Juvenile Justice
Egyptian riot police surrounded and attacked Sudanese women and children during a forceful evacuation of thousands of Sudanese refugees outside United Nations offices in Cairo, 30 December 2005. Over 500 anti-riot troops surrounded the boulevard square in the early morning where more than 1,500 Sudanese camped. Seven Sudanese asylum seekers, including two children were reported dead. AFP PHOTO/CRIS BOURONCLE
''I shared a cell with three other girls. We had to watch each other receiving electric shocks...'' Döne Talun, aged 12, Turkey
Children often suffer neglect, abuse and violence in the administration of juvenile justice. The very institutions that should be protecting children are disregarding their general and special rights.
When children are picked up by police, they are frequently ill-treated or tortured. Their legal rights are often ignored. Their parents are not informed of their whereabouts. They are held in degrading conditions, often sharing cells with adults. Some are denied their right to a fair trial and are given sentences that disregard the key objectives of juvenile justice - the child's rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Often children come into conflict with the law for minor offences - usually theft - and in some cases their only ''crime'' is that they are poor and homeless. Many children survive only through begging, petty crime or prostitution - activities that bring them to the attention of the police and make them vulnerable to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment.
Whatever the criminal charge they face, children should only be deprived of their liberty as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate time. There are many alternatives to imprisonment. All detained children have the right to have contact with their families and to be treated with due respect for their age. They also should be held separately from adults to minimize the risk that they will be abused or influenced by other inmates.
Updated: 6 February 2006