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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: ---------- Report by the Special Rapporteur on torture Visit undertaken from 7-16 June, 1996 Report E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.3 Issues raised: Juvenile justice system: Bearing those objectives in mind, the Special Rapporteur visited the following establishments: Casa de Reeducacíon y Trabajo Artesanal El Paraíso (El Paraíso Re-education and Handicraft Centre) (La Planta), the Juvenile Division of the Judicial Police (Coche), both in Caracas, and the National Prison of Maracaibo (Sabaneta). The Special Rapporteur also received information regarding the situation in prisons from governmental and non-governmental sources. (Paragraph 59). Detention: In the course of his visits to the establishments of Sabaneta and La Planta, the Special Rapporteur had occasion to observe how the overcrowding is experienced on a day-to-day basis in premises which in addition suffer from serious deficiencies. The director of La Planta clearly said that the establishment's problems arose from the situation of overcrowding. He explained that the establishment currently held 33 detainees under the Law of Vagrants and Crooks (Ley de Vagos y Maleantes) and 29 juveniles considered to be particularly dangerous, and that prisoners were not classified in any particular way. Some 30 inmates were in punishment cells. The Special Rapporteur visited one of these cells, which contained three persons, two of whom showed symptoms of mental confusion and loss of time sense. The cell, which was in a disastrous state hygienically, was deprived of any furnishings, including beds or mattresses, and lacked any natural light or ventilation. The Special Rapporteur also visited some of the rooms where the prisoners slept and where some 100 of them remained cooped up from evening to morning within an area of about 25 square metres, the ceiling space being used to suspend hammocks. (Paragraph 61). Juvenile justice: In the light of the foregoing conclusions, the Government of Venezuela is respectfully urged to give serious consideration to the following: (t) Children deprived of liberty (as a last resort), even if only for a few days or weeks, should be held exclusively in institutions aimed at protecting them and adapted, from all points of view, to their particular needs. They should be provided with medical, psychological and educational assistance. (Paragraph 85).
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Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity