Francis Chartrand for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles

(Brussels) - The International Criminal Court's (ICC) trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, scheduled to begin on January 26, 2009 in The Hague, marks an important stage in efforts to establish responsibility for the use of children in military operations, Human Rights Watch said today. Another Congolese warlord sought by the ICC, Bosco Ntaganda, remains at large.

Lubanga, the former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia who operated in the district of Ituri in northeastern Congo, is charged with enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 as soldiers and using them to participate actively in combat between September 2002 and August 2003. Lubanga's UPC forces also carried out widespread killing, rape, and torture of thousands of civilians throughout Ituri, though to date the ICC has not charged him or any other member of the UPC with such crimes.

"This first ICC trial makes it clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted at the international level," said Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. "Lubanga's UPC also slaughtered thousands, and those responsible should be held accountable for these crimes as well."

Lubanga's trial was originally scheduled to begin in June 2008. However, the judges of the trial chamber unanimously decided to stay the proceedings - suspending the trial - because the prosecution could not disclose a number of documents collected confidentially from information providers as permitted under the Rome Statute, causing concerns that Lubanga would not receive a fair trial. The prosecution worked with these information providers to address the judges' concerns, and in November 2008 the trial chamber allowed proceedings to resume.

The Ituri conflict and other conflicts in eastern Congo highlight the participation of non-Congolese forces. Ituri in particular became a battleground involving the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. These governments provided political and military support to Congolese armed groups despite abundant evidence of their widespread violations of international humanitarian law. The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has repeatedly stated that he will bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious crimes.

"Getting to the root of the conflict in Ituri means that the ICC must go beyond local war lords like Lubanga," said Singh. "We look to the prosecutor to investigate those who supported Lubanga and other militias operating in Ituri, including senior officials in Kinshasa, Kigali, and Kampala."

The ICC is faced with the challenge of making sure that the proceedings are meaningful for the communities most affected by the crimes in Congo. Human Rights Watch said that the Lubanga trial is a unique opportunity that the ICC cannot afford to miss and should make every possible effort to communicate with people in Congo about important legal proceedings in The Hague. To be effective, justice must not only be done but also must be seen to be done. Human Rights Watch will be looking very closely at the court's performance to this end.

Bosco Ntaganda Still Sought by the ICC

Bosco Ntaganda, who collaborated with Lubanga as chief of military operations for the UPC, has also been charged with war crimes by the ICC but remains at large. He currently serves as the military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a rebel group that is now collaborating with the Congolese and Rwandan national armies in military operations against a Rwandan armed group in eastern Congo.

On November 4 and 5, 2008, CNDP troops under Ntaganda's command killed an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja, one of the worst massacres in North Kivu in the past two years.
In early January, Ntaganda claimed he was taking over leadership of the CNDP from its former head Laurent Nkunda, and on January 16 he declared that instead of making war on the Congolese national army, he would join its troops in fighting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed group some of whose leaders participated in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

"Bosco Ntaganda is not a viable partner for the Congolese or any other government," said Singh. "He is a war crimes suspect sought by the ICC, and he should be immediately arrested, not celebrated as a partner for peace."

The Congolese government, a state party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, is obligated to arrest Ntaganda. Yet no such attempt was made last week when Ntaganda was in Goma alongside the Congolese minister of the interior and other senior Congolese military officers.

Background

In addition to crimes related to child soldiers, Thomas Lubanga's UPC, which purported to further the interests of the Hema ethnic group in the Ituri region of northeastern Congo, has also been involved in ethnic massacres, torture, and rape during the Ituri conflict.

In March 2006, Lubanga was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges involving child soldiers. In January 2007, the judges of the ICC determined that there was sufficient evidence to move forward with a trial.

This trial is the first in which victims will be allowed to participate in international criminal proceedings. More than 90 victims who have been found eligible will participate through their legal representatives. While not parties, victims have certain rights in proceedings, provided their exercise is consistent with the rights of the accused and a fair trial. This may include the right to submit evidence pertaining to Lubanga's guilt or innocence and thus contribute to the search for truth.

