Charity Calls for Help to Free Illegally Held Children

The UK human rights charity Jubilee Action in a report published this week has called on the public to join in its campaign to help restore human rights to children illegally held in prisons around the world.

The report entitled ‘Kids behind bars: Why we must act’ detailed how hundreds of children worldwide have been tortured in prisons and that the problem has been ignored by the world for too long.

According to the report, 160 children were found illegally imprisoned in 10 jails throughout the Philippines during a recent trip by the charity.

Several case studies were detailed in the report, such as that of Edwin who was recently rescued by the Preda Foundation from an adult jail in Manila. The 12-year-old had been held in the prison for four months without even receiving a first hearing after being accused of stealing a pair of flip-flops.

The report detailed how “he had obviously been taken out of the tiny overcrowded adult cell only minutes before we entered.

“It was 3ft wide and 15ft or so deep. The bodies of the prisoners were piled on top of each other; legs twisted and tangled arms askew.”

It continued: “There were 17 inside this cage. If animals had been so confined, the owners would have been charged with cruelty.”

The plight of Manana Sadiswa, interviewed in Makala Prison, Congo, in April 2005, was also highlighted. In her interview she told of her abuse: “I was arrested on 24 November 2004. For seven days I was kept in the police headquarters where I did not receive any visits or any food. My family had not been informed about my situation.

“I have been submitted to cruelty and ill-treatment. On the 8th day, I was transferred to the prison where I am now.”

Founder and executive director of Jubilee Action Danny Smith criticised the international community for failing to act, saying, “Children in prison are caught in an international blind-spot and have been ignored for too long.”

Jubilee Action has appealed to the UN to appoint a special rapporteur to ensure that signatories of the UN’s Convention of the Rights of the Child extend the demands of the treaty to the fair treatment of children in detention.

The charity has also called on the Pilipino Government to pass a law to protect children from unlawful detention and has teamed with the Director of the Preda Foundation in the Philippines, Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen.