Reviews of "new generation" on the sidelines of the session 11 of the Human Rights Council

Camel racing and recreational exploitation of children from the Gulf to Egypt

 

11/06/2009

The world has walked a great distance to get rid of slavery and slavery and to achieve the equality of human beings, participated in the realization of these human achievement teachings of divine religions and the status of laws and charters and international treaties, and prophets and rulers and philosophers, all of that contributed to the composition of this picture in theory at least no to see masters and slaves but human beings are born equal in everything.

Therefore, we should feel shame when we find ourselves go back centuries, and devise new forms of slavery to each othereven if we didn't call it so, even if the law is embarrassed to name and describe it by that name, and one of the most important forms of slavery and trafficking in human beings which are, unfortunately, in the Arab regionis what is known as the use of child camel jockeys in the Gulf regionwhich got into Egypt in recent years, as the organizers of these races in the provinces of Alsharkia and Ismailia and Sinai using children in this races.

"Maat" indicates that this is happening despite of what acheived concrete results at the level of the world in the field of human rights and the efforts of United Nations organizations in this regard, However there still the ugly face of some communities which have the luxury to see the children suffering and working to starve them to hide the weight to win in an old Bedouin races called (camel races), usually these children are trafficked and sold or loan from other countries such as East Asia with low prices.

"Maat" condemns such behavior which contrasts with a long way towards developing a legal framework to protect children from all forms of exploitation, discrimination or affect on their future, which led to the covenants and agreements in writing on the Rights of the Child and the presence of international organizations and mechanisms of the United Nations will follow up the implementation of the provisions of these documents written.

The attention to children and children's rights is not recent the first Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1923 and was a minor is not universally, however, it was the first start of the idea of the Rights of the Childthis Declaration was adopted by the General Council of the International Union for the relief of children in February 23, 1923, held in Geneva, the text of the Declaration recognizes that men and women in all parts of the country that the humanity of the child to provide its best to them, and stress of their duties, away from anything else because of race, nationality, or religion.

After that, the General Assembly of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1959, which consists of ten principles together constitute the basic rights which should be enjoyed by children, and in 1979 a working group was established for the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child under the auspices of the United Nations, the 1979 considered as the International Year of the childin ten years has been the drafting of the Convention the Rights of the Child in the corridors of the United Nations.

Convention on the Rights of the Child has been adopted and presented for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of the United Nations in November 20, 1989, the Convention is based on a total of 54 articles on the rights of all children, Form of three integrated parts, each part is on content-related issues and the application of the Convention. And to explain the rights of all children in an integrated framework for human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural with pre-emphasis on the indivisibility of these rights. The Convention defined the child in the first article as every human being below the age of eighteen years, if not attained the age of majority prior to that under the law applicable on him.

The most important characteristic of this Convention is to protect children from economic exploitationand the extension of the minimum age for employment and eliminate the worst forms of child labor as prostitution, sex tourism and domestic work .... etc.

Article 32 stipulates that States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitationand from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social.

The Convention created a mechanism for the protection of children within itas on the basis of the text of article 43 of the International Convention, for the purpose of examining the progress made by States Parties in meeting commitments made in the present Convention, established the Committee on the Rights of the Child.Committee was composed of ten experts of high standing and recognized competence in the field covered by the Convention. States Parties shall elect the members of the Committee from among their nationals and shall serve in their personal capacityconsideration being given to equitable geographical distribution, as well as the principal legal systems .

On September 13, 2002, the Secretary-General of the United Nations that he had received signatures by 119 States party to the International Convention from 128 in order to increase the number of members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child from ten to eighteen.

On the other mechanisms for the protection and promotion of the Rights of the Child Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

Thus we can see that in spite of all these mechanisms and the texts of these races are still held in many placesbut are circumvented on its illegal by have setting it up in other countries, some in the Gulf countries are establishing these races and festivals associated with them in countries such as Egypt and in areas such as Alsharkia, Ismailia and El-Arish and use the children of Egyptian thus, we became those who trade in children and not them, The biggest problem is that these races held under the pretext of tourism development and promotion of tourism.

Recently with the Human Rights Council were concerned in this regard, like the visit by the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in children to the Kingdom of Bahrain from October 29 to November 1, 2006, and to the Sultanate of Oman in the period from 2 to November 7, and the State of Qatar from 8 to November 12, the Rapporteur pointed out in its report that there is now a legal ban imposed on the camel races in Qatar, recently, after reportedly been a major destination country for trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys.In Amman, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the prohibition of the use of children under the age of fifteen years in camel races, it takes note of the fact that Oman does not rely on the children of foreigners to be used as camel jockeys.The Special Rapporteur was informed that camel racing is not practiced in Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman has made a report to the eleventh session of the National Council for Human Rights held in Geneva in this respect.

Therefore, "Maat" and the Center for the Rights of the Child Egyptian announce their concern of what could be call the export of the phenomenon of child camel jockeys from the Gulf to Egyptto escape from the international obligations of States on the one hand, and the availability of social and economic conditions to help Egypt in the second."Maat" with the cooperation with the Egyptian Center for the Rights of the Child advocating for the establishment of a national mechanism for the protection of the Egyptian children from entertainment exploitation in all its forms both in the racing camel or acrobatics, circus, or in sports, which carried with it a danger to the child's life, as well as exploitation in the field of advertising and drama, film producer, in violation of ethical standards and their innocence as children.

It also calls for a mechanism to be part of a national strategy for the work of the Ministry of Family and Populationwith the cooperation with non-governmental organizations working in the area of the Rights of the Child and begin to elaborate a draft declaration and an Egyptian on a set of principles to combat recreational exploitation  of children , and the drafting of legal texts ruling in this regard to ensure the protection of the Egyptian children from any form of recreational exploitation, as well as a mechanism to monitor and document images of the exploitation and highlighted it in order to combat it.