Tags: Paris Principles

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Children’s advocacy groups Salinlahi and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) are wary that a bill pending in the Senate is out to cause more harm than good to Filipino children, specially children in armed conflict (CIAC) situations. The groups said the proposal is largely an attempt at…

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Aside from coming out with its program of action for the protection of children, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines announced that it will establish a Special Office for the Protection of Children to strengthen its mechanisms on monitoring and defending the rights of Filipino children.

Various groups have called for a review of the Paris Principles, the new guidelines adopted by the United Nations (UN) in defining child soldiers. By not distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants, the Paris Principles, they said, place children in rebel-influenced areas in danger as they are de-facto labeled as child soldiers and therefore, open targets…

CRC Executive Director Ma. Esmeralda Macaspac said the Philippine government uses the broad definition of ‘child soldiers’ in the Paris Principles to evade prosecution for violating children’s rights. Worse, she said, “Communities and people’s organizations branded as guerilla fronts by a paranoid regime become vulnerable to attacks and children are bound to be branded as…