دری پشتو دری پشتو

26.Jun.2008

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission

Press release

Children in conflict with law are to be rehabilitated or punished!

The Commission is publishing a detailed report on the situation of children in conflict with law prepared through wide research conducted in 22 provinces of the country. In this report, 247 children in conflict with law have been interviewed.

This report indicates that most of the children in conflict with law in Afghanistan have no access to any kind of possibilities of rehabilitation which is the basic aim of juvenile justice system in the world.

The Government of Afghanistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994 and in 2005 passed the Juvenile Code enacting these international treaty obligations into national law. The provisions of this law and the principles of UN Convention on the Rights of children are used as a pivot for assessment of the situation of children in conflict with law. In this study, undertaken in cooperation with UNICEF, attempt is made to give a greater understanding of the situation of children in conflict with the law in Afghanistan and the juvenile justice system�s treatment of them.

Some findings of the report:

• 55% of children rated their family as poor or very poor with no significant difference between the economic situation of males and females. 42% of respondents rated their family as �medium� economic status, while not one single respondent referred to their family as being rich.
• Overall 69% of children reported that they were working before their arrest and detention (males 76%, females 32%).
• In terms of educational status, notably the majority of females were illiterate (females 62%, males 36%). Only 8% of females and 28% of males had advanced beyond primary level.
• 41% or respondents were in the juvenile rehabilitation centres awaiting trial or delivery of the verdict from the court, 3% of juveniles reported lack of guarantee as the reason for their detention.
• In total 30% of respondents had spent more than 6 months in the juvenile rehabilitation centres
• 15% of those children found in the juvenile rehabilitation centres were female. While many of the girls encountered in the facilities reported being first detained in female adult facilities. In some provinces juvenile rehabilitation centres existed only for boys.

• For males, 34% of cases were related to robbery/theft while 27% of cases were related to murder or kidnap, 12% of cases were related to sodomy or adultery while only 2% of cases were related to sexual abuses.
• For females it was significantly different. At least 56% of females were charged with so-called �moral offences� including running away from home or adultery/sodomy. In many of these cases girls were clearly victims of abuse. 11% with trafficking of children, 8% with murder or kidnap and another 11% with a variety of cases from forgery to fighting.
• Another 14% of girls were in detention as they were lost or without shelter, rather than having committed a crime.
• 48% reported being beaten and another 8% reported verbal abuse. Only 39% of juveniles reported �normal treatment� during arrest. While 11% of females and 55% males reported being beaten during arrest. 36% of respondents reported being ill-treated in police custody.
• At least 59% of juveniles that they will experience police detention before being referred to the juvenile rehabilitation centre.  53% of juveniles had been detained together with adults (49% of girls and 54% of boys).
• 10% of respondents were actively denied from meeting their parents or guardians and so increasing their vulnerability.
• In detention only 23% of respondents had access to a lawyer (17% of males and 62% of females) while in court this increased to only 38% of juveniles having a defence lawyer.

�         58% of children reported they had been ill during their detention but only 42% of these stated they received medical attention.

• The situation of girls is usually much worse than for boys. In many provinces detention centres are specified for boys and girls are mostly kept in female facilities.
• Almost all children complained about the low quality of food, lack of recreation facilities, and the lack of educational facilities;

The findings of this study demonstrate serious concerns about the way children in conflict with law are treated. A punitive and retributive approach to juvenile justice seems to be more dominant than rehabilitation of the juvenile. The use of extended sentences of detention in situations where children do not have access to basic development support (education and training) as well as basic services (health support, basic nutrition) is of serious concern.

The Commission strongly demand the government of Afghanistan that based on its national and inter national commitments adopt effective and urgent measures and programs to protect these children. The report presents a number of recommendations for the government and other responsible organs based on which they would be able to provide protection and establish mechanisms of prevention for children in conflict with law.

Review and upgrade the Juvenile code, develop rules and regulations for juvenile rehabilitation programmers, and guidelines for social service providers of juvenile rehabilitation programmers, establish juvenile prosecution offices and juvenile special courts in all provinces, develop and promote practical alternatives to detention, establish national support network for administration of juvenile justice, review process for age determination, adopting measures for social reintegration of these children  are the recommendations presented in this report.