September 13, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 12, 1429

PESHAWAR, Sept 12: The Human Rights Watch has expressed concern over the execution of 32 juvenile offenders since 2005 by five countries including Pakistan, stating that urgent reforms are needed to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law.Ending executions for crimes committed by children in just five countries would result in universal implementation of the prohibition on the juvenile death penalty, Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report.

It was added that the governments should use next week’s United Nations General Assembly session opening to commit to urgently needed reforms to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law.

In the 20-page report “The Last holdouts: Ending the juvenile death penalty in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen,” the HRW documents failures in law and practice that since January 2005 have resulted in 32 executions of juvenile offenders in five countries: Iran 26 executions, Saudi Arabia and Sudan two each, Pakistan and Yemen one each.

The report also highlights cases of individuals recently executed or facing execution in the five countries, where well over 100 juvenile offenders are currently on death row, awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or in some murder cases, the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation.

"We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty,” said Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East children’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch. “These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child.”

About Pakistan the report states that Pakistan retains the death penalty for 26 offences, including murder, which is considered a qisas offence, blasphemy, arms trading, drug trafficking, kidnapping fro ransom, armed robbery, stripping a woman of her clothes in public, extramarital sex, and rape.

The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 bans the death penalty for crimes committed by persons under 18 at the time of the offence, and requires juvenile courts to order a medical examination when a defendant’s age is in doubt.