Amnesty 'shocked' by RP treatment of young offenders
Posted: 11:59 PM (Manila Time) | Apr. 11, 2003
By Christine O. Avendano
Inquirer News Service
Often treated as adults
THE PHILIPPINES has laws that
protect the rights of children involved in crimes, but the country's
authorities do not implement them adequately, human rights watchdog Amnesty
International (AI) said in a report released Friday.
"We are shocked by the huge
discrepancy between the youth justice system and that exercised in
practice," the group wrote in a report titled, "A different childhood: The
apprehension and detention of child suspects and offenders."
AI noted how children are
handcuffed upon arrest, put in cells for adult criminals and how some of
them received prison sentences meant for adults.
"There are serious and
widespread defects in the administration of juvenile justice in the
Philippines that must be urgently addressed," AI said.
"We urge the Philippine
government to ensure that child detainees are treated in accordance with
international standards, and to immediately and impartially investigate any
allegation of torture and ill-treatment of (arrested or detained) children."
In the 18-page report released
Friday night, AI detailed reports of human rights violations against child
suspects and offenders upon their arrest, detention and sentencing.
AI said the Philippines was
one of the first countries in Asia to ratify the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) in 1990 and lauded its many national executive orders and
laws which provide for the welfare and protection of children, including
those "in conflict with the law."
But it noted that in practice,
key provisions in these orders and laws such as access to social workers and
legal counsel, detention as a last resort, and prompt charging before the
proper authorities are "regularly violated."
AI is concerned because most
children committing crimes belong to the marginalized and disadvantaged
sectors of the society.
The AI report cited for
instance that the majority of Filipino children in detention appear to have
been arrested without warrants because they were reportedly caught while
committing a crime, like vagrancy and substance abuse (usually sniffing
glue).
Philippine law also requires
authorities to immediately inform these children, "in a language that they
understand," why they are being arrested, but AI said that based on its
interviews with non-government organizations this was not being observed .
Likewise, it said, authorities
do not establish whether or not the suspect they arrested was below 18
years. This raised fears that many children in conflict with the law "may be
treated and detained as adults until they are brought to a judicial
authority."
AI is also alarmed about
reports of torture or ill-treatment of child suspects, citing cases where
they are punched, slapped, their fingernails singed with a lit cigarette,
given electric shocks and their heads shaved as punishment.
"AI is also aware of reports
of psychological torture and intimidation . . . including taking child
suspects to graveyards, threatening them with guns or threatening that they
will be subjected to the death penalty," the report said.
These human rights violations
against children were committed by barangay tanod (neighborhood watchmen)
and police officers.
No social worker, lawyer
In addition, the AI said
authorities fail to notify parents or guardians as well as the Department of
Social Welfare and Development about the arrest of these children.
The report said AI has
documented cases in which children have been detained for weeks and months
and, in one case, more than a year without a social worker visiting the
child.
Authorities likewise do not
provide legal counsel for child suspects upon their arrest or brought
immediately to a judicial official, thus violating their right to challenge
the legality of their detention.
AI noted with "grave concern"
cases where children are detained in "adult facilities," subjected to
torture and exposed to unsanitary conditions.
"Such intimate and constant
contact with adult detainees can impact on a child's life in a number of
damaging ways," AI said. "In the absence of other forms of education,
children learn from their adult criminal suspect companions, and some
children are reportedly recruited into gangs."
The report also noted cases
where some child offenders receive adult sentences and are detained without
being sentenced. AI said it has information indicating that eight child
offenders have been sentenced to death; it recommended that these sentences
be commuted instead.
