Thousands of children detained in security clampdowns — HRW

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Thousands of children have been detained and many tortured during security operations carried out in response to threats from extremists such as the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

In a new report, the US-based rights group documented an increase in the detention of children in six conflict- affected countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Nigeria and Syria.

“As governments try to respond to armed conflict and the rise of armed extremist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram, we’ve been seeing a very alarming trend,” said Jo Becker, HRW’s director of advocacy for children’s rights.

“Governments are detaining thousands of children, without charge, often for months or years, and often subjecting them to torture and ill treatment.”

In Syria, now in its sixth year of war, at least 1,433 children have been detained, but only 436 have been released, the report said quoting the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria.

At least 100 of the thousands of tortured detainees documented in the ‘Caesar’ photographs smuggled by a Syrian defector were boys under the age of 18, according to Human Rights Watch. These include 14-year- old Ahmad al-Musalmani who was arrested in 2012 when Syrian officers found a recording of a song protesting Bashar al-Assad’s rule on his cellphone. He died in detention.

In Iraq, where security forces are battling to re-take territory held by IS jihadists, at least 314 children including 58 girls have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related charges, the report said quoting UN figures.

Women and children are arrested for alleged terrorist activities by men in their families, and in some cases subjected to severe beatings, burns with cigarettes, and electric shocks to obtain confessions, said the report. — AFP