around education are equally complex. While the constitutions of several countries grant everyone the right to education, red tape often keeps undocumented children out of the system.

“(P)ractical and concrete barriers, rather than direct legal discrimination, make integration (into the education system) almost impossible,” according to LeVoy. “Throughout the EU undocumented children are often prevented from enrolling in schools simply because they lack identification documents and a permanent address.

“Admission depends on the decision of directors and school administrators, and those decisions are arbitrary,” she said.

OSCE’s Giammarinaro believes that “member states should establish effective procedures based on the best interests of the child, whose actual implementation should be adequately monitored, especially in the case of unaccompanied and separated children”.

A second disturbing trend is the increasing number of reports of unaccompanied foreign minors disappearing from immigration reception centres 
and residential care, often without a trace.

A study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reveals that the disappearance of children from shelters and similar facilities is widespread, and that there is a high risk of these children falling victim to trafficking.

“Children and adolescents on the move are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,” says Giammarinaro. “They can be exploited in prostitution, forced labour, organised begging and can be compelled to commit crimes. Therefore, the prevention of trafficking and the protection of undocumented children are inextricably linked.”

Experts have identified teenagers between the ages of 13 and 
18 years as a major at-risk group for trafficking in Eastern Europe. Even those children aware of the dangers of trafficking say they were nonetheless ready to migrate using insecure channels, according to recent UNICEF research in Moldova.

Idealised perceptions of a better lifestyle coupled with stories of success from people who have been abroad encourage risk-taking among disadvantaged youth, researchers say.

With unemployment hitting record-levels across the EU, stemming the tide of young people in search of a better future seems almost impossible and for many governments the only perceived solution, albeit short-term, is the expatriation of so-called “unwanted immigrants”.

In 2010, the OCSE advised that migrant, undocumented, unaccompanied, separated and trafficked children should not automatically be returned to their country of origin, or resettled or transferred to a third country, stating that migration control concerns cannot override the best interests of a child.

“In the absence of the availability of care provided by parents or members of the extended family, return to the country of origin should, in principle, not take place without advance secure and concrete arrangements of care and custodial responsibilities upon return to the country of origin.”

By Sabine Clappaert
BRUSSELS, Jan 20 2013 (IPS)

Despite staggering advances in medical science and technology over the years, women around the world continue to suffer gravely as a result of inadequate access to basic reproductive health services.

Marleen Temmerman, head of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Credit: World Health Organisation.

Roughly 134 million women are “missing” worldwide as a result of sex-selective abortions and neglect of newborn girls. Complications in childbirth are responsible for the deaths of over 350,000 women annually, 99 percent of them from developing countries.

Against this backdrop, the appointment this past October of fifty-nine-year-old Marleen Temmerman – known as ‘Mama Daktari’ in Kenya, where she worked as a gynaecologist for many years – as head of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organisation (WHO), is a promising move in the right direction.

IPS correspondent Sabine Clappaert spoke to Temmerman, an illustrious Belgian physician, about her plans to weave the reproductive health agenda tightly into the WHO’s mission.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

Q: Why did you decide to leave your career as head of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department and member of the board of directors at the Ghent University Hospital to join the WHO?

A: Throughout my career, my goal has always been to improve the reproductive and sexual health and rights of women and girls across the world. While I wasn’t actively looking for a new job I realised that this opportunity at the WHO presented a very powerful lever to help me achieve these goals.

Q: What budget are you working with and what are your goals?

A: I have a working budget of approximately 40 million dollars, which is less that what it has been in previous years. The (global financial) crisis is clearly also impacting the budgets allocated to sexual and reproductive health. At the time of my appointment, for example, I was promised a significant contribution by the Belgian government. Sadly, it never materialised.

I do fear that the difficult economic climate will mean that sexual and reproductive health are seen as less of a priority, yet nothing is further from the truth. If we want the next generations of women to be healthy and empowered, we need to give them access to facilities and programmes that keep them alive and well during pregnancy and childbirth or give them access to family planning services so they can plan their own future.

