Thursday, September 17, 2009
By By Jan Khaskheli
Karachi
Civil society organisations working for the protection of children’s rights have urged the government to establish ‘Youthful Offenders Industrial Schools’ in jails across the province so as to ensure that juvenile inmates are provided with adequate therapy and turned into reformed citizens, The News has learnt.
Abdullah Khoso, provincial manager of Juvenile Justice Sindh - a subordinate body of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) - told The News that jails should be turned into institutions to educate children, so that they come out as conscientious citizens when they are released instead of people reverting back to crime.
Narrating his experiences from a week-long visit to police stations and juvenile wards in northern Sindh, Khoso said that these wards were in deplorable conditions, while police officers were ignorant of juvenile laws. He said that in the absence of such facilities in northern Sindh, hundreds of juvenile prisoners become hardened criminals or turn into victims of physical and sexual abuse.
He claimed to have met 22 juveniles inmates at the juvenile ward in Khairpur Jail, where almost all children were suffering from skin allergy. Children complained that they were neither provided with medicines and proper treatment by jail authorities, nor have they been given safe drinking water. Instead, the children maintained, they were being compelled to use brackish water in prison.
Khoso said that the Sindh Prisons inspector general (IG), Sindh Police IG, Minister for Prisons as well as the Sindh Home Department have to take efficient and quality measures to improve the behaviour of police officers towards the child offenders as well as to the condition of the prisons.
While talking about the meeting he held with the Khaipur Jail deputy superintendent (DS), Khoso said that the DS told him that they had sent requests to the Home Department for installing pipelines to provide safe drinking water to juveniles. However, they were waiting to receive a response. He further added that the conditions at Larkana and Jacobabad jails’ juvenile wards were pathetic, and that the jail staff did not allow civil society members to visit and help improve ward conditions.
Khoso and his team also visited more than a dozen police stations in Khairpur and Sukkur districts, where the officials concerned had no knowledge of Juvenile Justice System Ordinance-2000, Sindh Children Act 1955 or of any other laws related to children’s rights. Similarly, the law stating that the probation officer had to be informed immediately after the arrest of any child was not in their knowledge.
Members of the civil society organisations working on children rights alleged that while higher authorities including the district police officer (DPO) had given due weightage to children’s cases, but the lower rank police staff only cared about their own vested interests.
Civil society members also said that the Sukkur DPO and Khairpur DPO have established Child Rights Desks (CRDs) at their respective headquarters, which will help to protect children from any abuse and ensure that children attain all legal rights whenever they come in conflict with the law. Unfortunately however, the performance of these CRDs has been reported to be unsatisfactory because of the scant interest shown by administrators. Civil society organisations have demanded proper monitoring of CRDs by the DPO, and the implementation of laws to protect the rights of children, especially the juveniles in prisons.
Members of the organisations said that in the past jails were institutions educating and rehabilitating prisoners to become reformed citizens, but that now they had become nurseries to help crime thrive.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=198889
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
SHC orders release of minor boy
KARACHI: Arbelo Kalhoro, a minor under trial prisoner was freed on the orders of a division bench of the Sindh High Court here on Thursday.
The bench also ordered immediate removal of his handcuffs before his formal rele......ase. The bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Mohammad Ather Saeed was seized with the hearing of a complaint filed by Provincial Manager of Juvenile Justice System, Society for the Protection of Right of Child (SPARC) Abdullah Khoso addressed to the SHC chief justice, who converted it into a constitutional petition.
The complainant maintained that Arbelo was arrested by Bhirya city police after a brawl in the family and he was nominated as one of the attackers by the other side.
The boy was first kept into lockup with adult accused for 15 days and then in sub jail Naushehro Feroz.
The complainant maintained that it was a violation of the UN Convention on Rights of Children to which Pakistan is a signatory.
The boy was brought to the court by a police party with handcuffs. The bench expressed extreme displeasure over the manner in which the minor was treated and ordered removal of his handcuffs immediately. The bench later ordered forthwith release of the boy on personal bond by the complainant.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\18\story_18-9-2009_pg12_4Read
The bench also ordered immediate removal of his handcuffs before his formal rele......ase. The bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Mohammad Ather Saeed was seized with the hearing of a complaint filed by Provincial Manager of Juvenile Justice System, Society for the Protection of Right of Child (SPARC) Abdullah Khoso addressed to the SHC chief justice, who converted it into a constitutional petition.
The complainant maintained that Arbelo was arrested by Bhirya city police after a brawl in the family and he was nominated as one of the attackers by the other side.
The boy was first kept into lockup with adult accused for 15 days and then in sub jail Naushehro Feroz.
The complainant maintained that it was a violation of the UN Convention on Rights of Children to which Pakistan is a signatory.
The boy was brought to the court by a police party with handcuffs. The bench expressed extreme displeasure over the manner in which the minor was treated and ordered removal of his handcuffs immediately. The bench later ordered forthwith release of the boy on personal bond by the complainant.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\18\story_18-9-2009_pg12_4Read
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Separate facility for child prisoners needed
SINDH is plagued by the absence of a juvenile justice system. The situation, however, is worst in the northern part of the province. Major players in the criminal justice system are unaware of special protection measures provided in different laws for children coming into contact with the law.
Children are handcuffed and kept in police lockups with adults. They are taken to courts in the same vans as adults. They are presented in courts deigned to cater to the needs of the adult prisoners. Their cases are heard in overcrowded courts in violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000.
Children arrested in Sukkar, Khairpur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts for minor and major crimes are kept in the ‘bacha’ (juvenile) wards annexed to the adults’ prison.
The adult prisoners access them very easily because they are entertained by the same administration at the same entry point.
