.
[JURIST] The Somali Transitional Federal Government announced its intention to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which, if successful, would make the US the only UN member state not to have done so.
The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the announcement that Somalia’s ministers had agreed in principle to work toward ratification of the convention defining universal children’s rights [pdf]. The convention has been ratified by 193 nations, making it the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the CRC, UNICEF released a report detailing the progress and challenges remaining in protecting the rights of children. Noting that the Convention is largely compliant with US laws and that the US played a significant role in drafting the treaty, Human Rights Watch said that “US ratification is long over-due” and urged the president and Senate to ratify the convention.
The sad fact is that the US wants to continue the abominable practice of incarcerating children for life.
I did a couple of entries back in 2005:
US – a Rogue Nation?
Life without parole
And now, apparently, the US is the only holdout…
.
(Free the Children) – The U.S. position on the Convention is best summed up by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who stated: “It is misleading and inappropriate to use the Convention as a litmus test to measure a nation’s commitment to children. As a non-party to the Convention, the United States does not accept obligations based on it, nor do we accept that it is the best or only framework for developing programs and policies to benefit children.”
The U.S. refuses to ratify the Convention for a number of reasons:
Parental Authority – The Death Penalty – Issue of Rights – Issue of Jurisdiction
“In the little world in which children have their existence …
there is nothing so finely perceived or so finely felt as injustice.”
– Charles Dickens
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(RNW) – The Netherlands is failing to comply with the international convention on children’s rights. That’s according to the first annual report on children’s rights in the Netherlands from the United Nation’s children’s agency UNICEF and the Defence for Children organisation.
UNICEF and Defence for Children have published a report of the state of children’s rights in the Netherlands, reflecting the findings of a panel of five experts who examined the way in which the country handles things such as child abuse, child healthcare, care and welfare provision for children and young people, and young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system. In three of these five fields the Netherlands has been judged to be failing in some way.
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Juvenile penal law applies to 12- to 17-year-olds (1.2 million). Children under the age of 12 cannot be held criminally responsible. In exceptional cases 16- and 17-year-olds can be tried according to adult law. Similarly juvenile law can be applied to young people aged 18-20 years who function mentally at a much younger age.
MINIMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
The minimum age of criminal responsibility (minimum age) refers to the minimum age which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law. The establishment of such a minimum means that if a child below that age breaks the law, they cannot be held criminally responsible. While article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States Parties establish a minimum age, it leaves the specific age to be decided by the individual State.
At present, there us a wide spectrum of minimum ages id criminal responsibility existing in national legislations across the world – from as young as 7 years in India up to age 16 (e.g. Spain).
EXTRAORDINARY CASES
Many remember the death of Jamie Bulger, a three year old at the hands of boys aged 8 in England. This week the provincial town of Urk was shocked to learn of the death of a 14 year-old boy. The suspects are three boys between the age of 12 and 15 years. Much commotion has started, the right-wing political parties are urging “tougher penalties” for juvenile delinquents.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
A Mexican national who was not informed of his right to consular assistance after his arrest, was executed in Texas on Tuesday 5 August 2008.
José Medellín was put to death in violation of the USA’s international legal obligations and despite worldwide appeals for the execution to be stopped, including one from the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.
A last-minute appeal to the US Supreme Court was also unsuccessful, with the Court ruling 5-4 against a stay. The execution went ahead at around 10pm, about four hours later than scheduled.
One of the Justices dissenting from the refusal to stop the execution wrote that to allow it to go forward would leave the USA “irremediably in violation of international law and break our treaty promises“.
“The execution of José Ernesto Medellín Rojas by the state of Texas is a violation of international law,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International’s researcher on USA. “It undermines the authority of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which had ruled in favour of a stay of execution.”
José Medellín was sentenced to death in 1994 for his part in the murders of two girls, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena, in Houston in 1993.
Medellín was never advised by Texas authorities of his right as a detained foreign national to seek consular assistance, as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR).
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."