Situation 1: children are fighting
Situation 2: a teacher beats a child with a stick
Situation 3: a parent beats a child
We also presented four feelings: angry, sad, scared and happy. We asked participants to think about how a situation, for example when children are fighting, makes them feel. Without discussing, they would pick a sticker that represented their feeling, and put this sticker on the white paper underneath the poster with that situation.
Second, participants were invited to share which emotion they chose and why. We started by asking children and then invited adults to react.
Generally, participants agreed that fighting between children was not a good thing but at the same time not everyone thought that it was really a problem – especially the adults. Regarding beating of children by teachers or adults, opinions were different and often lively discussions followed. Some children argued that beating is good or necessary. Others argued that children should not be beaten. Some views that were shared by Sahrawi children:
Using stickers, participants indicate how a situation makes them feel
A child puts a sticker on the white sheet, to indicate how she feels about children fighting each other
- “I can’t accept it when a teacher beats a child, because it will only make it worse, and it doesn’t solve anything.”
- “I like it when they beat children, because it is the only way in which they can make children understand.”
- “Beating is the only way how children can respect their parents. They need to beat them.”
- “My parents never beat me. When I see other parents beat their children, I feel scared”
Adults’ perspectives on beating children also varied. They largely seemed to agree that while beating is not desirable or preferred, it is sometimes necessary. However, some argued that it is never necessary, or even when it is “necessary” in the sense that one cannot move a child to behave better, beating is not effective and therefore still not helpful.
Workshop part 2: Reactions to child behaviour
In the second part of the workshop, we invited participants to reflect on what, they thought, was the best reaction to two situations. The first situation was about a child misbehaving in class. The second was about a child behaving well by helping another child.
Participants were invited to choose between five different reactions and vote (using a sticker) for the reaction (pictured) they liked best:
Child misbehaves in class
Child helps another child
Reaction 1: adult and child talk about it
Reaction 2: adult gives child a compliment
Reaction 3: child asks adult for help
Reaction 4: adult gets angry at child
Reaction 5: adult beats child
Workshop part 3: children’s rights and the power of compliments
Initially, our plan was to mostly invite participants to talk. To have a conversation was to be the main goal of the workshops. However, after a first trial workshop, the Sahrawi teachers indicated that it was necessary to add more content from my side. They suggested that I would give a short lecture where I would share information from a children’s rights perspective including alternative ways of changing children’s behaviour, so that participants could go home having learned something new. I personally struggled with this assignment as I feel very conscious about being a white, Western person who comes to a different society and tries to change some of their tradition/culture (both fighting between children and (lightly) beating children do currently seem part of the Sahrawi culture, although it also seems that beating children is already changing to be less accepted). However, since this was the explicit wish of all Sahrawi involved, I added a part where I spoke for about twenty minutes about the content of the child’s right to protection from violence, the findings of the study, and what we know from research about changing child behaviour.
You can find the whole draft text of this short lecture here, but in short, I made three main points:
- Any physical act that is intended to hurt a child, including light beating for educational reasons, and including fighting between children, is illegal according to international law. It violates the child’s right to protection from violence.
- Fighting between children in the camps is a problem. We know this from what children told us in our study. It should be taken seriously, and three things can be done to prevent this occurring more: 1) taking the problem seriously; 2) combatting boredom by creating child-friendly places and distributing materials; 3) creating rules and subsequent protection mechanisms, together with children and adults.
- If one wants to change children’s behaviour, we know from research that it is much more effective to reward good behaviour, for example by complimenting children, than to punish bad behaviour.
After my talk, three Sahrawi teachers also shared their experiences of using alternative approaches to physical punishment to change their students’ behaviour. This was very powerful, because instead of presenting general theory, they could share what actually worked in their experience with Sahrawi children.
After these presentations, some more discussion would follow. In the end, we invited children to come to the front, when we gave each child a set of memory cards with the images used in the workshop. We ended the workshops by playing memory with the children – which they seemed to really love!
Presenting the findings of the study
Teachers share their experiences
Children playing memory
Reflection
Generally, I was quite happy with the workshops. One thing that I though was really powerful, was how Sahrawi teachers stepped up and were very quickly teaching the whole workshop in Hassaniye (the Sahrawi language), while I only added the short presentation on the research results. Another thing that I very much liked were the materials. All images were created by illustrator Iris van de Winkel, and the choice of material and printing process was the work of Rik Hurks / Mannen van 80. Fun fact: Iris got involved in the project after I saw some of her work behind the window in the street where my children go to daycare and I contacted her to ask if she’d be interested to create some illustrations for us.
