Research report on situation of child correction and rehabilitation centres in Afghanistan

Parwez Ahang

Introductory notes and background

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) was enshrined in the Bonn Agreement and established in accordance with a decree issued by Hamid Karzai, the then President of the Afghanistan Interim Authority.

AIHRC works in 5 units: (1) Womens Rights Unit, (2) Child Rights Unit, (3) Monitoring and Investigation Unit, (4) Transitional Justice Unit and (5) Human Rights Education Unit. The 5-unit work is supported by the Media and Research and Policy Sections.

As mentioned above, the Child Rights Unit (CRU) is one of the AIHRCs fundamental working units and has conducted many activities in order to promote and protect child rights in the country. This Unit conducts its activities by using the following means:

1.       Education,

2.       Research,

3.       Monitoring and investigation, and

4.       Partnerships with other institutions.

In terms of protecting the rights of the child, one of the crucial areas is to give support to and rehabilitate those children who commit acts contrary to the law. Such a protection is necessary because child perpetrators need corrective and rehabilitative services to that the non-reoccurrence of the crime can be guaranteed in the future.

Guided by the Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), AIHRC has prioritised the issue of monitoring the rights of child delinquents. The Commission undertakes regular observation on Child Correction and Rehabilitation Centres (CCRCs) in the capital Kabul and in the provinces. As a result of the Commissions work, the situation in CCRCs has seen a relative improvement.

In addition, AIHRC has sought to segregate children from adults in the detention places and has tried to promote donor interest in rebuilding CCRCs in war-devastated Afghanistan.

About the present report

The present research report aims to describe the situation of CCRCs in Afghanistan. Whereas international standards have considered the importance of centres of this type in rehabilitating juvenile delinquents, the Commission decided to launch a study on the situation governing CCRCs. In brief, this report focuses on the following 2 points:

1.       Problems identification in CCRCs, and

2.       Submission of recommendations on improving the situation in CCRCs.

Chapter 1: a glance at principles governing CCRCs from the perspective of national and international law

A. Importance of juvenile justice

According to human rights standards, children have the right to separate detention facilities and the punishments that are harmful to childs physical and psychological health are prohibited.

In order to establish juvenile justice, the judiciary has the grave responsibility to finalise juvenile cases in the shortest period of time. The judicial system should put the especial necessities of children at the centre of its attention. Juvenile cases should be dealt in a confidential manner. Juvenile offenders have the right to be informed of the charges against them and the decisions that have been taken regarding their cases in the presence of their parents.

Considering the nature of the crimes and the personal status of the criminals, the Penal Code has foreseen separate criminal procedures.

Juvenile delinquents should not be punished in a way that adult ones are. For this reason, the law has predicted the establishment of Especial Juvenile Courts (SJCs) and the segregation of child offenders from adult ones. As a consequence, our countrys High Judicial Council agreed to form SJCs in 1970. These courts are more of a disciplinary and rehabilitative nature than a penal one.

The SJCs Procedure has been attached as Annex I to the present research report.

B. CCRCs characteristics and conditions

CCRCs are required to fulfil a number of conditions. It is an overarching law that accused persons should be separated from the convicted ones. In the interim, there are minimum standards for the environment of juvenile detention sites. Juvenile delinquents should have access to a humane situation of living in CCRCs.

There should be adequate doctors, psychologists and psychoanalysts to render 24-hour health care service to children in juvenile detention places. Handcuffs, chains and other prison prevent instruments should not be used. Moreover, CCRCs should have libraries and recreational facilities.

Juvenile detention centres should be very different from prisons and no practice of torture should be allowed in those centres as well as prisons. These detention centres should help rehabilitate juvenile delinquents and prepare them for a community reunion. It is essential, therefore, to build CCRCs as part of a series of measures to rehabilitative offenders of child age.

Since children are at a stage of growth, CCRCs-based juvenile delinquents should be physically, mentally, psychologically and socially developed. Educational and vocational training opportunities should be provided to children in CCRCs. Varies approaches need to be applied to make child offenders to refrain from recommitting crimes in the future. Serious child offenders have to be segregated from those with minor offences. Juvenile delinquent abuse and degrading treatment should be banned.

