Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 6:49:24 GMT -5
UN expert seeks end to death penalty for children
Countries where capital punishment is practiced should exempt children
under 18 -- or adults convicted while minors -- from the death penalty, a
U.N. human rights expert said in a report released on Friday.
Only 3 countries -- China, Pakistan and Iran -- have executed offenders
younger than 18 years of age in the last 2 years, according to Amnesty
International. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, asked by U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan to conduct the world body's first in-depth study on violence against
children, also called on all 192 U.N. member-nations to provide children
with universal heath care and social services as well as legal help when
they have been the victims of violence.
The report was intended to provide a global snapshot of violence against
children and offer ways for governments to prevent their abuse. The United
Nations defines a child as anyone under the age of 18.
The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles in the
United States in March 2005. At the time, more than 20 states allowed
capital punishment and 70 death row inmates faced execution for murders
committed when they were 16 or 17 years old.
A handful of other countries still have laws allowing executions of
juvenile offenders but say they have no plans to carry them out.
Pinheiro's report looked at violence against children in the family, the
workplace, school, institutions and the community. It did not examine
children drawn into armed conflict as fighters or sex slaves, a practice
found in conflicts in a number of countries, most of them in Africa.
It urged governments to end harmful traditional practices like early and
forced marriages, binding, scarring, branding and other violent initiation
rites.
The main U.N. tool for protecting children is the 1989 Convention on the
Rights of the Child. The United States and Somalia are the only 2
countries yet to ratify it.
(source: Reuters)
Countries where capital punishment is practiced should exempt children
under 18 -- or adults convicted while minors -- from the death penalty, a
U.N. human rights expert said in a report released on Friday.
Only 3 countries -- China, Pakistan and Iran -- have executed offenders
younger than 18 years of age in the last 2 years, according to Amnesty
International. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, asked by U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan to conduct the world body's first in-depth study on violence against
children, also called on all 192 U.N. member-nations to provide children
with universal heath care and social services as well as legal help when
they have been the victims of violence.
The report was intended to provide a global snapshot of violence against
children and offer ways for governments to prevent their abuse. The United
Nations defines a child as anyone under the age of 18.
The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles in the
United States in March 2005. At the time, more than 20 states allowed
capital punishment and 70 death row inmates faced execution for murders
committed when they were 16 or 17 years old.
A handful of other countries still have laws allowing executions of
juvenile offenders but say they have no plans to carry them out.
Pinheiro's report looked at violence against children in the family, the
workplace, school, institutions and the community. It did not examine
children drawn into armed conflict as fighters or sex slaves, a practice
found in conflicts in a number of countries, most of them in Africa.
It urged governments to end harmful traditional practices like early and
forced marriages, binding, scarring, branding and other violent initiation
rites.
The main U.N. tool for protecting children is the 1989 Convention on the
Rights of the Child. The United States and Somalia are the only 2
countries yet to ratify it.
(source: Reuters)