Seminar at JMI Within 'Makani' Project for Journalists Specialized in Children's Rights

4 Dec. 2017<br /> Amman- The Jordan Media Institute (JMI), in cooperation with the United Nations Children&#39;s Fund (UNICEF), held a seminar titled &quot;Protection Rights: How To Protect Children From Violence? Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.&quot; A select group of academics and experts participated in the seminar, which aimed at raising awareness of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and protection of children, besides providing a platform for exchange and dialogue between media organizations, specialists, academics, and students.<br /> <br /> The seminar was moderated by JMI Dean Professor Basim Tweissi, who expressed the JMI&#39;s commitment to contributing toward building qualitative national capacities of journalists, including technical and professional capacities, strengthening child rights-based journalism, and cooperating with national institutions, especially the National Council for Family Affairs. He underlined the need for more work and awareness and spreading a rights-based culture in the field of protecting childhood, especially in the press and media sector in light of the violations against childhood in our society day after day.<br /> <br /> On the right of children to protection against harm and physical and mental abuse, Mohammed Miqdadi, deputy secretary general of the National Council for Family Affairs, said that &quot;there are many initiatives in Jordan to ensure good care of children and protecting them from violence, abuse, and neglect by their parents or any other person taking care of them.&quot; He said that there is weakness in the quality of services offered to children and their protection, noting that the CRC does not specify the forms of punishment that parents may use. However, any form of violent punishment is unacceptable.<br /> <br /> Miqdadi said that the council is conducting a study on violence against children, especially since the last study on this issue was in 2007 and the results of that study were &quot;shocking.&quot; For example, around 52% of children suffer mild punishment within the family and 70% suffer verbal abuse.<br /> Eva Abu Halaweh, executive director of the Mizan Law Group for Human Rights, said that &quot;children who are accused of violating the law have the right to legal assistance and fair treatment in a judicial system that respects their rights.&quot; She called on governments &quot;to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility of children, which is currently 12 years, and provide the minimum guarantees for fair judicial or alternative procedures and resolve cases quickly.&quot;<br /> <br /> Abu Halaweh also spoke about the legislative achievements that Jordan has seen recently, including the importance of rehabilitating children through approving alternative punishments and the need to abandon detention. She noted that the draft of the Law on the Rights of the Child, which is expected to be approved next year, would generate a lot of debate, especially with regard to the right of the child to citizenship and the age of marriage.<br /> <br /> Kamal Mashriki, head of the Change Academy for Democratic Studies and Development, said that &quot;governments are responsible for adopting, protecting and implementing all available measures to ensure respect for children&#39;s rights.&quot; He said that the ratification of the CRC means that countries agree to reconsider their laws on children. He added that the rise in violence toward children would lead to imbalance in society. This requires efforts by all parties to reduce, and even stop, this violence.<br /> <br /> Mashriki noted the need for raising these issues in the media to protect children and start activating the instruments for protecting the rights of children.<br /> <br /> Zina Jadaan, protection officer in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that &quot;children have the right to protection or assistance, regardless of their citizenship or status, whether they are refugees or not. She added that a child or woman refugee has a special status since the refugee family suffers from a great deal of disintegration because the head of the family is not present.&quot;<br /> <br /> She added that the UNHCR operates based on the principle of &quot;the best interest of the child&quot; and that there is a burden on the government and the UNHCR to offer care for refugee children. The number of Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR is 660,000, in addition to around 64,000 Iraqi refugees.<br /> <br /> She said that the key problems from which refugee children suffer include documentation, domestic violence, labor, and early marriage.<br /> <br /> The attendees, including JMI students and journalists, had a discussion with the experts in the seminar, focusing on the extent of cooperation with the government on children rights, the margin of handling children and their rights, the programs of institutions for protecting children, and partnership between the media and rights centers.<br /> <br /> The seminar is the first to be held by the JMI as part of a series of seminars and activities that will be organized in cooperation with UNICEF within the &quot;Makani&quot; project. &nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;