By United
Nations Human Rights (Culled From www.ohchr.org)
“My name is Tania. I was
born in prison… and was delivered to my father the same day. Both my parents
were political activists. In March 1984, when I was only one year old, the body
of my 28 year old mother was delivered to our family and my father was sent
into exile three days later. I have never experienced family life and as a
young woman do not know what having a mother means… I personally urge all
countries that have not yet ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to do so and I wish a day
where no parents are executed and no child is left without the support of
parents”. (Tania told her story at the Human Rights Council discussion on the
human rights of children of parents sentenced to death or who have been
executed, September 2013)
There are few studies available which describe
the experience of children whose parents have been sentenced to death or who
have had one or both parents executed. From the available information, however,
it is clear that children who have lost parents because of lengthy prison
sentences or executions suffer deep and lasting grief and trauma. The loss can
be catastrophic because these children are often left without support of any
kind: without a home, carers, or an education. These children and no one knows
how many there are, frequently face humiliation and discrimination within their
communities.
The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Flavia Pansieri in an address to
the Human Rights Council’s panel discussion on
the human rights of children of parents sentenced to death or executed, drew
attention to the growing trend towards abolition of the death penalty. “More
than 150 of 193 Member States of the United Nations have either abolished the
death penalty or do not practice it, she said.
However, Pansieri said those States that
continue to use the death penalty “need to consider how to address the
consequences of its use on society at large, in particular on families of
individuals sentenced to death or executed.”
A caseworker with the
organisation “morning tears” which works in a number of countries with the
children of parents who have been sentenced to death or to long prison terms
describes the experience of the children in her care in a project in Zhengyhou,
the capital of Henan Province in China. “Usually nobody
wants them, even families and relatives – nobody really wants them and most of
them come from poor families. Usually the kids who come here stay for at least
one year but in plenty of cases, they remain for ten years or more.”
Marta Santos Pais, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, in remarks read on her behalf to the Council said, “The sentencing of a parent to the death penalty compromises the enjoyment of a wide spectrum of children’s rights. It is critical that the situation of children of parents facing the death penalty get the urgent attention and action required.”
Marta Santos Pais, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, in remarks read on her behalf to the Council said, “The sentencing of a parent to the death penalty compromises the enjoyment of a wide spectrum of children’s rights. It is critical that the situation of children of parents facing the death penalty get the urgent attention and action required.”
The moderator of the discussion, Bertrand de
Crombrugghe, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations in
Geneva, called for a ‘human rights approach” and said “children should not have
to pay for what their parents have done.” States, he said, should take
responsibility for the unintended consequences of their criminal justice
systems.
The number of children whose parents face the death
penalty is unknown, according to Associate Professor Sandra Jones from Rowan
University but she said their experiences are ‘agonising’. These children feel
terribly alone, she said, they tend to isolate themselves and suffer from internalized shame. Often these children feel they have to defend the parent in
prison, and they live in fear waiting to hear they have been killed. These
children typically have to deal with many psychological issues – depression,
anxiety, behavioural problems and aggression, Jones said. Many of them go on to
become offenders.
Wells for Hope, an NGO based in Uganda, assists
children with a parent in prison by providing education and general welfare.
According to Francis Ssuubi, the Executive Director of the organisation, although
the last execution in Uganda was carried out in 1999, 408 people remain on
death row. The children of death row inmates remain invisible, he said, and
some people continue to believe the parent’s guilt should be shared with their
children.
Ssuubi called on States to consider
child-friendly criminal justice systems which allow contact between children
and their parents in prison.
Nisreen Zerikat, from the National Human Rights
Centre of Jordan, said national human rights institution can play an effective
role in protecting the human rights of children of death row prisoners, in
particular by facilitating visits to prisons.
Professor Jorge Cardona from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasized
that the best interests of the child have to be taken into account when a
parent receives a death sentence. States which are parties to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child are legally obliged to make this assessment each time a
decision concerning a child is taken, he said.
The plight of children who have parents on death
row or whose parents have been executed is also addressed in the latest report from
the UN Secretary General on the question of the death penalty. There is an
urgent need, the report says, “to examine the effects of the capital punishment
system in its entirety, including the social, economic and psychological impact
on the children of those executed or under death sentence.”
On 10 October, World Day
Against the Death Penalty, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions,
Christof Heyns and the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Ménedez have called
on the international community to intensify global efforts to move States away
from the death penalty for good.
“There are still a number
of States where people continue to be executed in contravention of the
standards imposed by international law,” the experts said, while expressing
deep concern about the recent resumption of executions in a number of States,
after long periods of observance of moratoriums.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please restrict your comment to the subject matter.