Family planning is key not only to women and children’s health, but also to slowing unsustainable population growth and sustaining the economy and ecology.

An estimated 222 million women do not have access to family planning: women who would like to delay or stop childbearing but who are not using any method of contraception. In China, for example, only married women have access to family planning clinics. If we could change policy to also give single women access to family planning, we could help make a real difference.

In my new role, I will be looking at why this problem persists and how we can reduce it from various perspectives: by looking at contraceptive solutions in the R&D (research and development) pipeline, through implementation research that aims to identify possible barriers – cultural and religious beliefs or the availability and cost of family planning, as well as what educational initiatives need to be taken to correct misconceptions at the community and individual level.

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health is also enormously important if you consider the fact that abortions and complications during childbirth remain the number one cause of death among 15 to 19 year-old girls.

Q: In 1994 you founded the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH), which today is active in many countries across the world including Kenya, Mozambique, China and Guatemala. What lessons did you learn that you take with you into your new role at the WHO?

A: One of the most important lessons I’ve learnt is that collaboration is key to the success of projects in the sexual and reproductive health realm. At the moment we’re working on a project in Kenya that aims to support girls and women who are victims of sexual violence. We’re training medical staff to make sure they follow correct procedures and do all the right medical checks. We also ensure that girls are given psychological support and that they have access to legal advice.

Secondly, I’ve learnt that sexual and reproductive health remains a sensitive topic; that changing attitudes, behaviours as well as political vision and policies is a long, slow process. We have to remain committed to the importance of improving women’s sexual and reproductive rights. One of my biggest concerns is that, due to the crisis, budgets allocated to sexual and reproductive health will “disappear” into general health budgets. If this happened, it would take away the focus and attention that we must keep on this topic to help drive real change.

There is still so much to be done to end female genital mutilation (FGM), to lower mortality rates during childbirth or to make sure that every girl and woman has access to sexual and reproductive health facilities. There is a saying that says ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together’. I think we must go fast and far. And we can only do this together.”

Q: What is the developed world’s role in assuring reproductive health and justice in the global South?

“I think the developed world has a fundamental responsibility toward developing countries. The traditional North-South view is clearly out-dated, but on the other hand, women’s rights and gender equality are much more advanced in the developed than in developing world. It is our responsibility to support women in the South, to ensure that programmes of sexual and reproductive health don’t “disappear” into global health initiatives, that we continue to commit sufficient resources and budgets to advancing women’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities.

Q: What has been the hardest lesson for you while undertaking your work in Africa?

There is no doubt about it: the young women and new-born babies that have died in my arms simply because they were in a part of the world where I did not have access to medical technologies that I would have access to in Europe or another developed part of the world. There is nothing worse than the powerless feeling of holding a dying young woman in your arms and thinking: “If we were in another part of the world now, she would have lived.”

I am also always shocked by the ease with which our societies brush over topics such as sexual violence, as if it is normal. So often I am told “but it is part of our culture”. This has to change. The way we bring up boys and girls, and the gender roles we instil in our children, must change.

(END)

Excerpt:

The rate of female entrepreneurship is higher in Africa than in any other region of the world. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Sabine Clappaert
DEAUVILLE, France, Oct 25 2012 (IPS)

The international financial crash of the late 2000s created more than a global economic recession: it accentuated popular doubts about the paradigms on which our economies are built and prompted a closer look at two crucial drivers of economic growth: women and entrepreneurship.

At the recently concluded Women’s Forum held in France earlier this month, a pivotal point on the agenda was how to promote sustainable economic and social development in the world’s second fastest growing region: Africa.

Recent research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) shows that natural resources account for only about a third of Africa’s growth. The rest is the result of internal structural changes that have stimulated domestic economies: telecommunications, banking and retail are flourishing and construction is booming.

Trade between Africa and the rest of the world has increased by 200 percent since 2000 and the continent is also gaining increased access to international capital, with the annual flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa increasing from nine billion dollars in 2000 to 62 billion dollars in 2008.

