As Yemen is entering the final stages of its transitional period, Hooriah Mashour, Yemen Human Rights Minister, a long-standing advocate for the protection of children and civil liberties in general announced that she, in partnership with officials, experts and activists is working toward the establishment of a National Observatory for Child Rights.
The project comes in direct answer to the UN's Children Agency's calls last June (UNICEF) to "improve safeguards for kids."
Since Yemen is discussing the drafting of a new constitution, children rights activists and international bodies have campaigned for clearer judicial guidelines in regards to children and their rights, especially in regards to issues related to marriages and labor.
"The talks, which aim to pave the way for elections in 2014 and for the creation of a new constitution, "give us a once in a lifetime opportunity ... to ensure that the rights of children are fully baked into the constitution," UNICEF's Yemen representative Julien Harneis told reporters in Geneva ahead of the release of the agency report on Yemen.
Activists and observers have often blamed a lack of state supervision and resources for Yemen child's rights crisis, stressing that of all issues child labor and military recruitment were the most troubling as they were the most common.
Monal Salem, Director of the child labor control unit at the ministry of labor and social affairs told Xinhua last June, "Official studies have found in 2010 that there were about 1.6 million children aged between 5 and 17 years involved in the labor market."
While there is no official study relating to the involvement of children in armed conflicts, Ahmed Al-Qurashi, Chairman of the Yemeni-based SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection said he believes as much as 40% of the fighters in all conflicts in Yemen are under 18 years old.
Moreover, a lack of clarity around what constitutes a child and how old most people are has also contributed to making Yemen fertile ground for human trafficking of kids, especially boys, determined the UNICEF, highlighting the need for a comprehensive review of Yemen's legislation regarding children.
From June 2012 to May 2013, 788 rescued children who had been trafficked were received at a UNICEF-supported care center in Haradh, in central Yemen.
It is this reality the National Observatory for Child Rights will endeavor to change, paving the way for a better future for Yemen's youth.
Already a series of workshops held in the capital Sana'a from July 28th to July 30th helped defined the new organization's strategic vision and operating system.
Proudly announcing to the press Yemen's newest civil rights' achievement, Minister Mashour told the press, "The observatory, slated to open in October, will strengthen child rights and monitor violations against them."
For the first time Yemen will be able to gauge of the situation on the ground and thus devise of strategies according to its needs. But more importantly a better monitoring of the situation will mean that judges will be in a position where they can prosecute and assign blame when required.
In keeping with the UNICEF recommendations, "The issues that will be at the top of the observatory's priority list include education, health, the involvement and recruitment of children in armed conflicts, child trafficking and marginalized children," said Abdo Salah Harazi, Head of the co-ordination committee at the Yemeni National NGO Coalition for Child Rights.
The move has made many children activists hopeful that Yemen is decisively taking positive steps forward. So far, even though Yemen adopted laws to protect children’s rights and signed optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflicts and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, it failed to take any action to solve the inconsistency
between its laws and the main principles of the convention.
Yemen National Observatory for Child Rights will work as an important intermediary between local agencies and international organizations, ensuring a greater level of rationalization as officials will know where to concentrate their efforts and how to best approach an issue.
"The establishment of the observatory is an important step towards enforcing international child rights conventions in Yemen, monitoring violations against children and finding ways to provide protection for them," said Ghazi al-Samei a national expert, hailing the efforts of the human rights ministry.
While many agree that the Observatory is only one step in the right direction, hopes are that the national body will act as a cornerstone for all children rights agencies and help generate progress on the ground, offering renewed hopes for the children of Yemen.
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