Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: On 30 September 2005, a public demonstration was brutally repressed by police forces. The demonstration invloved 5 women's rights defenders and another 150 women, children and adolescents living and/or working on the streets.
Brief description of the situation On 30 September 2005, a public demonstration was brutally repressed by police forces. The demonstration invloved 5 women's rights defenders (Micheline Vunduwe, Sekimonyo Rose, Nadine Bitelenge, Madeilene Mosi, Tshibuabua Margerite) and another 150 women, children and adolescents living and/or working on the streets. The demonstration was about children's right to access good basic education that encourages children's participation and critical thinking and is infused with the values of peace and human dignity. Most of the demonstrators were between 14 and 17 years old. They were accompanied by 5 Women rights defenders, including educators and volunteers. Background Information The demonstration was organised by four associations of children working and/or living in the street which promote children's right to work in safe and dignified conditions. More generally, they are fighting for better acceptance and broader participation of (street and working) children and adolescents in civil society. Among other issues, they want the Convention on the Rights of the Child to be amended in a sense that would better take their views and needs into account. According to the information received, the demonstration remained peaceful until the police came to dissolve it by force. Policemen used tear gas, beat the protestors with sticks and kicked them. Several persons lost consciousness and/or suffered contusions resulting from this harsh intervention. Some newborn babies were also hit by policemen while in their mothers arms. To justify their acts, the police invoked the illegality of the demonstration, as it did not respect the municipal decree which prohibits public demonstrations. In order not to breach the decree, the working children's organisations decided to promote a non-violent protest with small groups entering the square in turns, calling for respect for children's rights and the acknowledgment and full citizenship of childhood as a subject of rights, as actors in the society. Reportedly, a police agent stated that the demonstrators "should not be considered according to their age" because they were only children sleeping on the streets, which would "anyway not behave themselves like children or adolescents when aggressing adults." According to the last information received, the police forces arrested 13 women, including 3 adolescents, at about 10:30 pm. The adults were released at 3:00 am in the absence of evidence of them carrying dangerous arms-objects, while the adolescents remained in custody. Allegedly, some of the adults were ill-treated during the detention. The 3 minors, one 14 year old girl and two boys (10 and 12 year old), all of them street children, were transferred to a preventive detention centre and were released. However, according to the information, such an investigation has still not been launched. The NGOs are gravely concerned about the brutality of the police intervention against these adolescents, as they were peacefully demonstrating for their rights and better protection, and they urge the authorities to launch an impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events, in order to bring perpetrators to justice and to award reparations to the victims: street and working youths.