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Children's Rights > Juvenile Justice Juvenile JusticeLocked up for long periods of time, many children are subjected to appalling conditions of confinement that violate international standards. Often held with adults and subjected to violence at the hands of guards and other detainees, children in confinement are frequently denied adequate food, medical and mental health care, education, and access to basic sanitary facilities. These children eventually return to society, meaning that the failure to prepare them for their return is shortsighted as well as cruel, carrying enormous social costs. Human Rights Watch has issued 17 reports on juvenile justice since 1995 and done considerable advocacy. We have had some success in this area – most notably, we played an important role in the closing of one inhumane correctional institution in Louisiana, and the removal of children from adult jails in California and Maryland. We have documented systemic failures to guarantee children legal representation and otherwise provide them with fair hearings in Brazil, Bulgaria, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States Of particular concern are sentences that violate the international principle that deprivation of liberty should be a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time or that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Since the adoption and near-universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a growing number of countries have modified their juvenile justice laws to guarantee children the rights set forth in the convention and in other international instruments. In other countries, reforms are under consideration but have not yet been enacted into law. And a large number of countries in the region and elsewhere in the world must still take action to bring their legislation into compliance with the convention. Where they have taken place, legislative reforms are positive first steps toward greater recognition of the human rights of children. Even so, the gaps between law and practice are often vast. Many children are denied due process, detained under appalling conditions, subjected to violence at the hands of guards and police, and some are even put to death.
Human Rights Watch recommends that countries around the world take the following minimum steps to safeguard the human rights of children in conflict with the law: 1) All governments should ensure that children in conflict with the law are detained only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Children should never be incarcerated for acts that would not be crimes if committed by adults. 2) Conditions of detention and incarceration should meet international standards. Children should never be detained with adults. They should be permitted regular, frequent contact with their family members, legal representatives, and others from the outside world and should be given access to education, health and mental health care, adequate food, and sanitary facilities. 3) Countries that retain the use of the death penalty or life without parole should end these practices immediately and amend their legislation accordingly. Reports on Juvenile Justice No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US Paying the Price: Violations of the Rights of Children in Detention in Burundi Still Making Their Own Rules: Ongoing Impunity for Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture in Papua New Guinea. Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls. The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States Related Press Releases: Iran: Prevent Execution of Juvenile Offender Iran: Revoke Death Sentence in Juvenile Case Saudi Arabia: Fair Appeal for Domestic Worker on Death Row Iran Leads the World in Executing Children Saudi Arabia: 14-Year-Old Boy Faces Execution United States: Thousands of Children Sentenced to Life without Parole Iran: End Juvenile Executions U.S.: Missouri Gov. Urged Not to Execute Juvenile Offender With Mental Retardation Conditions of Confinement Human Rights Watch Prison Project Close to Home: Juveniles in Adult Jails South Dakota: Stop Abuses of Detained Kids; Governor Must End Inhumane Practices March 2000 Children Abused In Maryland Jails November 1999 Child Detainees Being Tortured in Pakistan Modern Capital of Human Rights? Abuses in the State of Georgia Children in Confinement in Louisiana | |||||||||
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