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The Children's Rights Division monitors human rights abuses against children around the world and works to end them. We investigate all kinds of human rights abuses against children: the use of children as soldiers; the worst forms of child labor; torture of children by police; police violence against street children; conditions in correctional institutions and orphanages; corporal punishment in schools; mistreatment of refugee and migrant children; trafficking of children for labor and prostitution; discrimination in education because of race, gender, sexual orientation, or HIV/AIDS; and physical and sexual violence against girls and boys. Children's physical and intellectual immaturity makes them particularly vulnerable to human rights violations. Their ill-treatment calls for special attention because, for the most part, children cannot speak for themselves, their opinions are seldom taken into account and they can only rarely form their own organizations to work for change. UK: Abusive Ex-Commander Allowed to Return to Sri LankaColombo Should Now Prosecute Karuna Amman The British government today regrettably allowed an abusive former Tamil Tiger leader who had been in its custody to return to Sri Lanka as a free man, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate and prosecute Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, known as Colonel Karuna Amman, for war crimes committed as a commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and later as head of an anti-LTTE armed group. July 3, 2008 Press Release Printer friendly version Reforming Juvenile Injustice By Carol Chodroff, advocacy director, US Program Published in The Huffington Post Juvenile justice policies in the United States are replete with contradictions between practices proven to prevent crime, and punitive laws politicians promote to get elected. Juvenile and criminal justice principles, scientific research on prevention, intervention, and adolescent brain development, and US treaty obligations argue against the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" policies that harm children, increase recidivism and exacerbate crime. Next week, the US Senate should act on reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act (JJDPA) and amendments to improve juvenile justice in this country. Improvement is long overdue. July 2, 2008 Commentary Printer friendly version The war on teen terror The Bush administration's treatment of juvenile prisoners shipped to Guantánamo Bay defies logic as well as international law. By Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director Published in salon.com Although most of the 20 juvenile detainees have now been released, three remain, having spent more than a quarter of their lives at Guantánamo. The US continues to turn a blind eye to their juvenile status at the time of capture, has not provided opportunities for their rehabilitation, and has subjected them to prolonged isolation and ill-treatment such as a sleep deprivation regime known as the "frequent flyer" program. June 24, 2008 Commentary Printer friendly version UN: Council Should Help End Fresh Abuses by Uganda’s LRA Boys, Girls Among Hundreds Abducted Across Three Countries (New York, June 19, 2008) – The UN Security Council should adopt a resolution or presidential statement supporting efforts to rein in the capacity of the Lord’s Resistance Army to attack civilians and to ensure justice for the most serious crimes committed during the northern Uganda conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a letter released today to council members. The Security Council will be briefed on June 20 by the former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, who is the UN secretary-general’s special envoy to areas affected by the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). June 19, 2008 Press Release Printer friendly version Questions and Answers International Criminal Court’s Trial of Thomas Lubanga “Stayed” Common questions on the "staying" of the ICC trial of Thomas Lubanga answered. June 19, 2008 Questions and Answers Also available in 
Printer friendly version Letter to Security Council Members in Advance of the June 20 Briefing by the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on the LRA-Affected Areas We write in advance of the briefing to the Security Council on June 20 by the Secretary-General’s special envoy for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-affected areas, the former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano. June 19, 2008 Letter Printer friendly version Georgia: Raise Age of Criminal Responsibility UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Urges Reform A new report by the United Nations children’s rights experts should prompt Georgia to set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at not less than 14 years, Human Rights Watch and Penal Reform International said today. Georgia should repeal legislation that lowers it to 12 years. June 9, 2008 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version Additional Submission on US Compliance with the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict This submission by Human Rights Watch supplements the November 2007 submission by the US Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. It reflects new information and developments related to the United States and children involved in armed conflict between November 2007 and April 2008. June 6, 2008 Legal Submissions Printer friendly version Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on US Compliance with the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict This submission by US Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers addresses US deployment of 17-year-olds to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, recruitment practices, the detention of child