NOV 20 — Children embody our hopes. We seek for them brighter futures than we visualise for ourselves. Mothers and fathers are willing to sacrifice their own needs for those of their children. Only the most cold-hearted among us can witness a child suffering and feel no pain.
Fifty years ago, on Nov 20, 1959, the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) – the forum where all states sit as equals – adopted the Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Affirming their faith in fundamental human rights, and in the dignity and worth of the human person, they set out, in principle, the rights of children so that all children could “have a happy childhood” and enjoy rights and freedoms.
Twenty years ago, on Nov 20, 1989, the Unga adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, giving life to a legal instrument that translated the majesty of child rights principles into state obligations. It is now the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, showing the strong commitment of states to protecting the rights of children. Malaysia acceded to this treaty in 1995.
These rights are not lofty goals; there are basic rights that ensure the protection, freedom and well being of all children. They include their right to protection against discrimination; their right to life; their right to immediate registration after birth; their right to a name, nationality, and identity; their right not to be separated from their parents against their will; and their right to express their views.
They include their right to information; their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; their right to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly; their right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health; their right to education; and their right to benefit from social security.
Disabled children have the right to special care and to effective access to education, health services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment, and opportunities for recreation. Asylum-seeking and refugee children have the right to receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance.
In ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), states agreed to take proactive and concrete measures to protect the rights of children. They are to enact legislation, enforce laws, reform policies, create services, collect data, and monitor changes to ensure that the rights of all children are protected, without discrimination.
In practice, marginalised children, in particular those who are targets of racism and xenophobia, enjoy the least level of protection. In Malaysia, numerous migrant and refugee children enduring harsh conditions in prisons and detention centres. They suffer from poor-quality food, poor access to health services, indefinite detention, and unsafe deportation (in 2005, a two-year-old Filipino girl deported from Sandakan with around 150 people, died after she arrived at Mindanao, Philippines. She was severely dehydrated from vomiting and diarrhoea).
Most migrant and refugee children in Malaysia live unstable lives, close to or in poverty. Most of them are “undocumented” according to Malaysian law. They, like their parents and guardians, are constantly afraid of getting arrested. They sleep and spend most of their days hiding in overcrowded apartments in urban areas or in rickety huts in jungle/plantation sites, trying to survive from day to day, trying to avoid being thrown into prisons and detention centres.
In the face of such tremendous difficulties – and this amazes me – they are able to laugh, play and make the best of their circumstances. Their resilience in times of trouble is humbling.
In 2007, after Malaysia reported on the measures it took to protect child rights, the committee overseeing the implementation of the CRC made several concrete recommendations to the government so that it could better realise the full protection of children’s rights in Malaysia.
They recommended that the government take urgent measures not to detain children for immigration proceedings; that it developed legislation for the protection of asylum-seeking and refugee children (particularly of unaccompanied children) in line with international standards; and that it used Section 55 of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Act 155) to exempt asylum seekers and refugees from punishment under this Act, amending this Act in order to legalise their status. It also recommended that the Malaysian government document all children of migrant workers and provide them with unrestricted access to education and health services.
All of these have yet to be realised, and Malaysia will come up for review by the Committee in 2012.
Just two weeks ago, from Nov 4-5, states from all over the world congregated in Athens, Greece to participate in the 4th Global Conference on Migration and Development4. They held dialogues on how to maximise the benefits of migration and minimise negative impacts. The primary concern of states, unsurprisingly (but still disappointingly), continued to be the losses and gains to states as a result of migration, not the losses and gains to migrants and their families.
Outside the grand rooms where these meetings were held, migrant communities and civil society groups congregated at the People’s Global Action, a parallel event held to discuss the gritty realities of migration – the exploitation, abuse, and vulnerabilities resulting from the poor protection of non-citizens and the long-term impacts on the families left behind.
In one of these sessions, a group of Filipino migrant children living in Athens, aged 5-12, sang songs of laughter and hope. One song was made more poignant by the fact that the legal status of these young ones depended on that of their parents, and that some of them may not qualify for naturalisation as Greek citizens when they reach adulthood at 18. If caught without legal status, they are likely to be deported back to the Philippines, a country alien and unfamiliar to them.
With gusto they sang:
What we want is a new world, a world untroubled and free
A world where we can live in peace
A world where we’re free to dream
Where there is food for all
And there are no poor
Where there are no guns
And there is no war
What we want is a new world, a world untroubled and free
A world where we can live in peace
A world where we’re free to dream
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We do know the Malay have "Ahmad bin Jafar", the Indian have "Mutu son of Gopal", but the chinese does not goes this way!
Being a father named Peter Tan, they printed in large bold "Sally Tan Peter Tan" on all her certificates. The teachers are going crazy and very stupid now! That is not her full name as in her birth certificate, IC or even in her school exam report book!
No Chinese names a child this way!