A
gravy train and 'shackled' kids in Bangladesh
ACHR
Features
Hundreds
of juveniles are illegally detained in Bangladeshi prisons in violation
of the Children Act of 1974 and Bangladesh's obligation as a party to
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. According
to a list prepared by the Dhaka Central jail authorities in December
2003, there were at least 108 juvenile delinquents being held in Dhaka
Central Jail instead of correction centres. Of the 108 children, at
least eight have been in the jail for more than one year including Al
Amin, a boy of 14 who has been held since 7 October 2000. At the National
Juvenile Correction Centre at Tongi, at least 99 seats are lying vacant.
Earlier the government of Bangladesh in a report to the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child in September 2003 unabashedly stated
that a total of 1041 juveniles are reported to be in different prisons
as of August 2003. Of them, 959 were male and 82 were female.
Section 2(f) of
the Children Act of 1974 provides that any person below 16 years is
a juvenile and must be sent to a "certified home or approved home
or to the custody of a relative or other fit person". However,
age verification has never been taken seriously in the administration
of juvenile justice. Often, police increase the age of a juvenile while
producing before a court to avoid so called legal complications. The
magistrates are supposed to order age verification if a suspect seems
less than 18 years involving scrutiny of birth or school certificates
and bone ossification tests. But most magistrates don't even look up
from their paperwork and in a routine exercise often send juveniles
to jail. Even when the court orders to send the juveniles in correction
centres, court orders are ignored and children continue to be detained
in prison. There were five cases in January 2003 where the accused children
were still inside the Dhaka Central jail even after the court ordered
them to be sent to the correction centre. Thirteen-year-old Rafique
has been in central jail since 19 November 2003 though the court ordered
to send him to the National Correction Centre at Tongi.
The mal-treatment
of the juveniles in Bangladesh are in contravention of international
standards on administration of juvenile justice and in particular articles
37, 40 and 39 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child and other United Nations standards in the field of juvenile justice,
including the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration
of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules) and the United Nations Guidelines
for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines),
the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of
Their Liberty and the Vienna Guidelines for Action on Children in the
Criminal Justice System.
The
minimum age of criminal responsibility is determined at 7 years under
section 83 of the Bangladesh Penal Code an affront to civilised society's
treatment of children. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of
the Child while examining the periodic report of the government of Bangladesh
at its 35th session in September 2003 expressed concerns about (a) the
minimum age of criminal responsibility (7 years); (b) the sentencing
to life imprisonment of children from the age of 7 years and to death
penalty of children from the age of 16 years; (c) the absence of juvenile
courts and judges in some parts of Bangladesh; (d) the extensive discretionary
powers of the police, reportedly resulting in incarceration of street
children and child prostitutes; (e) the use of caning and whipping as
a sentence for juvenile offenders; (f) the failure to fully ensure respect
for the right to fair trial, including legal assistance for alleged
children offenders and the very long periods of pre-trial detention;
and (g) the detention of children with adults and in very poor conditions,
without access to basic services.
Consequently, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended to the government of
Bangladesh to (a) raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to
an internationally acceptable standard; (b) ensure that the imposition
of the death penalty, of life imprisonment without possibility of release,
and of caning and whipping as sanctions for crimes committed by persons
while under 18 are explicitly prohibited by law; (c) ensure the full
implementation of the right to fair trial, including the right to legal
or other appropriate assistance; (d) protect the rights of children
deprived of their liberty and improve their conditions of detention
and imprisonment, including by guaranteeing separation of children from
adults in prisons and in pre-trail detention places all over the country;
(e) establish an independent child-sensitive and accessible system for
the reception and processing of complaints by children. The report prepared
by the Central jail authorities of Dhaka in December 2003 shows that
government has little respect for the recommendations made by the UN
bodies.
The establishment
of a National Human Rights Commission consistent with the Paris Principles
relating to the status of National Human Rights Institutions for the
promotion and protection of human rights could have served as an effective
mechanism to address such gross and systematic human rights violations.
After examining the first periodic report of the government of Bangladesh,
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its concluding observations
on 6 June 1997 welcomed "the recent law to establish the post of
Ombudsperson as well as the fact that a National Human Rights Commission
is being set up." More than six years later on 3 October 2003,
the CRC Committee after examining the second periodic report once again
welcomed "the information from the delegation concerning the intention
to establish a National Human Rights Commission and an Ombudsperson".
Since start of the project to establish a National Human Rights Commission
by then Bangladesh Nationalist Party government in April 1995 three
governments have changed, many draconian laws such as the Public Security
(Special Provision) Act of 2000 and Joint Drive Indemnity Act of 2003
were passed; and the officials and project officers took a de tour of
all the countries in the world having NHRIs. Yet, the establishment
of the NHRC remains a pipe dream. The process of establishing the National
Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh has been all but a gravy train.
The
Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) is a regional network of grassroots
community organisations, NGO's and professionals actively involved with
urban poor development processes in Asian cities.
Courtesy:
LAW WATCH, a Centre for Studies on Human Rights & Law.
