“Burundi: Children Behind Bars Suffer Abuse”
Alison  Des Forges, Senior Advisor, Africa division

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Emma Daly:

Over the past year, Burundi, a small east African nation south of Rwanda, has begun a slow, gradual process to recover and build.

After more than a decade of civil war, the government signed a ceasefire agreement in September 2006 with the FNL, the last active rebel group battling them. Observers now note a possibility for stable reforms.

But the government of Burundi has still failed to comply with internationally recognized judicial processes. In particular, it has placed children who served as soldiers in the war, under harsh and brutal prison conditions.

In an investigation conducted by Human Rights Watch in the early part of 2007, researchers found instances of torture, and physical and sexual abuse, and note there are few alternatives for children who’ve been incarcerated.

I’m speaking about the report with Alison Des Forges, Senior Advisor to Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, who’s in the Great Lakes region.

Alison, could you tell us a little about the report?

Alison Des Forges :

The report is based on interviews with more than 100 children out of some 400 who have been in prisons in Burundi over the last year, a year and half. The researchers were in ten of the eleven prisons in Burundi and so they were able to document some very sad cases of abuse of children, between ages of 13 and 18.
           
Cases of sexual abuse, other forms of physical abuse, shortage of food, poor conditions of hygiene and a total lack of any kind of organized educational activity in the prison.

Daly:

How are children viewed in judicial process in Burundi?

Des Forges :

Well, that’s the fundamental problem here. Although international standards call for juvenile justice system that is for children to be treated as children in judicial system, in Burundi children are treated as adult.

They are prosecuted by the same prosecutors. They are brought to the same trials. And the only concession made to their age is that they may benefit from reduction in the penalty if they are found guilty.

Within the prisons themselves, they are often housed with adult or at least during the day, and they are often separated at night.
But during the day, they are subject to being abused by adult. And they have no opportunity for that kind of educational programs that would allow them to adapt to regular social life once they are released from prison.

Daly:

What should the government be doing in your view to improve conditions for children being held as prisoners? To what extent should they be held responsible for crimes? Is there age limit that the government should recognize that is based on international standards?

Des Forges:

Yes, in fact, there is. There is fortunately an initiative right now before the Burundian parliament. Human Rights Watch is encouraging the parliament to adopt this proposed law, which would amend the criminal law on how children are being treated. It would raise the age of criminal responsibility from 13 to 15 years old. It would provide for opportunities for other forms of punishment other than simply incarceration.

At this point, there is no alternative. Where child is found guilty, they are sent to prison. Under the proposed law, children could be cared for in foster home, they could have opportunity to provide some other alternative service to the  community so they would not simply end up warehoused in jails where they have no contact with children their own age who are able to go to school and function in a community setting.

If this law would be adopted by the parliament, it would require a substantial amount of donor assistance in order to implement the provisions because as you know, Burundi is a very very poor country just emerging from war. As a result, its’ treasury is far from fat.

But if the parliament, if the government were to adopt the law, and donors were to agree to come together to support it, then in fact Burundi could create a juvenile justice system which would achieve international standards, and children would be protected from kinds of abuses they are suffering now.

Daly:
Thanks very much Alison.