The workshops in my view had several direct and indirect positive learning points:
- There are some forms of violence against children occurring often in the Sahrawi camps. It is, perhaps, possible to change this
- We practiced talking about feelings (with the help of posters and stickers)
- It is good to listen to children’s views and ideas
However, what I am not sure about, is whether these workshops will have much effect. It seems quite limited to do only seven workshops: five in Smara and two in Dakhla. This means that we reached only a very limited amount of people and only in two out of the five camps. Seven workshops are only a small drop in the ocean. That said, we did distribute the memory games, and these are made from PVC material so that they should last a long time, even in the difficult climate in the camps. So, I am hopeful that children will keep playing this game, and that this will keep the conversation going. As one of the teachers said: “The workshops have planted a seed. Now, let’s hope that it will grow.”
For starters, as a foreigner, you are not allowed by the SADR government to go on this trip unaccompanied. There are various security measures that you have to stick to, including being accompanied by military personnel at all times of the trip. This means that you have to (1) coordinate with the SADR authorities for which days they can arrange trips for foreigners to the ‘liberated territories’, (2) do the trip together with other foreigners wanting to visit the area, as there are limited security cars and staff members available, (3) have the driver and car that will be driving you authorized by the government. Just to get that done I had to go to the administrative centre of the camps three times, again requiring a driver and having him authorized to drive me.
Additionally, there was the cultural aspect of wanting to travel with our female translator so she could help with interpreting interviews with girls. I learned that in many Sahrawi families unmarried women cannot travel without a (male) family member for protection, especially for such a long trip. There was a lot of back and forth before we found someone who would agree to accompany her.
(1) The first of many flat tires, on our way to meet with the security staff to have our driver authorized.
(2) With limited equipment and tools available in the desert, there was no way to get our car back to speed for driving us back.
Of course, there were many other things that made the trip difficult or uncomfortable, such as there not being any internet and phone reception for me to contact Marieke and ask for advice, or simply the lack of sanitary facilities. The most challenging factor by far were the unreliable cars. Driving on such rough, largely uninhabited terrain makes you completely dependent on the car you are travelling with. Unfortunately, we did not only go through quite a collection of flat tires (perhaps unsurprisingly, seeing as there was no road), but after a 15-hour drive into the desert, the car in which our translators and I were travelling completely broke down. At least there was still space in the car of another organisation that was with us on the trip. At that point we only had one security car accompanying us left (the other one having broken down too), so the whole group had to move around together at all times, leaving me with little control over where we would go.
This is definitely not ideal if you are trying to find children that you can interview anonymously in an extremely sparsely populated area. Everyone in the group of foreigners that we were with was from different organisations and had different locations that they wanted to head to. I had the strong feeling that my agenda was not being taken into account by the security staff planning our itinerary. There were times where I did not know whether we would be able to do any interviews at all, which I found quite stressful because I did not want to see all the money and time spent on this trip wasted. At this point, I decided to explain again very clearly what we were here to do and, in the end, two primary school visits were arranged, and we got to do several interviews with children there. I was very relieved, and very exhausted.
While all this was quite an adventure, I think it was important to get some insight into what the area looks like and what children living in the ‘liberated territories’ experience, although I wish that we could have done more. Still, I think that the fact that it was so difficult to get there and get interviews done just makes it even more important that we tried.
(3) Children playing after classes at a primary school in the liberated territories.
(4) Getting from the camps to the inhabited strips of land in the liberated territories is an approximately 15 hour drive, so this was my view for the biggest part of the trip.
(5) Stopping on our way for a lunch of camel meat.
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) law
Algeria, the host state of the Tindouf camp, delegated all responsibilities over the camps to the Polisario government. This means that in the camp, Sahrawi law is practiced. Leaving aside the issues that arise due to the lack of international recognition of SADR as a state and therefore the legality of its legislation, researching about children’s rights in the camp is accompanied with the difficulty of accessing the SADR legislation. While references to the Family Code, Civil Code and Criminal Code can be found, I was unable to access any of those sources and could base the legal analysis only on the Constitution.
Unsurprisingly, there is no provision in the constitution that prohibits physical punishment of children, especially not at home. However, some potentially relevant rules are:
- The family is the foundation of the society and should be based on religious, ethical and national values and on the historical heritage (Article7)
- The protection and promotion of the family values is the obligation of the parents, especially regarding the education of their children (Article 50)
- It is prohibited to violate anyone’s sense of morality or honour or to exert any kind of physical or moral violence against another or infringe their dignity (Article 28)
- Special protection is to be given to mothers, children, disabled persons and the elderly and the state has to set up institutions to that end and enact relevant laws (Article 39).