With a population that is set to more than double from one to two billion by 2050, Africa’s potential is enormous – if it can create the conditions for women-led, sustainable development by opening up the formal economy to female entrepreneurs.

Turning the spotlight on human capital and innovation

Members of the 40-strong African delegation attending the meeting agreed on one thing: Africa must learn to take better advantage of its human potential to boost the kind of economic development that benefits a broader expanse of society.

In particular, attitudes toward entrepreneurship need to undergo a radical change.

“Many Africans today still aspire to become doctors or lawyers, but entrepreneurs only if they can’t find jobs. There has to be a rapid change in this mind-set. Young people don’t know what it means to become entrepreneurial. We need to show that it is a real option,” according to Anne Amuzu, a businesswoman from Ghana.

Inspirational role models of successful African entrepreneurs are important.

Women such as Bethlehem Tilahun – founder of SoleRebels, one of Africa’s best-known shoe brands – who was counted among the top ‘100 women to watch in 2012’ by Forbes magazine, are examples of the impact women can make in the global landscape.

African women also represent a vast pool of potential that could drive broad, sustainable growth in Africa.

An estimated two-thirds of African women participate in the labour force and, according to the World Bank, the rate of female entrepreneurship is higher in Africa than in any other region of the world.

Many of these women are active entrepreneurs in their countries’ informal economies.

The message that women can make a real difference to the continent’s future has made its way beyond Africa’s shores.

“Women in the private sector represent a powerful source of economic growth and opportunity,” said Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank’s director for poverty reduction and economic management for Africa.

The European Commission too has recognised that women are powerful drivers of sustainable development.

As part of achieving its commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, the EU has supported the enrolment of roughly 85,000 female students in secondary education, in 10 sub-Saharan African countries over the past five years.

“(Encouraging) women entrepreneurs can fuel growth. But this will depend on having appropriate training and opportunities for young people. Education can help achieve this, but we also need to inspire with role models,” Nigest Haile of the Centre for African Women Economic Empowerment told participants at the conference.

Better access to financial markets can help bring more women entrepreneurs into the formal sector and enable them to expand their businesses.

Training and other forms of education with an emphasis on improving business and financial skills will also help spur growth.

Many leaders firmly believe entrepreneurial training should start in schools if young people are to become financially literate and seriously consider starting their own businesses as a viable option for building a solid future.

A recent report by Ernst & Young suggests that dedicated training dramatically improves student perceptions of a career as an entrepreneur.

Africa’s recent growth spurt has already made life more rewarding for many of its inhabitants. Business opportunities abound and governments are showing an increasing willingness to get out of their way.

According to the World Bank’s annual ranking of commercial practices, 36 out of 46 African governments made things easier for business in the past year.

(END)

The Traditional Courts Bill currently under discussion in South Africa’s parliament and due to be enacted by the end of 2012 could undermine the basic rights of some of the country’s most vulnerable inhabitants: the 12 million women living in remote rural communities across the country.

The Traditional Courts Bill currently under discussion in South Africa’s parliament and due to be enacted by the end of 2012 could undermine the basic rights of the 12 million women living in remote rural communities across the country. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

The bill aims to “provide more South Africans improved access to justice” by recognising traditional authorities and laws. Through it, traditional leaders in remote areas would be given unilateral power to create and enforce customary law.

The bill sparked an outcry in 2008 when it was first tabled in the National Assembly. But with it due to come into effect at the end of 2012, civil rights groups are becoming increasingly vocal in their demand to have it declared unconstitutional.

The bill will allow traditional leaders to hear civil cases including disputes surrounding contract breach, damage to property, theft and crimen injuria or “unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another,” if such assault does not result in grievous bodily harm.

But many civil rights groups have slammed the proposed bill. According to Jennifer Williams, director of the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, the bill would “place all power in the hands of a single individual – in almost all cases a man – and effectively make him judge, jury and implementer.”

Not only does the proposed bill give a single individual the power to interpret custom in a particular community, it also forbids defendants from having an attorney – even in criminal cases. Furthermore, is does not allow the option to try the case in a mainstream court.