The ICC has charged three other Congolese warlords with crimes related to child soldiers, including Bosco Ntaganda, mentioned above. Two others, leaders of militias of ethnic groups allied with each other but rivals of Lubanga's, are in custody. They are Germain Katanga of the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Forces (FRPI), a Ngiti-based group, and Mathieu Ngudjolo, of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), a Lendu-based militia. Both are accused of using child soldiers in attacking civilians in Bogoro village in early 2003, among other war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery, and rape.

Children are currently recruited and used in armed conflict in at least 15 countries and territories: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), India, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda. In the DRC, at least five parties to the armed conflict are known to use child soldiers. These include the Congolese army (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, pro-government Mai Mai groups, and the Lord's Resistance Army.

In addition to the ICC's cases, the Special Court for Sierra Leone has charged all nine of its original defendants, including former Liberian president Charles Taylor, with the crime of recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers. To date, the Special Court has convicted four defendants of this crime; those convicted are serving prison terms ranging from seven to 50 years. The Special Court's trial of Taylor is ongoing.

Ituri is one of the areas worst-affected by Congo's devastating wars. A local armed conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups that began in 1999 was exacerbated by Ugandan military forces and through linkages to the broader conflict in the Great Lakes region. As the conflict spiraled and armed groups multiplied, more than 60,000 civilians were slaughtered in Ituri, according to the United Nations. Competition for the region's lucrative gold mines and trading routes was a major contributing factor to the fighting. Foreign armies and local militia groups - seeing control of the gold mines as a way to money, guns, and power - fought each other ruthlessly, often targeting civilians in the process. In their battles for gold, armed groups such as Lubanga's UPC were implicated in widespread ethnic slaughter, torture, and rape.

Human Rights Watch has been documenting human rights abuses committed in Ituri since 1999. Human Rights Watch published detailed reports in 2001, 2003, and 2005, as well as dozens of news releases and briefing papers detailing the widespread atrocities by all armed groups.

Link

Labels: Children, Congo, Human rights, Human Rights Watch, Renata Daninsky

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 8:21 PM 1 Comments

(New York, December 16, 2008) - The UN Security Council should respond to escalating violations against children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including the recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence, said Human Rights Watch in a letter sent on December 10, 2008, to Security Council members. The Security Council's working group on children and armed conflict is expected to meet this week to consider action on this issue.

At least 175 children have been forcibly recruited into armed service since heavy fighting resumed in August between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP). There are reports that the number may be much higher. Scores of girls have been raped by parties to the conflict. Human Rights Watch observed some of these abuses in a visit last week.

"We wish Security Council members could have been with our researchers," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. "The sight of drugged children carrying AK-47s might convince them that they should take stronger action to end the recruitment and rape of children and hold the guilty parties accountable."

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Nyamilima and Ishasha in North Kivu province, where they saw at least 30 children guarding barricades and patrolling the streets with weapons they could barely carry. Some were as young as 12, and four were girls. They were operating in areas now controlled by Mai Mai militias and the Rwandan armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

In some areas of Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu, Nkunda's rebels and other armed groups have gone door-to-door to force young boys and adults, some as young as 14, into their service. In other areas the group has recruited boys as young as 12 near displaced persons' camps. Some have been sent into combat without military training.

Pro-government Mai Mai groups recruited dozens of children for military service in late October, and the Congolese army has also recruited children to transport and distribute weapons.

Worldwide, 14 parties to armed conflict have been identified since 2002 by the UN secretary-general for consistent and repeated violations of international laws that prohibit the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Four of these "persistent violators" are currently recruiting children in the DRC - the Congolese army (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), pro-government Mai Mai groups, and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"Tragically, many of the children recently taken are ‘re-recruits,' who have already gone through demobilization programs," said Becker. "These programs are too brief, and the children urgently need more support and protection from being recruited again once they return to their families."

Human Rights Watch has also documented rapes of girls and women by Congolese army soldiers and by combatants of the CNDP, FDLR and Mai Mai militias. Dozens of women and girls from Nyamilima and Ishasha have been raped in recent weeks by Mai Mai combatants, including girls as young as 9 years old, attacked while working in the fields or sleeping in their houses at night. Some witnesses credit FDLR combatants with trying to restrain Mai Mai abuses, but in many areas both groups have collaborated in attacks.

Nkunda's soldiers raped at least 16 women and girls in late October and November following their takeover of Rutshuru and Kiwanja. Congolese army soldiers fleeing an advance by the group raped more than a dozen women and girls as they fled Goma on October 29.

Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped since the war began in 1998, and a recent report from the secretary-general found that between June 2007 and June 2008, the UN recorded 5,517 cases of sexual violence against children in Ituri and North and South Kivu - 31 percent of all sexual violence victims.

Human Rights Watch called on the European Union to urgently send a "bridging" force to eastern Congo to help UN peacekeepers stop further attacks on civilians, including children. Human Rights Watch wrote (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/09/european-union-deploy-bringing-force-north-kivu-eastern-drc ) to EU heads of state on December 9, asking them to deploy such a force quickly in eastern Congo following an earlier request from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the EU.

Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to:

• Take measures, including additional sanctions, against parties responsible for the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and rape and sexual violence;
  
• Urge members of the Security Council and governments in the region to apprehend individuals wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), including the CNDP chief of staff, Bosco Ntaganda, who is accused by the ICC of crimes relating to child soldiers in Ituri in 2002 and 2003; and
  
• Ensure that UNICEF, the UN peacekeeping mission MONUC, and other relevant UN agencies receive adequate resources and personnel to promote the demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers, including girls associated with armed groups.

Statements by children

(All names below have been changed to protect the children's privacy.)

Anthony

Anthony was one of an estimated 50 children and dozens of adults forcibly recruited in mid-September by rival forces, CNDP and PARECO, just outside the displaced persons' camp in Ngungu (Masisi territory). His family had fled to Ngungu days earlier, after the two groups fought in their home village, Numbi:

"Five CNDP soldiers stopped me on the road in the middle of the day. They sent me with a large group of other men and boys - some as young as 12, others as old as 40 - to Murambi, where they said we would transport boxes of ammunition for the rebel soldiers. They beat us badly so we couldn't resist. When we got to Murambi, they didn't order us to transport boxes, but instead gave us military uniforms and taught us how to use weapons. Then, after three days, they put us all in an underground prison. We stayed there for four days, and new recruits joined us every day. On the fourth day, they called us out of the prison and took us to Karuba. That night, I managed to escape with two other recruits, and we ran all the way back to Ngungu. The others who remained behind were sent to Kitchanga for military training."

When Anthony and the others arrived in Ngungu, they sought refuge at the MONUC base. Like many fighters who choose to disarm or who escape forced recruitment, they were handed over to Congolese authorities, who sent them to the military intelligence prison in Goma (known as the T2) as a transit point on their way to demobilization camps. Detainees are often held at T2 for weeks or months without charge and are subjected to cruel and degrading treatment; some are tortured. After five days without eating, Anthony managed to escape and sought refuge at a MONUC base in Goma.

"I want to go back to our home in Numbi," Anthony said. "But I'm scared. If the CNDP soldiers find me there, they will kill me."

Marie

Marie is a 16-year-old girl who was raped by a CNDP soldier in a farm outside Rutshuru on October 29, just after the group took control of the town:

"The day the CNDP arrived in Rutshuru, they pillaged my neighborhood and shot and killed two boys, so I decided to flee to Goma. I ran through the farms on the edge of Rutshuru and met two Tutsi soldiers with guns and spears. They stopped me in the farm. I was alone. One of the soldiers spoke Kinyarwanda, and the other spoke Swahili. They said, ‘We're going to kill you.' Then they put a knife on my arm. I said, ‘No, please pardon me.' Then they said, ‘The only way we can pardon you is if we rape you.' They cut my clothes off with the knife. One of the soldiers raped me from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. There was blood everywhere. Then when the second soldier wanted to start, there were lots of gunshots nearby and they left, saying that if I fled they would kill me. After that, I managed to escape and made it to Kibati [a large displacement camp outside Goma]. I'm still in a lot of pain, but I don't have any medicine and there's no one here to treat me."

Liliane

Liliane lives in a displaced persons camp in Rutshuru. She was raped when she went back to her village to look for something to eat:

"One time, when I tried to go back to my village, the FDLR stopped me and raped me. They took me on the side of the road, near the village Buhuga. There were eight FDLR combatants. I was with seven other girls. All of us were raped. The other girls were from my village, but they don't live in this camp. They took us at 2 p.m. and let us go the next day at 4 p.m. We spent the night with them and then they let us go. One soldier raped me; there was one soldier for each girl. They abused us badly. They used their weapons to threaten us, but they didn't use them against us. I was 17 years old when this happened. The other girls were 16, 17, and 18 years old. I studied until the sixth primary level, but I can't study now that I'm displaced. I just want the FDLR and the CNDP to leave so I can return home and continue my life."