soldiers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the treatment of asylum seeking former child soldiers. June 6, 2008 Legal Submissions Printer friendly version Committee on the Rights of the Child Concluding Observations on US Compliance with the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict In this first review of US compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern at US recruitment practices, the treatment of refugee and asylum-seeking children previously recruited or used in hostilities, and the detainment and prosecution of former child soldiers held in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. June 6, 2008 Legal Submissions Printer friendly version US: Improve Treatment of Children in Armed Conflict UN Experts Criticize US Detention of Children in Iraq and Guantanamo The United States should immediately implement the recommendations of a new UN report calling on Washington to improve its treatment of children involved in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. June 6, 2008 Press Release Printer friendly version Joint Letter to President Saakashvili on the Lowering the Age of Criminal Responsibiliy We are writing to express our profound concern about legislative amendments lowering the age of criminal responsibility and urge you to take immediate steps to repeal them. If the amendments go into force as planned on July 1, Georgia risks flouting its international legal obligations and causing irreparable damage to the lives of children. June 1, 2008 Letter Printer friendly version Letter to the UN Security Council in Advance of its June Mission to Africa We write in advance of the Security Council’s mission to Africa on June 1-10, 2008, to urge you to use this opportunity to address pressing human rights issues in Sudan, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. May 27, 2008 Letter Also available in
Printer friendly version The forgotten kid of Guantánamo A teenager captured in Afghanistan and shipped to the U.S. prison remained unknown to the world for five years. Now he's being tried as an adult. By Stacy Sullivan, counterterrorism advisor Published in Salon.com When Mohammed Jawad, a 23-year-old Afghan detainee, was summoned to appear before the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay for his arraignment in March, he told his military handlers that he would not go. After being held for more than five years here, he didn't believe he could get a fair hearing from the U.S. military. May 27, 2008 Commentary Printer friendly version Unusual cruelty By Kay Seok Published in The Guardian China forcibly repatriates North Korean women living with Chinese men - even if they have children. The suffering this policy causes goes largely unreported May 23, 2008 Commentary Also available in 
Printer friendly version Canada: Supreme Court Rules Ottawa Complicit in Abuse of Omar Khadr Canadian Youth at Guantanamo to Be Given Access to Intelligence Files In a major rebuke to the Canadian government, the Canadian Supreme Court determined today that the United States violated the human rights of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has been held at Guantanamo since he was 15, and that Ottawa shared culpability by allowing its intelligence agents to interview Khadr and share that information with US authorities. May 23, 2008 Press Release Printer friendly version US: Respect Rights of Child Detainees in Iraq Children in US Custody Held Without Due Process US forces in Iraq should ensure that children it takes into custody are treated according to their status as children, and given prompt judicial review and access to independent monitors, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 22, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet in Geneva to review US compliance with the international treaty banning the use of child soldiers, which requires states to help with the recovery and reintegration of such children under their control. May 20, 2008 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version International Efforts Still Failing Child Soldiers New Global Survey Finds Children in Fewer Conflicts but Still Fighting Despite progress, efforts to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers are too little and too late for many children, according to the 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report, launched today by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. May 20, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Child Soldier Global Report 2008 Summary The Child Soldier Global Report documents military recruitment legislation, policy and practice in more than 190 countries worldwide – in conflict and in peacetime armies – as well as child soldier use by non-state armed groups. This summary provides an overview of facts and figures. May 20, 2008 Background Briefing Printer friendly version Executive Summary: The Rest of Their Lives Life without Parole for Youth Offenders in the United States in 2008 In this update to Human Rights Watch’s work on eliminating the sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders, a number of findings are presented that illustrate the troublesome nature of the sentence and how it is applied to youthful offenders. Among those findings are that the United States is alone in the world in applying this harsh sentence to juveniles, that an estimated 59 percent of youth who receive the sentence had no prior adjudications or convictions, and that there are currently nearly 2,500 offenders who are serving life without parole for crimes committed while they were a juvenile. Additionally, data reveal that there are stark racial disparities in the imposition of the sentence, with black youth serving life without parole at a per capita rate that is 10 times the rate of white youth. May 13, 2008 Background Briefing |
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