Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of
the Child is concerned over the continued
arrests and conviction of children and juveniles
under the collective responsibility clause of the
Frontier Crimes Regulation.
SPARC Condemns the arrest of Minor Children under the FCNovember 19,
2004 Peshawar: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child is
concerned over the continued arrests and conviction of children and
juveniles under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes
Regulation. SPARC is greatly disappointed over the "by name convictions"
of children as young as two years old for three years rigorous
imprisonment and the continued silence and cold response of the
government to the appeals made for the release of these said SPARC's
Deputy National Coordinator Arshad Mahmood while addressing a Press
Conference.
The press conference was organized to commemorate the Universal
Children's Day and International Day Against Child Abuse. There are
around 70 children in different prisons of the Province arrested under the
FCR. "Unfortunately more than fifteen of them, including girls and boys,
even have not attained ten years of age. They are behind bars for crimes
that allegedly have been committed by their fathers or other extended
family members" informed Mr. Mahmood. Tahir Khan, 8, and Iran Khan, 7,
sons of Guldas Khan, Khalil Mohammad who is only 3 years old, Miss
Zarmina D/O Qadir Khan who is just 2 years old have been convicted for
three years with conditional release after three years are languishing in
Central Prison Haripur with their siblings, mothers and other extended
family members including some as young as 6 months.
Although the JJSO has been introduced by the government but it is not
applied to tribal areas. Instead, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR),
established by the colonial administration in 1901, applies to these areas.
FCR give wide discretionary powers to administrative and political
agents. "It is now an established fact that the FCR is a black law, which
should be abolished, but successive governments have not been touching
it due to their vested interests". Under the collective responsibility clause
of the FCR, authorities can detain the fellow members of a fugitive's tribe,
or blockade the fugitive's village pending his surrender or punishment by
his own tribe.
Different agencies responsible for law and order have failed to perform
their duties and have now started targeting innocent civilians to bargain
with the outlaws. What is the difference between an outlaw kidnapping
innocent people for ransom and the governmental agencies kidnapping
and detaining innocent women and children for their release said Mr.
Arshad Mahmood. SPARC firmly condemns any application of the FCR
contradicting internationally recognized human rights safeguards. Further,
SPARC strongly opposes the practice of arresting innocent people under
the collective responsibility clause of the FCR and urges the government of
Pakistan to undertake all the necessary measurers to release all children
imprisoned under the FCR and the collective responsibility clause of the
FCR including those who have turned above 18 inside the prisons as a
matter of urgency.