Convention on the Rights of the Child Research Papers (original) (raw)

This human rights report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child presents the context wherein the jailing of children with adult crime suspects, extrajudicial execution, and rounding up of street children, takes place. It dissects the core issues bedeviling the phenomenon of police detention of children crime suspects with adult crime suspects in police prisons throughout the Philippines, with the exception of Cebu City. It examines the chain of command from the President of the Philippines to the officers of the Philippine National Police who carry out the locking up of children with adults in police stations. The paper invokes the principle of command responsibility in imputing culpability and liability on the part of the President for violation of the provision of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the segregation of children from adult detainees. This submission also presents comprehensive recommendations on how to stop police child detention with adult crime suspects, the roundup of street children, and extrajudicial execution. The recommendations include: • Strengthen Alternatives to Child Imprisonment pursuant to CRC Article 37(b) • For the Department of Social Welfare and Development to serve as the lead implementing agency of RA 9344 • Expand the scope of recognizance as one of the alternatives to detention pending trial of children accused of violating the law • Empower children’s human rights organizations, civil society groups, and responsible members of society to assume custody of children accused of violating the law pending trial to save them from the trauma of prolonged detention pending the hearing of their cases • For the Philippine Judicial Academy to reorient and train family court judges to deemphasize the Revised Penal Code and various criminal statutes and ordinances as points of reference in hearing and deciding cases and incidents involving children accused of violating the law • For the Supreme Court to enjoin family court judges to motu propio initiate, expand, and strengthen various forms of alternatives to detention pending the trial of cases involving children accused of violating the law pursuant to Article 37(b) of the CRC that detention should be used only as a measure of last resort • In lieu of so-called “rescue operation” that is a disguise for the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention and ill-treatment of street children, establish and develop, in consultation with the organized ranks of children, children’s human rights and welfare organizations, various street-based short-, medium, and long-term programs and services, with multilevel and multipronged service components, including family and community support, health, and education • Strengthen alternatives to detention from the point of arrest and during pre-trial detention • Develop a documentation and monitoring system to surface out the political nature of crimes attributed to children to develop appropriate intervention services • Develop a mechanism for data-gathering, disaggregation by sex and age, ethnicity of children prisoners, including those in immigration facilities for undocumented aliens • Establish a monitoring system in provincial jails controlled by LGUs how these jails are complying with the CRC and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules) • For the Commission on Human Rights to be empowered to investigate and prosecute in courts of law various forms of human rights violations in accordance with current international human rights norms and standards; specially vest the Commission on Human Rights with prosecutory power and authority to investigate and prosecute violators of children’s human rights • For the Philippines to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court • Investigate and prosecute Department of Justice and Department of Interior and Local Government officials and top ranking officials of the Philippine National Police for violating the Child Protection Act (RA 7610) for locking up children with adult crime suspects in police prisons by virtue of their command responsibility for being in a position to know or should have known about the children prisoners’ situation • For the Supreme Court to consider expanding the doctrine of locus standi in order to empower concerned citizens and members of children’s human rights organizations to institute criminal and civil suits for violation by state functionaries and agents of the human rights of children accused of violating the law under the CRC • Establish mechanisms to investigate and document cases of torture and ill-treatment amounting to torture of children accused of violating the law, taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances of their arrest, treatment, and conditions of detention • Repeal unjust criminal laws, including the anti-vagrancy law and the substance abuse law • Amend the provisions of the Comprehensive Drugs Act to conform with the provisions of the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Act (RA 9344) and CRC, especially to allow children to be released on recognizance pending the trial of their case • Prioritize the Budget for Children’s Education • Realign budgetary appropriations in favor of children’s mandatory education pursuant to the mandate of the Philippine Constitution and the CRC’s best-interest-of-the-child principle • International financial institutions (IFIs) should be held to account for their obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of children. These IFIs should be held accountable for imposing conditionalities whose social impact militates against the basic human rights of children • Combat impunity in extrajudicial executions • Establish a truth commission and inform the public about the facts and circumstances involving the extrajudicial execution of children • Establish and integrate the doctrine of command responsibility in the criminal investigation and prosecution of perpetrators at various levels of participation, including conceptualization and planning, preparation, and execution stages • For the Supreme Court and children’s human rights organizations to develop collaborative programs, involving the private sector, to develop and strengthen street-, family-, community-, and school-based diversion programs and services for children accused of violating the law • Etc.