Link

Labels: Children, Congo, Human rights, Human Rights Watch, Renata Daninsky

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 6:23 PM 0 Comments

For the Government, parents are irresponsible idiots ...

Here is the testimony of a parent who fled Algeria to escape Islam and who does not know of an ECR for his children:

"I had 8 000 km, without a penny to put my two children from Islam. I made a vacuum around me and I eliminated any of my relations who can tell them the good of the religion. Now we will serve them in school. They say that Christianity and Islam is the same message, but said differently. "

"They say that Jesus and Mohammed are equal and are all 2 of chic types and that Christians and Muslims should not quibble. It does not say that seeks chicane. They say that Jews and Muslims are brothers who are wrong to quibble and should live in harmony in Palestine as Andalusia and potatoes and potatoes. "

"Sooner or later, my children know my opinion or ask me questions. I then go to them for a liar and a villain. I had full opportunity to live this situation in Algeria, without needing to cross an ocean. I'm back to square one after 8000 km and years of toil. My God, no! it will not again. I'm exhausted. "

****

The absent are suspended

(Granby) The management of the school-Joseph-Hermas Leclerc Granby tough with students who are boycotting the course of ethics and religious culture. A fourth secondary student was suspended yesterday and five others received notice of suspension for next week. This is the beginning of a battle between the parents of these young people and the school board of Val-des-Cerfs.

Jonathan Gagné has been suspended for failing 20 hours of an ethics and religious culture (ECR). Since the beginning of the year, the teenager avoids the course, with the blessing of his parents.

So that he can return to class, they must sign a contract for reinstatement with the school. In the document, parents commit to compel their children to attend during RWCE.

"We will not sign the contract, says his mother, Diane Gagné, which is convened to school Monday morning. It continues to withdraw our son's progress. "

Expulsion

Without the label of his parents, Jonathan risk expulsion. The school board of Val-des-Cerfs confirms that it will apply the penalties prescribed in the Code of school life-H. J. Leclerc-against absenteeism.

"We have an obligation to put forward the basic school, said the general manager of the school board, Alain Lecours. A student absent, even partially, violates this rule. We must crack down. "

Sanctions code of life depend on the number of missed periods. They range from verbal warning to withdrawal from school, from suspensions of various durations.

According to the Education Act, a parent shall take the necessary means for their child attends school. "If the parent does not sign the contract for reinstatement, we're in a gray area, said Lecours. We can not readmit the young. It requires that parents find a solution with the school. "

Diane Gagné condemns this position. "We expect that Jonathan is deported Monday, regrets she says. It is very difficult, because it does not reverse its decision and neither have we. Especially since we have no real alternative than to change school or move to another province. "

As Jonathan 16, it could also attend adult school.

Non-motivated absences

The son of Linda Foisy, Xavier and Pierre-Elijah Lasnier, respectively will be suspended Monday and Tuesday. Like Diane Gagné, it will not sign for his children return to their being RWCE.

"I appeal to school almost every morning to justify their absence from the course, she says. The problem is that schools are considered as non-motivated absences. It calls into question my authority of a parent. They do not understand that this course was, it does not want to! "

The Coalition for Freedom in Education (CLE), a group of parents who oppose during RWCE, denounced this policy of school-J.-H. Leclerc.

"It's completely arbitrary. A student who is two weeks in Switzerland to ski with his parents will no reasoned, "is outraged spokesman Richard Decarie. According to him, the only honorable for the school board to resolve the impasse is to accept to exempt students. He argues that even if the price of RCT is mandatory, it is not necessary for graduation from high school.

Values

The Director General of the school board of Val-des-Cerfs contends that the school is within its rights to refuse to motivate young people absences.

