STATE NEGLECT: Children in Prison for Lacking Basic Care and Protection

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STATE NEGLECT: Children in Prison for Lacking Basic Care and Protection [news and reports]

In many countries, children who are in need of care and protection or do not have their basic needs met are treated as criminals by the state. Instead of being provided with suitable care and protection, they are locked up. Below is a compilation of facts and reports illustrating how States around the world are neglecting children who lack basic are and protection: 

  • In Uganda, 70% of children taking part in a study on children in conflict with the law said that their main reason for stealing was to get food and meet basic needs.
  • In Kenya, research found that 80 – 85% of children in police custody or correctional facilities were children in need of care and protection and had committed no offence. 33 countries and territories still permit corporal punishment as a court sentence for children. 

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    Read the full fact sheet from Save the Children UK

    Human Rights Watch: Swept Away - Street Children Illegally Detained in Kigali, Rwanda (May 2006)
    Thousands of Rwandan children eke out a bare living on the streets of Kigali and other urban areas, many having no adult care as a consequence of the 1994 genocide, war or the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since 1997 city authorities have regularly rounded up street children as well as beggars, street vendors and sex workers. In 2005 they began detaining many of these people in a former warehouse.

    Human Rights Watch: What Future? Street Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (April 2006) 
    This report documents how security officials and other adults routinely abuse the country’s street children. In the past 10 years, armed conflict, HIV and AIDS, prohibitive education fees, and even accusations of sorcery have led to a doubling of the number of street children. With no secure access to shelter, food or other basic needs, these children live in insecurity and fear.

    Mkombozi Centre for Street Children: Police Round-Ups of Street Children in Arusha are Unjust, Unconstitutional and Undermine the United Republic of Tanzania's Constitution and the Rule of Law (February 2006)
    Since September 2001, Tanzania has witnessed the arrest and detention of more htan 45 street children during the course of four major round-ups by police in the Arusha Municipality. Police round-ups of street children as "vagrants" has been the simplified response of the District Commissioner to the increasingly complex and urgent issue of street children, justified on the basis of the dated and repressive 1944 Townships (Removal of Undesirable Persons) Ordinance.

    PREDA Foundation: Philippines - CNN Insight Report on Kids in Jail and the Rescue Work of Preda to Free Them (August 2005)

    Casa Alianza: Guatemala - Street children abused by police and army officers (June 2006)

    Organisation: 
    Child Rights International Network

    Countries

      Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.