Moukheiber:
Former MP lawyer Ghassan Moukheiber believes that there are many conferences, committees, and theoretical speech, while the challenge remains in the implementation and application of a number of basic rights on the ground.
He listed the most important challenges, the first of which is the right to education. «Lebanon has adopted the principle of compulsory education in elementary and complementary levels, and endeavored to develop the right to education, and efforts were made to build schools and develop other free, semi-free and public schools. However, two main problems remain: First, the Lebanese government is failing to pay its financial dues to free and semi-free private schools. And years of accumulated debts are threatening the disruption of these services.
Second, a serious problem in public schools, which despite the efforts to build them, still do not cover all needs, nor the means to engage parents in registering their children in such schools in terms of incentives or fines, thus making many children out of the educational system, which threatens them and their future and violates their right to education.
And there is child labor, especially children working in the streets such as begging, which is a very widespread phenomenon, especially in the poorest areas. However, efforts are being made to raise the minimum age for child labor, but the implementation falls somewhat short in terms of pursuing the children operators or developing programs that target the cultural, social and economic incentives driving families to resort to child labor.
The third right is the protection of children at risk, and there is the Juvenile Protection Act, which needs improvement, and its amendments have not yet been adopted by parliamentary committees for more than eight years. It stipulates the prohibition of children imprisonment, meanwhile many prisons include children wards and continue to issue prison sentences. There are also few and overcrowded correctional facilities managed by associations.»
He added «In order to make children's rights a reality, we must put into effect the abovementioned main three rights, which are an entry point for other rights: The right to education, that is, the child does not work during childhood and is not subject to harm, and the protection of juveniles who are at risk of physical and sexual violence and begging, all of which are the ugliest forms of violence against children, and those are the practical required steps.
The main challenges are the lack of funding, and the absence of incentives for parents such as not benefiting from the Poverty Targeting Program unless they register their children in schools, and fines.»
Key recommendations include: «Setting fines, development of public schools, payment of state obligations to schools in the educational sector, strict monitoring of institutions that employ children, development of a law to protect juveniles at risk, interruption of juvenile imprisonment, development of correctional centers, their curricula and the quality of their services, not only in Beirut but in all regions, accelerating the adoption of a law prohibiting the marriage of minors, where there is a law to raise the age of marriage to 18 years, and another still under discussion to raise it to 16 years but with restrictions and under supervision of the juvenile judge, and the adoption of a unified personal status law that protects minors, especially in matters of custody, surveillance and escort, and the right of Lebanese women to give nationality to their children, and all problems associated with statelessness.»
Mikhael:
The former Secretary-General of the Higher Council for Childhood, Dr. Elie Mikhael, transformed the commitment to the text and the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 into a daily article of discussion on various issues of childhood among all parties concerned with the rights of the child. He said: «14 committees of the Higher Council for Childhood were established, representing the relevant ministries, influential actors, Community-Based Organizations, universities and the private sector, to coordinate on the recommendations of the International Convention, namely, strengthening partnerships, and each committee worked on a plan of action to implement them. For example, in 2012, the Committee for the Prevention of Violence was able to endorse the National Strategy for Child Protection and Prevention against All Forms of Violence, as a result of the stakeholders’ collaboration, children’s participation and dialogue with them and other actors, which was praised by the International Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, which considered that Lebanon was a model in creating a working dynamic for children. The Department of Women, Family and Childhood of the Arab League also called for Lebanon's experience to be considered a model for all Arab countries. The administration of the Council was not a traditional administration, we rather became a regulatory framework for public policies on children such as protection and child labor, street children, quality of education and school drop-outs, integration of children, enhance their participation, protection from the Internet, in a collaborative work style. One of the most prominent programs is the completion of a draft legal study comparing Lebanese laws and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international conventions. As a result of the study, there are currently about 20 new draft laws to ensure full compliance of Lebanese laws with the provisions of international agreements, in cooperation with Saint Joseph University, confirming the principle of the academic sector partnership in the various issues of the Council.»
Dr. Mikhael spoke about the establishment of a «Documentation and Information Center for Childhood in Ain El-Remmaneh, which contains studies, laws and projects that have been implemented, and an interactive website to make it easier for children to access and obtain the desired information.
One of the pilot projects is the child-friendly municipalities, where the local level has the capacity to implement projects and programs that children are involved in designing and executing. And one of the key achievements is the efficient role the Center initiated in the rejection of violations and their follow-up with the competent local authorities. The Council has trained «Young Media» children in media communication, participation and interaction skills, with a weekly activity in specialized conferences, and has produced several educational materials to promote children's culture and knowledge of their rights in an easy and understandable language. And we have established a code of ethics for media coverage of childhood issues.»
He pointed to the main challenges: «Lack of funding to secure economic and social rights, and the biggest challenge is the lack of planning, programming and the adoption of integrated social policies. Another challenge is the free hotline for children to file complaints, as it allows children to express their complaints in order to ensure their protection and transfer to the care and assistance agencies, in addition to the importance of having an integrated strategy for implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.»
Key recommendations include: «A clear strategy and establishment of a special law on the rights of the child, follow-up efforts in building the capacity of professionals working on childhood issues, and making childhood issues a priority for officials.»