"Their parents have already made requests for exemption to the school board for being RWCE and they were all rejected, said Alain Lecours. We know that this is not the code of life problem. The substantive debate is the values and beliefs. "

Labels: Children, Québec, Religion and fanaticism, Renata Daninsky

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 9:43 PM 0 Comments

Nine out of ten children with HIV do not have access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Governments and donors need to be more ambitious in bringing existing pediatric HIV tests and drugs to the children who need them, says the medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This lack of treatment is particularly threatening for babies who are born with the virus because half of them will die before their second birthday if untreated.

Labels: Children, Doctors Without Borders, Renata Daninsky

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 12:22 AM 0 Comments

(New York, November 18, 2008) – The Nepali government should urgently address the widespread torture and ill-treatment of children in police custody, Human Rights Watch said today in a statement marking Nepali Children’s Day on November 20. So far in 2008, Human Rights Watch has received credible claims of more than 200 cases of torture or abuse committed by members of the Nepali police against boys and girls, some as young as 13.

“The Nepali police have a duty to protect children and to prevent crime,” said Bede Sheppard, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division. “Instead, by torturing children in custody they are committing crimes against those they are supposed to be protecting.”

According to a large number of consistent and reliable reports, including first-person testimony from children, the most common methods of torture police use on children include: kicking; fist blows to the body; inserting metal nails under children’s toenails; and hitting the soles of feet, thighs, upper arms, backs of hands, and the back with bamboo sticks and plastic pipes.

Most children abused by the police are suspected of committing petty crimes, or are children living or working on the streets.

“Sometimes, the torture is inflicted to extract confessions from the children,” Sheppard said. “While at other times it appears to be carried out purely for the entertainment of the official.”

Torture is prohibited under Nepal’s Constitution, but is not defined as a crime under the country’s civil code (Nepal’s criminal law is part of its civil code). The torture of children is, however, illegal under article 7 of the Children’s Act, though the maximum penalty is just one year’s imprisonment and a fine.

Human Rights Watch said that despite the widespread nature of abuses against children in police custody, no government official has ever been prosecuted for the torture of children under the Children’s Act.

“It’s unusual to find a country where torture has not at least been recognized as a crime in its basic criminal law,” Sheppard said. “Given the widespread and credible nature of the allegations of torture in police custody, and the fact that the Children’s Act allows the government to prosecute torturers of children, it is also surprising that not a single police officer has been prosecuted for this offense.”

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the conditions children face while in custody. Children are generally not separated from adults while in detention as required under international law, and thus face a greater risk of being assaulted by other prisoners. Children also lack access to adequate medical facilities and legal assistance, and some face long periods – sometimes many days – of arbitrary detention.

One first-person testimony obtained by Human Rights Watch came from a 15-year-old boy who was routinely abused over a period of four days by police officers from three different police stations in Sunsari District in January 2008. The boy, who was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a robbery, explained:

“As I denied their accusations, [two unidentified police personnel] started beating me with a green plastic pipe and a bamboo stick on my hands, legs, and all over my body. Then, they forced me to lie on the floor with my legs on the table and started beating me on my feet. While beating, they asked some questions such as ‘Who was involved in robbery?’ and ‘What are their names?’…. They tortured and interrogated me for about one hour.”

The next day, the same boy was transferred to a different police station, where he said he was again abused:

“Some five or six unidentified police personnel asked me the same questions as [I had been asked the] previous day. As soon as I stated that I was not involved in the robbery, they started beating me with a plastic pipe, a silver pipe, and a bamboo stick all over my body. They even punched and kicked me with their boots. After a while, they placed a pistol on my temple and threatened to shoot me dead in an encounter. Then, they forced me to admit my involvement in the robbery.... They forced me to lie on the floor and one police man put his legs with boots on my chest and another sat on my head and the next police officer started beating me on my feet, legs, and all over my body with sticks. Then, they forced me to jump up and down on the floor for seven to ten minutes and again started beating me. I was beaten and interrogated simultaneously [over a two-hour period].”

Forcing victims to jump up and down is a tactic often used in Nepal to get blood circulating with the intention of lessening the physical evidence of torture.

Human Rights Watch urged the Nepali government to mark Children’s Day by making a clear statement that police torture is absolutely prohibited, and that any police officer involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“If the government takes children’s rights seriously, then it should use Children’s Day to condemn police torture of children and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Sheppard said. “Nepal’s government should commit that by next year’s Children’s Day, torture will be a criminal offence, punishable with a proportionate penalty.”

