UN to Question US on Detention of Hundreds of Children

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Wednesday May 21, 2008 18:50

by Bazooka Joe

The United States has admitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that it has detained about 2,500 children, mostly in Iraq, since 2002.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there are currently 1,500 children in detention in Iraq, the youngest of which is 10 years old. These children are held by both the US Occupation forces and their Iraqi puppets. The US is also holding 10 children at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility.

The detention of children is abhorrent and a violation of US treaty obligations and offers no protection to the rights of the children.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is scheduled to question the US delegation on May 22 in Geneva.

Comments (2 of 2)

How many children in Guantanamo?

Fri May 23, 2008 13:24

The US has told the UN they will check again how many children they are holding at Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp. Apparently they are not sure!

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=181056

Children in American Jails - not just GTMO

by redjade

Fri May 23, 2008 19:43

Children in Adult Jails

''States classified ever larger numbers of young offenders as adults. Today, laws in more than 40 states permit adult courts to try children as young as 14. Perhaps as many as half the young people who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as adults — and some are never convicted at all. But by the time the system is finished with them, many will have spent more than six months in adult jails, [....]

Not surprisingly, these young people are much more likely to harm themselves in adult jails than in juvenile facilities. Those who survive often return to their communities as damaged people who are much more likely to commit crimes and return to prison.

more at
Children in Adult Jails
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/opinion/23fri3.html