A map of the territory of Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps.
SOURCE: The Public Broadcast Service
Algerian law
As Tindouf Refugee Camps are located within the Algerian borders, it is also important to consider Algerian law. Algeria ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), both providing that physical punishment at home should be prohibited. According to Algerian Constitution, those conventions are superior to national law and can be invoked before national courts with superior authority to national legislation (Article 132 Algerian Constitution). This means that if national law is not in line with one of the conventions, the national court will set aside the national law and apply the Convention.
In 2015 the Algerian penal code was amended and some forms of domestic violence were prohibited. Some of those newly prohibited acts are:
- intentionally injuring or beating a minor under sixteen years,
- preventing the minor from food or care to the extent that the minor’s health is exposed to harm,
- or any other act of violence against a minor. (Article 296 Penal Code)
However, acts that cause ‘light harm’ and result from actions of parent’s methods of disciplining a child are not prohibited and are considered to be part of the parents' fulfilment of their responsibilities towards the child in raising it and correcting its behaviour. Therefore, actions such as light spanking, are allowed.
But what constitutes light harm? Where is the line to be drawn between physical punishment allowed to discipline the child and violence? The answer is: it depends. Several factors such as the age and maturity of the child as well as other surrounding circumstances have to be taken into account. Allowing acts of light harm gives courts and social care institutions flexibility to examine each case on its own merit. However, such a rule leaves a discrepancy between international law that Algeria is bound by, namely the CRC and the ACRWC, and national legislation.
Corporal punishment per country
SOURCE: End Corporal Punishment. (2021). Detailed report on corporal punishment per country [Interactive map]. End Corporal Punishment.
1. International children’s rights law
The most important international children’s right instrument is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). All countries in the world except United States have signed and ratified this Convention.
According to the CRC, states need to:
- take measures to protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence (Article 19)
- take measures to abolish traditional practices that may harm the health of children (Article 24(3))
- ensure that disciplinary measures at school respect the child’s human dignity (Article 28(2))
- ensure that children are not subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 37(a)).
State parties to the CRC
SOURCE: Human Rights Indicators Work. (n.d.). Ratification of 18 International Human Rights Treaties [Interactive map]. United Nations Human Rights.
The Charter requires states to undertake measures
- to protect children from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and abuse (Article 16),
- to ensure that school’s or parental discipline respects the child’s inherent dignity (Article 15),
- to ensure to the maximum extent possible, the survival, protection and development of the child (Article 5).
The Charter does not only impose obligations on the states, but also on parents, who have to ensure that domestic discipline is exercised with humanity, and that it respects the dignity of the child (Article 20).
The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which supervises the implementation of the ACRWC, in their statement on violence against children, held that physical punishment of children should be publicly condemned and eradicated. They also require states to adopt laws that prohibit all corporal punishment of children in all settings including the home, and for states to put in place implementation measures to achieve effective protection of children. According to the committee, custom, tradition, religion or culture cannot justify harmful cultural practices such as physical punishment.
However, the implementation of such a prohibition varies across African countries, and while some have prohibited physical punishment of children in all settings including that at home (such as South Africa, Kenya, South Sudan and Tunisia) other countries have not fully prohibited physical punishment in any setting (such as Botswana, Tanzania, Mauritania and Nigeria).
Corporal punishment per country
SOURCE: End Corporal Punishment. (2021). Detailed report on corporal punishment per country [Interactive map]. End Corporal Punishment.
Context – The Tindouf Refugee Camps
Of course there is a lot to I could say about the history of the Tindouf camps, but essentially what is relevant for this blog post is this: The people living in the Tindouf refugee camps are members of the ‘Sahrawi people’, a nomadic people from Western Sahara. When the territorial conflict about Western Sahara erupted into violence in 1976, they fled just across the border to the Tindouf area in Algeria. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has recognised that the Sahrawi people living in the Tindouf camps have the legal status of being refugees. The camps are controlled by Polisario, the liberation movement of the Sahrawi people, which is fighting for the Sahrawi’s claim to the territory of Western Sahara. In 1976, the Polisario proclaimed the SADR as an independent state, which is considered an unrecognised state. Although quite a few countries, as well as the African Union, recognize the SADR, not all countries do and therefore it is unable to sign most international treaties. Therefore, the camps are inhabited by a population of refugees that lives under what most of them consider their own government, but others consider to be an unrecognised entity, not bound to respect children’s rights.
The Issue – Non-State Actors and Why They Matter
Usually, when considering who is responsible for someone’s children’s rights, we turn to the state that is in control of the territory or the children in question. In the case of refugees, the international legal system sets out that the state which they are in must guarantee the refugees the same rights as its nationals.
