Earlier this month Human Rights Watch's (HRW) released their 19th annual World Report, the report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. The 2009 HRW report highlights the extensive and investigative work which the HRW staff, and human rights activists in the field, undertook in 2008.
2008 marked the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and at a time when the world should be united in the protection and promotion of human rights many are still standing in the way of progress, as noted by HRW;
…the governments demonstrating the clearest vision on international rights protections, sadly, are those seeking to undermine enforcement. In their foreign policies and in international for a, they invoke sovereignty, non-interference, and Southern solidarity to curb criticism of their human rights abuses and those of their allies and friends. Governments that champion human rights need urgently to wrest back the initiative from these human rights spoilers.
In the report Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth's piece, Taking Back the Initiative from the Human Rights Spoilers,
…governments that care about human rights worldwide retain enough clout to build a broad coalition to fight repression-if they are willing to use it. Instead, these governments have largely abandoned the field. Succumbing to competing interests and credibility problems of their own making, they have let themselves be outmaneuvered and sidelined in UN venues such as the Security Council and the Human Rights Council, and in the policy debates that shape multilateral diplomacy toward Burma, Darfur, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and other trouble spots.
The 576 page report gives an overview of the year's human rights situation country by country, and while not all of the country reports have a specific ‘children's rights’ section, each gives a summarized yet detailed insight into the daily struggle that children face in that particular country. Although children are not always be specifically mentioned in reference to conflict, displacement, HIV/AIDS, gender based violence, forced labor, freedom of expression, etc., the state of human rights protection and violations across the country directly impact children, even if they are only indirectly affected by the violation itself. A violation of rights against a parent or a community undoubtedly impacts that of a child's life, through the current and future security of their human rights. Most of these situations have a direct and profound impact on the scale of human trafficking of children, including child soldiers, child labor, sexual exploitation and slavery.
To learn more, please see the full report here.