“The bill simply does not include any checks on the power of traditional leaders, nor does it hold them accountable,” says Williams.

Women in particular will be affected by the bill. And it has sparked a nationwide debate. Rights activist Siyasanga Mazinyo of the Rural People’s Movement in Grahamstown, South Africa told local newspaper the New Age on May 2 that the bill violated women’s rights.

“In the past these traditional court processes were heard near the kraal (cattle enclosure) and according to our traditions, women are not supposed to sit near kraals.”

Many similar traditions are still in place today, Williams says.

“According to tribal traditions, women are not allowed to attend hearings while they are menstruating, neither are widows allowed to attend traditional courts when in mourning.

“In reality this means that a man will represent her during the court hearing and she will have no impact on the hearing whatsoever. She will know her fate only once the judge has made his decision.”

Williams says that the Traditional Courts Bill is “clearly rooted in a patriarchal system.”

“Although it tries to use equal language by allowing men to represent women and women to represent men in the courts, it goes on to stipulate that this should be permitted only according to existing custom. Exactly herein lies the problem: custom in most places prevents women from appearing in courts and certainly does not permit them to represent men.”

She says that one of South Africa’s main challenges is how to harmonise custom with its current legal dispensation, and the bill fails to do this.

“It will take us back to a position where men will make and interpret custom in courts in a way that may not be consistent, clear or certain. Women and children (and other men) will be compelled to submit to the jurisdiction of these courts, regardless of choice. This will in effect create a second class of citizens,” Williams says.

The South African Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), an independent statutory body mandated to promote and protect the attainment of gender equality in South Africa, rejected the bill, saying it is fatally flawed.

“Numerous provisions within the bill are unconstitutional, and we have raised our concerns over issues relating to women’s representation and participation in traditional courts, and the impact this is likely to have on their constitutional rights to equality,” says Janice Hicks, acting chairwoman of the CGE.

The reality of tribal law would be harsh, as illustrated by the case of M*, a young woman from the country’s Xhosa ethnic group who approached the Women’s Legal Centre for assistance. The young woman was married when she was 14 to an older man who lived with his girlfriend and worked in Johannesburg.

However, M* was forced to live with her husband’s parents in a remote rural area, where she was expected to assist in the family home. Unhappy that she was unable to live with her husband or attend school, she fled to her parents’ home more than 500 kilometres away.

Angered by her departure, her husband brought legal action in the local Magistrate’s Court demanding the return of his wife, as well as the lobola (bride price) he had paid and legal costs. After an intervention by the Women’s Legal Centre, this claim was dismissed with an order that the plaintiff pay the defendant’s costs.

If, however, the case were to be decided under the Traditional Courts Bill – as the remote rural area where she lived with her parents-in-law falls under such jurisdiction – things would have turned out vastly different.

“Firstly, under Xhosa customary law, when a wife separates from her husband and returns to her father, the husband is required to fetch her,” states Williams. “The father and husband may then also negotiate the terms of the wife’s return without consulting the wife.”

Customary law also considers the marriage of a 14-year-old legal, while under civil law the marriage would be considered invalid and the husband would be found guilty of statutory rape. The traditional court would also have requested the return of the bride price.

How could custom and constitution best be reconciled in the new South Africa? This remains a burning question to which the country’s leaders must find an answer before the end of the year when the bill is expected to become law.

The CGE recently met with Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana, to raise concerns regarding the bill.

“She stated that the bill does not have a place in a democratic South Africa, and has publicly called for it to be withdrawn,” Hicks says.

As Jennifer Johnny of the South African Law Reform Commission stated in an interview on May 9 with Independent Newspapers: “If there is such a desire to regulate customary law, should we rather not have specialist courts which deal specifically with customary law, like the courts we have now that deal with maintenance and domestic violence?”

If the Traditional Courts Bill does get passed into law, Williams says that the Women’s Legal Centre will take the matter to court to have it declared unconstitutional.

*Name withheld to protect identity of source.