LES USA : Juste de respect des détenus d'enfant en Irak
Montre de droits de l'homme | Les forces des USA en Irak devraient s'assurer que des enfants qu'il prend dans la garde sont traités selon leur statut comme enfants, et revue et accès juridiques prompts donnés aux moniteurs indépendants, montre de droits de l'homme dite aujourd'hui. Le 22 mai, le Comité de l'ONU sur les droits de l'enfance se réunira à Genève pour passer en revue la conformité des USA au traité international interdisant l'utilisation des soldats d'enfant, qui exige des états d'aider avec le rétablissement et la réintégration de tels enfants sous leur commande.
Les autorités militaires des USA, fonctionnant comme forces multinationales en Irak, au 12 mai 2008 tenaient 513 enfants irakiens en tant que « menaces impératives pour la sécurité, » et ont transféré un nombre inconnu d'autres enfants à la garde irakienne. Selon un rapport récent par la mission d'aide des Nations Unies en Irak (UNAMI), les enfants dans la garde irakienne sont en danger d'abus physique.
« Dans les conflits où il n'a pas été directement impliqué, les USA ont été un chef dans l'enfant aidant que les soldats resaisissent la société, » a dit Clarisa Bencomo, le chercheur des enfants de Moyen-Orient à la montre de droits de l'homme. « Dont le genre de conduite s'ennuie malheureusement en Irak. »
Le 22 mai, le Comité de l'ONU sur les droits de l'enfance se réunira à Genève pour passer en revue la conformité des USA au protocole facultatif relatif aux enfants en conflit armé, que les USA ont ratifié en 2002. Le traité interdit le recrutement et l'utilisation des personnes au-dessous de 18 dans les hostilités par n'importe quelle partie à un conflit, et exige des états de fournir toute l'aide appropriée pour le rétablissement physique et psychologique et réintégration sociale de tels enfants sous leur juridiction ou commande.
Depuis 2003, les USA ont détenu environ 2.400 enfants en Irak, y compris des jeunes d'enfants aussi que 10. Les taux de détention ont monté rigoureusement en 2007 à une moyenne de 100 nouveaux enfants par mois de 25 un mois en 2006. Les USA tiennent la plupart des enfants au tondeur de camp des USA à Bagdad, mais ont également tenu des enfants au service militaire principal de détention des USA, camp Bucca près de Bassora. Les fonctionnaires des USA ont plus tôt cette année dit la montre de droits de l'homme qu'ils séparent des enfants des adultes à ces équipements mais ne séparent pas très des jeunes ou en particulier des enfants vulnérables d'autres détenus d'enfant.
In early 2007, a 17-year-old boy was reportedly strangled to death by a fellow child detainee at Camp Cropper.
Child detainees, no differently from adults, may be interrogated over the course of days or weeks by military units in the field before being sent to the main detention centers. They have no real opportunity to challenge their detention: earlier this year US officials told Human Rights Watch that children are not provided with lawyers and do not attend the one-week or one-month detention reviews after their transfer to Camp Cropper. In addition, children have very limited contact with their families. While the US does assign each child a military “advocate” at the mandatory six-month detention review, that advocate has no training in juvenile justice or child development.
As of February 2008, the reported average length of detention for children was more than 130 days, and some children have been detained for more than a year without charge or trial, in violation of the Coalition Provisional Authority memorandum on criminal procedures. That memorandum’s section on “security internee process” states, “Any person under the age of 18 interned at any time shall in all cases be released not later than 12 months after the initial date of internment.”
“The vast majority of children detained in Iraq languish for months in US military custody,” Bencomo said. “The US should provide these children with immediate access to lawyers and an independent judicial review of their detention.”
In August 2007, the United States opened Dar al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) at Camp Cropper with the stated intention to provide 600 detainees, ranging in age from 11 to 17, with educational services pending release or transfer to Iraqi custody. However, in May 2008, US military officials in Baghdad told Human Rights Watch that only “200 to 300″ of the 513 child detainees were enrolled in classes at Dar al-Hikmah. Currently, children who are excluded from the program do not receive any other educational services.
Like adults, children transferred to Iraqi custody are at risk of abuse and poor conditions of confinement. A US military official in Baghdad told Human Rights Watch this month that the US was delaying the transfer of 130 child detainees to Iraq’s al-Tobchi juvenile detention facility because of conditions there.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) found that overcrowding at al-Tobchi was causing hygiene problems during visits in October and November 2007. At the time the facility was operating at close to double its normal capacity of 200 beds, and children were sharing beds or taking turns to sleep on the floor without mattresses.
To date, the United States has not released statistics on the number of children it has transferred to Iraqi custody for trial. According to UNAMI, 89 children transferred from US to Iraqi custody had been convicted of offenses by December 2007. Between December 2007 and March 2008, there was a drop of 450 children in US custody, but the United States has not made known whether they were released or transferred to Iraqi custody.
Human Rights Watch calls on US military forces in Iraq to:
• Ensure children in its custody receive prompt access to independent legal assistance and family visits;
• Provide children with prompt review of detention by an independent judicial body;
• Release children who have been detained for more than a year, in compliance with Section 6, Article 5 of Coalition Provisional Authority Memo 3 (revised) of June 27, 2004;
• Separate very young and other particularly vulnerable children from other detainees;
• Allow UNICEF, UNAMI, and other independent monitors confidential access to children in US custody;
• Refrain from transferring physical custody of children to Iraqi authorities pending trial when there is reason to believe they will be at risk of abuse; and,
• Ensure the right to education and recreation of all children in US custody.
Background
Since the declared end of the US occupation of Iraq in June 2004, detained persons should be provided due process under international human rights law. Security Council Resolution 1546 and its successors allow for internment of Iraqis “for imperative reasons of security.” However, the United States improperly uses this language to justify holding the detainees without judicial review and other basic rights, as if the operative law were the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during international armed conflict.
Human rights law, as found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, requires that all persons arrested be brought promptly before a judge, have access to legal counsel and family members, be charged with a cognizable criminal offense, and receive a prompt trial meeting international fair trial standards. It also requires states to provide every child “such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor.”
Under international juvenile justice standards, children accused of criminal offenses must have access to specialized juvenile justice systems, with specially trained judges, prosecutors, and attorneys working in a framework of restorative justice and social rehabilitation. The arrest and detention of a child must be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Detained children should be separated from adults, and are entitled to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance in challenging detention.
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This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News, General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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