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December 12, 2004

Ethnic and refugee children are struggling for their rights

Oli Md. Abdullah Chowdhury

Children often suffer from problem created by adults. As they are suffering in Iraq. However, they also suffer in emergency situation like in separatist movement as they are suffering in Srilanka. Children in Bangladesh have also encountered problems when there is a crisis situation. Children in Chittagong division particularly children from ethic community of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has suffered a lot as there had been bloody clashes between the government forces and rebel Shanti Bahini. Again, Rohinga children from neighbouring Myanmar took refugee in Bangladesh and their suffering knows no bounds. Thus, children are the worst sufferers of any emergency situation and their survival and development are greatly hampered due to their vulnerability in a state of emergency.

Non discrimination--the key human rights principle
Firstly, non-discrimination is one of the basic principles of human rights conventions. Though discrimination is made on the basis of ethnicity, it has been codified in International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)" Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognised in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

It is the entirely true in case of children, nevertheless. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) clarifies it explicitly in Article 2, "States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. "

Refugee children in Bangladesh
Though military junta in Myanmar tried to use public emergency as an excuse, ICCPR asserts it vividly in Article 4, "In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin."

Without showing any respect to international law, the military junta of Myanmar banished a good number of Arakani people solely on the basis of social origin. As a result, their children are being grown up in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Again, all the governments of Pakistan who came to power after 1971 seemed to be very reluctant to settle Bihari issue, though UNCRC clarifies the responsibility in Article 22, "States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status or who is considered a refugee in accordance with applicable international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person, receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention and in other international human rights or humanitarian instruments to which the said States are Parties". Children from Bihari community are growing in a condition harmful to their mental and physical health in refugee camps.

Ethnic children in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT)
As there had been a political unrest in CHT, the children from ethnic minorities suffered a lot. A good number of them took refugee in neighbouring India with their parents. Though international laws provide safeguard for refugee children, their survival and development greatly hampered for living in an inadequate living condition in refugee camps.

Though they have returned back to Bangladesh after the peace accord came into force, the accord has not been implemented wholly due to the absence of political consensus. There has been a lack of understanding between hilly people and the settlers Banglai in CHT and children from both communities suffer a lot. All the incidents and occurring don't contribute what has been described in Article 29 of UNCRC as the education is directed to the development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilisations different from his or her own.

"In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language"- though it has been codified in Article 30 of UNCRC, ethnic minorities have very limited opportunities to use their language.

Although primary education is free and compulsory and it is a constitutional right (Article17 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh), literacy rate in CHT is one of the lowest. According to UNCRC, the education of the child shall be directed to the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin. Considering our educational system, it is still a far cry.

Concluding remarks
There has been a Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "Indigenous peoples have the right to the full and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognised in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law" said in Article 1 of the draft at the very outset. It is similarly applicable to refugee community. Human rights are rights possessed by all persons, by virtue of their common humanity, to lead a life of common dignity and the realisation of human rights would help building a free society in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples.

The author is a human rights worker.