C. Disadvantages of mixed detention sites

There are several reasons why child offenders need especial detention facilities, separate from those for adult criminals. Child offenders may learn more dangerous crimes and more sophisticated anti-social techniques if they are detained together with adult offenders. This is a substantial reason for the need to have segregated juvenile custody facilities.

In addition, mixed detention places will have negative impacts on juvenile delinquents and will avert their smooth rehabilitation and social reintegration.

It is also essential if accused juvenile offenders can stay with their parents on bail so that they can be kept away from detention places.

Chapter 2: existing situation in CCRCs in Afghanistan

A. Establishment of CCRCs

There are CCRCs in 22 provinces of the country. Kabul CCRC was established in 1968. At the moment, 134 juvenile offenders are kept in the countrys CCRCs. There is not any CCRC in 12 provinces. Out of 22 provinces where there exists CCRCs, juvenile delinquents are held together with adult offenders in 5 provinces. Lack of guards is the reason for mixed detention in those provinces. There are cases in which juvenile delinquents have been acquitted by the local gatherings of people.

Later on, Hamid Karzai, the President of the Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan, issued and promulgated a 7-article decree on CCRCs. The presidential decree forms part of the Annex I of this research report.

B. Living situation

The building of Kabul CCRC is the only one that is in a rather good condition. Nevertheless, there are several problems including the lack of adequate space and adequate yard for child offenders in the juvenile correction places.

In the provinces, CCRCs have humid and dark rooms where juvenile offenders are detained. In Jalalabad and Ghazni, a few rooms inside the provincial jail are used as CCRCs while it is not allowed to keep juvenile delinquents in places similar to prison environment.

Unfortunately many child offenders are detained together with adult ones in provinces like Bamian and Ghazni. This is while there are other spare rooms in those detention facilities that could be separately used for juveniles.

C. Health situation

There are health clinics in CCRCs based in Kabul, Herat and Kunduz but there is a little medicine there. There is not enough for juveniles who have caught cold and flu.

There is just one pharmacist in the health clinic in Kabul CCRC. He said, The Ministry of Public Health changes doctors on a trimonthly basis. It is 5 days that our doctor has been changed and we have not received the new one so far.

Urgent juvenile patients are transferred to the hospitals for a better treatment of the disease.

There are not any health care clinics in the rest of the CCRCs. There should be one pharmacist and one doctor for each CCRC according to the law, but they are many centres that have either one pharmacist or one doctor.

D. Education

The education subjects for CCRCs include Dari, mathematics, theology and mine. Kabul has the only CCRC that property teaches these education subjects to the juvenile offenders. There is not adequate stationery in Jalalabad centre and as a result the education is not very active there. There are cases in which the centre officers have used their salaries to buy child offenders stationery.

In provinces where there are not any CCRCs, child offenders are co-held with adult criminals and there is a complete lack of access to education.

E. Nutrition

Investigations show that child offenders in Kabul centre have complained because they are having the same food everyday. Child offenders may face nutrition problems in these cases.

The Ministry of Justice has allocated 60 Afghanis for the food expenses of each child offender while only 20 Afghanis are spent in some provinces such as Jalalabad.

As it is obvious, children are at a stage of physical development and the food they have in CCRCs should contain enough calories for the smooth physical growth. It is, therefore, essential that the total allocated money per child offender should completely be spent.

F. The method of detention from the view of the nature of the crimes

It is very important to detain child delinquents in CCRCs with consideration to the nature of the crimes they have committed. Minor juvenile delinquents should be separated from those with serious and repeated offences.

Many child offenders with different crimes including theft, murder, adultery, sodomy and traffic mishaps have been detained at the same CCRC, something that can have negative psychological impacts on minor child offenders. There is a situation in some CCRCs that not only rehabilitates child offenders but also lead them to commit more serious crimes.

G. The method of detention for child offenders

The Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

(1)    Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2)    No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

The Article 40 of CRC has provided that child offenders are presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law.

It is, therefore, illegal to mix juvenile delinquents with other criminals until they have been proven guilty according to law.

Investigations indicate that child offenders are kept together with adult criminals in detention places during the prosecution process. This issue causes children to get to know more sophisticated techniques for committing further crimes and wrongdoings.

The child accused, hence, should not be co-held with other criminals in the custodies and we should prevent them from learning more ways of committing crimes.

H. The method of detention of child offenders from the view of their age

The method of detention of child offenders from the view of their age is another important issue to be considered by CCRCs officials. The juvenile offenders should be detained with proper attention to the age groups.

Except Kabul and Herat, juvenile delinquents in all other provinces are detained in one single room so that they can be affected negatively form a psychological point of view.

Regarding female juvenile offenders, the received reports show that these girls are kept together with female adult criminals. For example, 3 female juvenile offenders are now being co-held with female adult criminals in Kandahar while there is a female CCRC in that province.

It is a strong possibility that there is such a practice in the provinces that lack child correction facilities.

I. Recreation and amusement

As we understand, recreation and amusement is a critical factor in childs smooth development.

There are recreational facilities in CCRCs based in Kabul and Herat provinces. Unfortunately, there is no such facility in the rest of the provinces of the country. An NGO named Ashianah Atfal has activated recreational facilities in Kabul CCRC.

J. Hard labour and handcuffs

Unfortunately some provincial CCRCs use handcuffs and chains after the arrest of the child offenders. In Baghlan, chains are used to rehabilitate juvenile criminals. In addition, investigations indicate that child offenders are humiliated in Kabul CCRC by professors at the dormitory.

Problems

          There is no Child Correction and Rehabilitation Centre in 12 provinces including Paktia, Khost, Bamian, Kunar, Nooristan, Laghman, Ghazni, Maidan Shahr, Urozgan, Zabul, Panjshir and Daikundi. Child delinquents are held together with adult criminals in these centres. The prosecutorial and judicial departments detain child offenders in adult detention centres because there is a lack of CCRCs in these 12 provinces. This is a serious problem for child offenders. For example, it was observed that 2 child delinquents are held in adult prisons in Ghazni. There were enough rooms in the prison but the officers had done nothing to separate those children from dangerous adult criminals.

          There is a lack of female CCRCs across the country.

          There is a lack of guards in CCRCs.

          There is a lack of NGO aid and support.

          There is a lack of social workers to rehabilitate child delinquents.

          There is not an adequate audit on the budget allocated to cover the expenses of child offenders.

          The non-existence of forensic medicine in the provinces is a fundamental problem. Juvenile delinquents are sent to the detention centres so that their age can be established. This causes a delay in the judicial procedure and can put negative effects on the child offenders.

          The non-existence of experienced teachers and tutors is one of the reasons why juvenile delinquents are not rehabilitated in a good manner. CCRCs teachers do not have the qualifications required for juvenile offender rehabilitation.

          Juvenile offenders from two different age groups (child offenders and adolescent ones) are held at the same detention places and the authorise say that the co-detention is because of a lack of accommodation for the delinquents.

          The lack of recreational facilities is causing CCRCs a big difficulty.

Recommendations

Considering the above-mentioned problems, the following suggestions are put forward to improve the situation in CCRCs:

          An especial budget should be allotted to children who make up a vulnerable segment of the Afghan population. This budget should mainly be spent on ameliorating the condition of the child offender detention places and on establishing these centres in provinces that lack CCRCs.

          The building and clothing expense of child offenders in CCRCs in Kabul and Herat are paid by the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and it is recommended if that UN agency can cover the expense of CCRCs in the rest of the provinces.

          There are no CCRCs in certain provinces where child offenders are co-held with adult criminals. It is necessary to provide separate detention facilities in these provinces.

          Most CCRCs are located in the prison buildings and this is a violation of the standards governing the treatment with juvenile offenders. It is recommended that the CCRCs should be compatible with the required legal standards and should be isolated from the prison buildings.

          It is necessary to activate vocational training sections in the CCRCs all over the country so that the child offenders can learn their favourite vocations.

          It is essential to employ professional social workers for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents in the CCRCs.

          It is suggested that at the stage of arrest, child offenders should, to the extent possible, stay with their families and safe people.