ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: Human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday slammed Pakistan’s juvenile justice system saying that some 4,500 children were locked in different jails.

“More than 3,000 of them have not been convicted of any offence; their trials have either still yet to start or have not yet been completed,” AI said in a report on the treatment of children by Pakistan’s justice system.

Children can sometimes spend several months or even years in detention simply because their families cannot afford to pay their bail, it said, adding that even when they are put on trial the conviction rates are as low as 15-20 per cent.

Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and introduced the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) in 2000 to protect the rights of children.

But the rights of children in police custody or prison in Pakistan are often neglected, because of a “widespread lack of awareness and failure to implement these measures”, the London-based human rights group added.

Despite a ban under the JJSO, courts regularly hear children and adult cases on the same day.

“This results in children, including first-time offenders, being transported and held in lock-ups with adults where they are at risk of abuse in violation of the law.”

The handing down of the death penalty to children is strictly prohibited by the JJSO, but lower courts, particularly in the semi-autonomous tribal areas where the JSSO is not enforced, continue to sentence children to death, it said.

All children are entitled to the same rights as adults but “in Pakistan, children are often the victims of abuse or neglect by the very people who have responsibility for their welfare,” the report added.

“This neglect can be the failure of the legal system to recognize its role as guardian of a detained child or a lack of knowledge about a child’s rights under the law.”—AFP