This means that according to the existing framework Algeria, as the camps’ host state, is considered the primary actor in this scenario. It also has ratified various conventions, including the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (CRC) and the ‘1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees’. This means that Algeria has responsibilities such as treating nationals and refugees alike when it comes to access to elementary education and other public services. At first sight, the situation is therefore quite clear, Algeria is responsible for the international children’s rights of the Sahrawi children living on its territory, right? Yes, but…
From early onwards, Algeria has delegated all responsibility over the camps to Polisario. They recognize the SADR as an independent state, and the Polisario as its government. This means that Algerian authorities are not present in the camps and do not, for example, provide education in the camps. It happens surprisingly often that people find themselves in a situation in which not a state, but another type of actor is making the calls when it comes to their children’s rights protection. This is also the case with the Sahrawi refugees in the Tindouf camps which is why considering Algeria alone as responsible is not very useful from the perspective of a child living in the camps. However, since not all countries recognise the SADR as a country, internationally it is usually seen as a ‘non-state actor’. This term is usually used for bodies that are not states but still relevant in the international legal community, such as international organisations like the United Nations, corporations or armed opposition groups. They cannot become a signatory to conventions like the CRC. Nevertheless, it is increasingly accepted that non-state actors should also be responsible for the rights of the people they are in control of. Legally speaking, the International Court of Justice has accepted this possibility, as long as the actor in question has ‘international legal personality’. Whether a non-state actor will fulfil this qualification, and which obligations it has if it does, depends on the actor’s purpose and function. This still sounds quite vague so to put it more concretely, here are some of the obligations that non-state actors could (or should) be bound by:
- Obligations arising out of exercising effective control over people or territories: An actor exercising government-like functions should be bound by children’s rights norms when what they do can affect the rights of the children under their control. For example, when a governing body is in control over water supply, they have to make sure that access to this water is equally accessible to all children.
- Self-imposed obligations: Many non-state actors actually voluntarily declare that they will adopt certain human and children’s rights standards. Arguably this can give rise to the actor being internationally obliged to respect these standards.
- Ius cogens norms: These are rules of international law that must be complied with at all times and cannot be derogated from, no matter by whom. The argument is that non-state actors with international legal personality should also have to follow the generally accepted rules within which they operate. Some of these rules are human rights norms, for example the prohibition of torture.
Human Rights Obligations for Polisario?
These obligations should also apply to Polisario (the Sahrawi governing body). Firstly, it has international legal personality based on its role of representing the Sahrawi people, as accepted by the UN, and secondly, it exercises actual control over the Tindouf camps and its inhabitants. This control is in many ways similar to the control a regular government usually has over a country (deciding who gets to enter, applying its own criminal and juvenile law, etc). Therefore, this almost complete control over the camps could be a reason to hold Polisario responsible for certain children’s rights obligations. This is supported by the fact that Polisario, or rather the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the state that Polisario proclaimed, has ratified the ‘African Charter on Human and People’s Rights’, although not the ‘African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’. It also has its own human rights catalogue included in its constitution, which contains the right to free education and the obligation to ensure protection for children. These ‘national’ or regional commitments to human rights can arguably also give rise to international obligations in the field of children’s rights.
As you can see summarised in this chart, there is a lot of room for seeing Polisario responsible for certain rights of Sahrawi children, in addition to the obligations of Algeria.
Still, whether non-state actors can have children’s rights obligations remains disputed by some. Looking at the goals that international children’s rights law is supposed to achieve however, it seems like denying that Polisario can hold certain children’s rights obligations bypasses the reality of a child living in the camps and experiencing almost exclusively the governance of Polisario. Children’s rights are supposed (a) protect children and (b) apply to every child equally, independent of nationality. Consequently, if children’s rights are supposed to protect every child equally, they should also be granted to those living under the control of a non-state actor.
If you want to know more about the situation in the Tindouf camps, then follow our upcoming posts and vlogs from our field research trip!
You can read my complete thesis on this subject here.
A map of the territory of Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps.
SOURCE: Omar-Toons. (2011, 15 March). Western sahara map showing morocco and polisaro [Illustration]. Wikipedia.
Who is responsible for providing education in the Tindouf camps?
SOURCE: Ammi, L. (2018). Sahrawi refugees in Algeria [Photograph]. European Union.
Water tanks in the Tindouf camps.
In my original bachelor thesis, I also analysed the role of other actors present in the Tindouf camps. Anyone interested in reading the full version can find the complete paper here.