There are two correctional facilities, namely Youthful Offenders Industrial Schools (YOIS) in Karachi and Hyderabad. These schools deal with children who belong to urban areas but they (schools) are handicapped by certain limitations and problems of resources and capacities.
Although these were established under the provisions of the Sindh Children Act, 1955, they are being run under the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978.
But juveniles from northern Sindh do not have any such separate correctional facility that can help them to improve their attitude and life, and make them normal beings. The fact of their being in the proximity of adult prisoners is a stumbling block. In the absence of any correctional facility, borstal institution or YOIS in any part of northern Sindh, hundreds of juvenile prisoners sometimes turn out to be hardened criminals or become victim of physical and sexual abuse.
Life and attitude of the juvenile inmates in interior Sindh can be improved through reformatory institutions like a separate institution/prison in northern Sindh.
ABDULLAH KHOSO
Karachi
Thursday, 03 Sep, 2009 | 01:41 AM PST
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/letters-to-the-editor/separate-facility-for-child-prisoners-needed-399
Children are handcuffed and kept in police lockups with adults. They are taken to courts in the same vans as adults. They are presented in courts deigned to cater to the needs of the adult prisoners. Their cases are heard in overcrowded courts in violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000.
Children arrested in Sukkar, Khairpur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts for minor and major crimes are kept in the ‘bacha’ (juvenile) wards annexed to the adults’ prison.
The adult prisoners access them very easily because they are entertained by the same administration at the same entry point.
There are two correctional facilities, namely Youthful Offenders Industrial Schools (YOIS) in Karachi and Hyderabad. These schools deal with children who belong to urban areas but they (schools) are handicapped by certain limitations and problems of resources and capacities.
Although these were established under the provisions of the Sindh Children Act, 1955, they are being run under the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978.
But juveniles from northern Sindh do not have any such separate correctional facility that can help them to improve their attitude and life, and make them normal beings. The fact of their being in the proximity of adult prisoners is a stumbling block. In the absence of any correctional facility, borstal institution or YOIS in any part of northern Sindh, hundreds of juvenile prisoners sometimes turn out to be hardened criminals or become victim of physical and sexual abuse.
Life and attitude of the juvenile inmates in interior Sindh can be improved through reformatory institutions like a separate institution/prison in northern Sindh.
ABDULLAH KHOSO
Karachi
Thursday, 03 Sep, 2009 | 01:41 AM PST
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/letters-to-the-editor/separate-facility-for-child-prisoners-needed-399
Reporting child abuse
These days it has become very common with the newspapers, English, Urdu and Sindhi, to publish the identity of children, either victims or offenders, for the sake of becoming popular. These do not give due consideration to the children's rights to privacy, dignity and protection as well as to the law that prohibits them from such an act.
According to Section 8 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, no newspaper or magazine in any form will disclose the name or identification of the child. Also Section 23 of the Sindh Children Act 1955 prohibits the same. It says, "No report in any newspaper, magazine or news-sheet of any case or proceeding in any court under this Act in which a child is involved shall disclose the name, address or school or include any particulars calculated to lead directly or indirectly to the identification of any such child, nor shall any picture be published as being or including a picture of any child".
In the reporting of children's issues, particularly when these are victim or a rape survivor, media outlets have to adopt ethics and avoid publishing the identification (name, photograph) of the children but unfortunately such media ethics have died due to a phenomenal advancement in technology and increasing competition among the media companies.
Publishing details of a rape survivor (child) violates the child's right to privacy, and could be seriously negative to her/his current and future well-being. The child will not only have to live with the abuse she/he has experienced, but also other people's knowledge of what occurred to her/him, the (probably redundant) attention that this may bring, and the impact that this may have on her/his ability to deal with her/his experiences. Given the abuse the child has already experienced, the non-essential publication of her/his trauma to please the curiosity of readers perhaps leads to the secondary abuse.
The National Commission for Child Welfare and Development of Pakistan (NCCWD) has also prepared a "Code of ethics for media on reporting of children's issues". There are also the guidelines of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) which say that journalists and media organisations "shall strive to maintain the highest ethical conduct in reporting in children's affairs and, in particular, they shall… consider carefully the consequences of publication of any material concerning children and shall minimise harm to children".
By Abdullah Khoso
Karachi
Friday, September 04, 2009
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196517
According to Section 8 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, no newspaper or magazine in any form will disclose the name or identification of the child. Also Section 23 of the Sindh Children Act 1955 prohibits the same. It says, "No report in any newspaper, magazine or news-sheet of any case or proceeding in any court under this Act in which a child is involved shall disclose the name, address or school or include any particulars calculated to lead directly or indirectly to the identification of any such child, nor shall any picture be published as being or including a picture of any child".
In the reporting of children's issues, particularly when these are victim or a rape survivor, media outlets have to adopt ethics and avoid publishing the identification (name, photograph) of the children but unfortunately such media ethics have died due to a phenomenal advancement in technology and increasing competition among the media companies.
Publishing details of a rape survivor (child) violates the child's right to privacy, and could be seriously negative to her/his current and future well-being. The child will not only have to live with the abuse she/he has experienced, but also other people's knowledge of what occurred to her/him, the (probably redundant) attention that this may bring, and the impact that this may have on her/his ability to deal with her/his experiences. Given the abuse the child has already experienced, the non-essential publication of her/his trauma to please the curiosity of readers perhaps leads to the secondary abuse.
The National Commission for Child Welfare and Development of Pakistan (NCCWD) has also prepared a "Code of ethics for media on reporting of children's issues". There are also the guidelines of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) which say that journalists and media organisations "shall strive to maintain the highest ethical conduct in reporting in children's affairs and, in particular, they shall… consider carefully the consequences of publication of any material concerning children and shall minimise harm to children".
By Abdullah Khoso
Karachi
Friday, September 04, 2009
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196517
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