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Jamaica Hated to Death Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic Jamaica’s growing HIV/AIDS epidemic is unfolding in the context of widespread violence and discrimination against people living with and at high risk of HIV/AIDS, especially men who have sex with men. Myths about HIV/AIDS persist. Many Jamaicans believe that HIV/AIDS is a disease of homosexuals and sex workers whose “moral impurity” makes them vulnerable to it, or that HIV is transmitted by casual contact. HRW Index No.: B1606 November 16, 2004 Download PDF, 492 KB, 81 pgs Purchase online Jamaica: Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers There are indications of under-18s in government armed forces as volunteers may be recruited under the age of 18 with parental consent. June 12, 2001 Jamaica: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Jamaica signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 17 July 1998. It is not believed to have enacted domestic implementation legislation. It has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, due by 27 August 1999. Jamaica participated in the First Meeting of State Parties held in Maputo in May 1999. In a plenary statement, Jamaica welcomed the first annual report of the Landmine Monitor and stated that "the work of NGOs like Landmine Monitor and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines...indicates the need to ensure their full involvement in the process of anti-landmine efforts worldwide."250 Jamaica voted for the December 1999 UNGA resolution in support of the Mine Ban Treaty. Jamaica has stated that it has never produced, stockpiled, used, or imported antipersonnel mines. Jamaica is not mine-affected. August 1, 2000 "Nobody's Children:" Jamaican Children in Police Detention and Government Institutions In the island nation of Jamaica, many children-often as young as twelve or thirteen-are detained for long periods, sometimes six months or more,in filthy and overcrowded police lockups, in spite of international standards and Jamaican laws that forbid such treatment. The children are often hld in the same cells as adults accused of serious crimes, vulnerable to victimization by their cellmates and to ill-treatment by abusive police; and virtually always, they are held in poor conditions, deprived of proper sanitary facilities, adequate ventilation, adequate food,exercise, education, and basic medical care. Some of these children have not been detained on suspicion of criminal activity but have been locked up only because they are deemed "in need of care and protection." Human Rights Watch visited five working police lockups in Jamaica in late August to early September 1998 and interviewed more than thirty children about their experiences in the lockups. Human Rights Watch found that children detained in police lockups remain in their overcrowded cells twenty-four hours a day, let out, if at all, only for court dates and for once-daily trips to the filthy toilet and showers. There are no exercise facilities. The children receive no education at all and have reading materials only if books are brought in by family members. In many lockups, the dim lighting (at times near-darkness, even during the day) makes reading impossible anyway. HRW Index No.: 1-56432-230-0 July 1, 1999 Purchase online "Nobody's Children" Jamaican Children in Police Detention and Government Institutions In the island nation of Jamaica, many childrenCoften as young as twelve or thirteenCare detained for long periods, sometimes six months or more, in filthy and overcrowded police lockups, in spite of international standards and Jamaican laws that forbid such treatment. The children are often held in the same cells as adults accused of serious crimes, vulnerable to victimization by their cellmates and to ill-treatment by abusive police; and virtually always, they are held in poor conditions, deprived of proper sanitary facilities, adequate ventilation, adequate food, exercise, education, and basic medical care. Some of these children have not been detained on suspicion of criminal activity but have been locked up only because they are deemed Ain need of care and protection. Human Rights Watch visited five working police lockups in Jamaica in late August to early September 1998 and interviewed more than thirty children about their experiences in the lockups. About half of the children we spoke to were in lockups at the time of the interviews, and the remaining children were interviewed after their transfer from police lockups to other government institutions. January 1, 1999 Download PDF, 768 KB, 187 pgs Printer friendly version Children Improperly Detained in Police Lockups Every day in Jamaica, children as young as ten are locked in dark, overcrowded, vermin-infested cells, where they are physically and mentally abused by both the police and other inmates. Most are suspected of criminal offenses; others have been abused, neglected or labelled "uncontrollable" and brought to the lockups because more suitable locations are already full or too far away. Some children stay for only days, others remain in detention for weeks and months. Although the lockups have been publicly denounced as unfit, they remain in use for children awaiting the determination of their fate. October 1, 1994 Jamaica Children Improperly detained in Police Lookups Every day in Jamaica, children as young as ten years of age are locked in dark, overcrowded, filthy cells which they share with rodents and insects. Sometimes they are held with adults charged with serious crimes. While in the cells, the children are subjected to physical and mental abuse from police and other inmates and are often denied appropriate medical care if they are injured or ill. None of the children in the cells are able to go to school or allowed outside to play in the sun. Most children are detained in these cells in police lockups for adults because they are suspected of offenses. Other children, who are in need of care because they have been abused, neglected, abandoned or labelled "uncontrollable" by their guardians end up in police lockups because police fail to move them to more appropriate places designed for children, usually because the places are overcrowded or far away.2 Some children stay only a few days, others remain in detention in nightmarish conditions for weeks and even months. Sadly, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (the police), judges, lawyers, and social workers are all aware that children, especially those from lower-income groups, are regularly held in police lockups. Although international and Jamaican human rights and legal organizations have publicly denounced these lockups as "horrifying," "unfit for animals," and "inhumane," children in Jamaica continue to be held in lockups across the island while they are awaiting determinations of their fates. Human Rights Watch has concluded that children are regularly arrested and detained for lengthy periods in police lockups whose conditions are deplorable and where children are physically and mentally abused in violation of Articles 37 (on protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) and 40 (on due process of the law) of the UNCRC. The detention of children in these facilities is also in contravention of other international human rights standards, as well as Jamaica's own Juveniles Act. October 1, 1994 Download PDF, 168 KB, 20 pgs Printer friendly version Human Rights in Jamaica: Death Penalty, Prison Conditions and Police Violence This report concerns the application of the death penalty, the conditions in prisons and lockups, and police violence, including acts of coercion to obtain evidence that amount to torture and the excessive use of deadly force. April 1, 1993
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