Link

Labels: Children, Human Rights Watch, Nepal, Renata Daninsky

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 5:53 PM 0 Comments

(Brussels, October 17, 2008) – Spain’s accelerating effort to send back unaccompanied children who enter the country illegally might subject them to danger, ill-treatment and detention, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government needs to halt repatriations until it has a process to ensure their well-being, and, as an immediate step, give them the same right to an independent lawyer that adult migrants have under Spanish law.

The 22-page report, “Returns at Any Cost: Spain’s Push to Repatriate Unaccompanied Children in the Absence of Safeguards,” says that in Andalusia, the southern region that is a common entry point for migrants, authorities have said they intend to send up to 1,000 unaccompanied children in their custody to Morocco, claiming that safeguards are in place. But officials could not explain how they determined it was in a child’s best interest to return, as required by law. They also said that the Moroccan government’s agreement to take a child back was in itself a sufficient guarantee of the child’s well-being after return.

“Spain is taking a chance with these children’s safety,” said Simone Troller, children’s rights researcher in Europe for Human Rights Watch. “Why deny these especially vulnerable children more safeguards, including the same right to an independent lawyer that adult migrants have?”

Labels: Children, Human Rights Watch, Morocco, Renata Daninsky, Senegal, Spain

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 1:07 AM 0 Comments

As UN member states begin three days of debate on the rights of the child, more than 300 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from 82 countries called on the UN General Assembly to take urgent action to end executions for crimes committed by children, Human Rights Watch said today.

The vast majority of states enforce the absolute prohibition on the death penalty for individuals who committed crimes as children, in compliance with international law. But the overall number of such executions has been rising. Five countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen – have carried out 32 of these executions since January 2005, and have well over 100 other juvenile offenders on death row.

“Groups from all over the world are saying that these executions are an outrage,” said Clarisa Bencomo, researcher on children’s rights for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch. “The General Assembly should demand that countries stop these killings immediately and pass reforms so that no one is ever again executed for a crime committed as a child.”

Iran has been at the forefront of the recent rise in executions of juvenile offenders. Between 2000 and 2004, five states are known to have executed 18 juvenile offenders, with the nine executions in the United States and five in Iran accounting for the majority. The United States ended the juvenile death penalty in March 2005, but since January 2005, Iran has been responsible for 26 of the 32 executions of juvenile offenders worldwide. NGOs in all five countries that currently execute juvenile offenders are among those seeking General Assembly action, and the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi endorsed their statement.

On October 15, 2008, the UN General Assembly will begin its annual debate on the rights of the child. Past General Assembly resolutions have included a broad call for states to comply with their international treaty obligations to end the juvenile death penalty, but with language so general that even states that execute juvenile offenders supported the measures.

The NGO petition is co-sponsored by the Child Rights Information Network and Human Rights Watch. The petition urges UN member states to recognize the urgency of the current situation by calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions of juvenile offenders and commutation of existing death sentences to custodial or other sentences in conformity with international juvenile justice standards. States that prohibit the death penalty for juvenile offenders should ensure that essential safeguards are in place so that children are not mistakenly sentenced to death. These safeguards should include legal assistance, universal birth registration and training for judges and prosecutors in juvenile justice.

The petition also calls on the General Assembly to request a report from the UN secretary-general on all states’ compliance with the absolute ban on the juvenile death penalty, including information on the number of juvenile offenders currently on death row and the number executed during the last five years. Such a study would be an important tool in identifying good practices that states can use in implementing the absolute prohibition on these executions and to set benchmarks for moving toward full compliance.

“The General Assembly should adopt strong, detailed recommendations on the steps states should take to implement the prohibition on the juvenile death penalty, and then follow up to monitor states’ actions,” Bencomo said. “It is unconscionable that, in some countries, children are facing execution because they lacked birth certificates or didn’t have lawyers during investigation and trial.”

The text of the petition and a list of the 305 groups that have signed it are available in Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

Labels: Children, Human Rights Watch, Renata Daninsky, UN

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 11:08 AM 0 Comments

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen Executed 32 for Crimes Committed as Children

Ending executions for crimes committed by children in just five countries would result in universal implementation of the prohibition on the juvenile death penalty, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Governments should use next week’s United Nations General Assembly session opening to commit to urgently needed reforms to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law.

