Justic for the juvenile

THE photograph of him that appeared in the media yesterday spoke volumes: a boy bound in chains at Karachi`s City Courts, seated on the floor with his head down, presumably out of fatigue, humiliation or at the way he is being treated. But the image of this prisoner was simply one disturbing representation of what is reportedly routine in the juvenile justice system: young people chained when brought to court, kept in custody with adult offenders and made to suffer their childhoods or adolescence in captivity while their cases are held up by various delays all practices that go against the globally accepted principles of humane treatment of young prisoners and are outlawed by the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000. Twentytwo years after Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which `every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect`, these principles remain unimplemented. In particular, the convention states that incarcerated children shall be separated from adults, a practice thatis not always followed in Pakistan despite the existence of facilities for young people, rendering them vulnerable to abuse and criminalisation.

It is doubly ironic that the photograph was taken in Karachi; Sindh has the country`s most progressive laws when it comes to child rights and young prisoners.

The province`s child protection laws are based on a philosophy of reform of juvenile prisoners rather than punishment or retribution, and, among other provisions, prescribe separate facilities for both children under the age of 16 and `youthful offenders` aged 17 to 25. Punjab too has a borstal law but only a handful of borstals for juvenile offenders, like the other provinces, except Balochistan which has none. Both international and domestic laws prescribing how young prisoners are to be treated exist, and yet for years governments have failed to get their bureaucracies to implement them. Even the longawaited National Commission on the Rights of Children, once formed, will not be able to do much as long as the provinces themselves fail to take action.