Report released by UN shows a rise in imprisonment on grounds of ‘national security’ in six conflict-ridden nations
NEW YORK // In the fight against extremist groups such as ISIL and Boko Haram in Nigeria, being a child offers no protection from imprisonment without charge or torture.
A report by Human Rights Watch released by the United Nations yesterday documented an increase in the detention of children for reasons of supposed “national security” in six countries affected by conflict: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Syria and Nigeria.
All have signed the UN convention on the rights of children, which gives special protection under international law to anyone under 18.
There are also concerns regarding child detention in Mali, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, the Philippines and Thailand.
“As governments try to respond to armed conflict and the rise of armed extremist groups like ISIL and Boko Haram, we’ve been seeing a very alarming trend,” said Jo Becker, director of advocacy for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch.
“Governments are detaining thousands of children, without charge, often for months or years, and often subjecting them to torture and ill treatment.”
Many children were detained on groundless suspicion or during broad security sweeps, or simply because they are related to someone who is allegedly involved in terrorist activity, the report said.
They were often denied access to a lawyer. Unable to challenge their detention in court, they may languish in prison for months or even years in appalling conditions with minimal food and medical care.
Cells are usually shared with adults, putting child detainees at risk of physical and sexual assault.
The HRW researchers found that many children were interrogated under duress and torture and an unknown number died in custody.
In Syria, now in its sixth year of war, at least 1,433 children have been detained, but only 436 have been released, according to the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, which contributed to the HRW report.
One 14-year-old boy, Ahmad Al Musulmani, was arrested in 2012 when Syrian officers found a recording of a protest song against Bashar Al Assad’s government on his mobile phone. The boy died in detention.
In Iraq, at least 314 children, including 58 girls, have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related charges since December last year, although some have been in custody for more than three years.
In 2012, two girls aged 11 and 12 were arrested with their mother on charges of “covering up” acts of terrorism. All were tortured with electric shocks and plastic bags were put over their heads.
In the past 18 months, security forces in Afghanistan took hundreds of children into custody on suspicion of being Taliban fighters, would-be suicide bombers, bomb-makers or otherwise helping armed opposition groups.
Security forces extracted confessions or information through torture and degradation. Beatings, electric shocks, prolonged stress positions, rape and threats of execution – all were reported by former child detainees.
A 10-year-old boy who was arrested by Iraqi security forces in 2012 described how the men held his head near a car tyre and threatened to run him over unless he told them where his parents hid weapons.
In some circumstances, security forces are more likely to torture children than adults.
In Afghanistan, where torture in detention centre was routine, 42 per cent of the child detainees interviewed by the HRW gave “credible” accounts of severe ill-treatment. By contrast, 35 per cent of adult detainees reported similar treatment.
Those responsible for the torture invariably went unpunished. When a boy reported being raped by Afghan National Police officers in February 2013, the case was investigated by the people who had allegedly assaulted him.
The Nigerian military, which is battling the Boko Haram insurgency, has detained thousands of people, mostly men and boys as young as nine.
The report quoted findings by Amnesty International that between February and May this year, 11 children under the age of six, including four babies, died in Giwa barracks in north-east Nigeria.
Amnesty International estimated that at least 120 children are still held in poor conditions in Giwa, with many locked up for months or years.
Israel is one of the worst offenders, prosecuting between 500 and 700 Palestinian minors in military courts each years. The most common charge by far is throwing stones at Israeli soldiers or settlers in the occupied West Bank – an offence that can carry up to 20 years in prison, along with fines. Sentences can be reduced through plea-bargaining but if the family of the detainee cannot pay the fine, the child stays in jail for longer.
The Israeli military court system tried all security-related offences committed in the West Bank, even though they have no provision for trials of juveniles. At the end of last year, there were 422 Palestinian children in the Israeli prison system, including 116 aged between 12 and 15.
Also last year, the Israeli military placed six Palestinian minors in administrative detention, which allowed them to be kept in custody for prolonged periods without charge or trial.
Large numbers of under-age detainees reported ill-treatment including beatings, kicking, strip searches, verbal abuse and threats of sexual violence.
The HRW also heard from children who said they were forced to spend hours outside in the cold or handcuffed to chairs.
One 14-year-old told HRW his interrogators threatened to revoke his parents’ residency in East Jerusalem and told him to sign papers written in Hebrew, a language he could not read.
The Nigerian military, who are battling the Boko Haram insurgency, has rounded up and detained thousands of people, mostly men and boys as young as nine. The report quotes findings by Amnesty International that between February and May this year, 11 children under the age of six, including four babies, died in Giwa barracks in north-east Nigeria. Amnesty International estimates that at least 120 children are still held in appalling conditions in Giwa barracks, with many locked up for months or even years.
The HRW report on the use of cluster munitions has documented 47 attacks using the devices, killing dozens of civiliansin reel-held areas to the north and west of Aleppo. Cluster bombs contain dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air and spread explosives over large areas. They kill and main indiscriminately and can continue to do so long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate. They are widely banned
* Agence France- Presse