In the 20-page report, “The Last Holdouts: Ending the Juvenile Death Penalty in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen,” Human Rights Watch documents failures in law and practice that since January 2005 have resulted in 32 executions of juvenile offenders in five countries: Iran (26), Saudi Arabia (2), Sudan (2), Pakistan (1), and Yemen (1). The report also highlights cases of individuals recently executed or facing execution in the five countries, where well over 100 juvenile offenders are currently on death row, awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or in some murder cases, the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation.

“We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty,” said Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East children’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch. “These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child.”

Every state in the world has ratified or acceded to treaties obligating them to ensure that juvenile offenders – persons under 18 at the time of the crime – are never sentenced to death. The overwhelming majority of states complies with this obligation, with several states – including the United States and China – in recent years moving to ban the juvenile death penalty and strengthen juvenile justice protections.

The vast majority of executions of juvenile offenders take place in Iran, where judges can impose the death penalty in capital cases if the defendant has attained “majority,” defined in Iranian law as 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys. Iran is known to have executed six juvenile offenders so far in 2008, including two in August: Behnam Zare on August 26, 2008, and Seyyed Reza Hejazi on August 19, 2008. Over 130 other juvenile offenders are currently sentenced to death.

In Saudi Arabia judges have discretion to impose the death sentence on children from puberty or 15 years – whichever comes first. Saudi Arabia executed at least two juvenile offenders in 2007: Dhahiyan bin Rakan bin Sa`d al-Thawri al-Sibai`i on July 21, 2007, and Mu`id bin Husayn bin Abu al-Qasim bin `Ali Hakami on July 10, 2007. Hakami was only 13 years old at the time of the alleged crime, and 15 at the time of his execution. According to his father, Saudi authorities did not inform the family of the execution until days later, and did not return boy’s body.

In Sudan, the 2005 Interim National Constitution allows for the juvenile death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and armed robbery resulting in murder or rape. Vague language in Sudan’s 2004 Child Law leaves open the possibility that children can still be sentenced to death under the 1991 Penal Code, which defines an adult as “a person whose puberty has been established by definite natural features and who has completed 15 years of age ... [or] attained 18 years of age ... even if the features of puberty do not appear.” With more than 35 percent of Sudanese births not registered, even very young juvenile offenders can face execution because they have no birth certificates to prove their age at the time of the offense. Sudan executed two juvenile offenders, Mohammed Jamal Gesmallah and Imad Ali Abdullah, on August 31, 2005, and has sentenced at least four other juvenile offenders to death since January 2005.

In Pakistan, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 bans the death penalty for crimes committed by persons under 18 at the time of the offense, but authorities have yet to implement it in all territories. With only 29.5 percent of births registered, juvenile offenders can find it impossible to convince a judge they were children at the time of the crime. Pakistan executed one such juvenile offender, Mutabar Khan, on June 13, 2006.

In Yemen, the Penal Code sets a maximum 10-year sentence for capital crimes committed by persons under 18, but in a country with only 22 percent of births registered and minimal capacity for forensic age determinations, children can find it impossible to prove their age at the time of the crime. Yemen last executed a juvenile offender, Adil Muhammad Saif al-Ma'amari, in February 2007, despite his allegation that he was 16 at the time of the crime and had been tortured to confess. According to nongovernmental organizations and government sources, in 2007 at least 18 other juvenile offenders were on death row.

“Even states that still execute juvenile offenders acknowledge that such executions are wrong,” said Bencomo. “But changes in law and practice need to be faster.”

In the coming weeks the United Nations secretary-general will report back to the UN General Assembly on follow-up to the latter’s ground-breaking December 2007 resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty for all crimes. Human Right Watch calls on UN member states to request that the secretary-general issue a similar report on compliance with the absolute ban on the juvenile death penalty, including information on:

1. The number of juvenile offenders currently sentenced to death, and the number executed during the last five years;

2. Rates of birth registration; and

3. States’ implementation of relevant domestic legislation, including mechanisms ensuring juvenile offenders have legal assistance at all stages of investigation and trial.

Labels: Children, Human Rights Watch, Renata Daninsky, UN

# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 7:48 PM 0 Comments