With the name of kind God and greetings to you; once again with presenting another program of the Change in Life Compiegne I am at your service and the topic of our today’s discussion is about the problems of the children regarding their access to the justice process:
In this discussion the respected guests are Mr. Muhammad Bilal Siddiqi the deputy of the children support section of the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan, Mr. Muhammad Ali Eftekhari the spokesman of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) and Mr. Ajmal Balouchzada activist of the civil society.
At the beginning of today’s discussion I would like to ask from Mr. Ali Eftekhari?
Question: Mr. Eftekhari; please provide us information about the inquiry of violator children cases?
Answer: First of all I would like to provide you information regarding these cases of the children that why it reach to this level; unfortunately the crisis of the three decades have put its effects on the children because the children are the most vulnerable layer of the society and therefore in the capital and provinces the children steerage centers are created and most of their cases are solved through these centers.
Question: what is the process of capturing the violator children; is the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) have any specific process for this?
Answer: There are different organizations which have responsibility in this regard like the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan, Ministry of Justice and other organizations which are working for the children where each of them are having their specific activities to identified and follow their cases like which children are target of the violence and which are the violators.
The Ministry of Justice will take action regarding those children whose crimes are proved and then they are sent to the children steerage centers.
Question: Mr. Siddiqi; I would like to know your opinion in this regard?
Answer: Regarding the inquiry process of the cases of these children a law was established and endorsed in 2005 where this law provides information about the violations of the children.
According this law the discovery and capture of these children should be taken through the police where the police can catch those children who are committing these actions but there ages should be above 12 years and in case where they have not completed 12 years and or in the age of 12 years then according the law of inquiry of cases of children the police has not the authority to capture these children.
The second step of the inquiry of the children cases are the creation of the attorney for these children according the law which is created for this purpose; there should be a special attorney which should only follow and investigate the cases of these children and then decide and in case their crimes are proven then it should be sent to the court where the supreme court of Afghanistan would also create a special court for these cases.
Question: Mr. Siddiq; there are some children whose ages are less but their bodies are well grown, what decision the law will make regarding these children?
Answer: Well; this is the opinion of the law, at the time when the child is committing an action which is considered as crime then based on the law there is no punishment for him/her. But there is an exceptional if the child has committed an action which has damages behind this then the parent are the care takers of the child have to pay the cost of the damages but if there is no such case then even the police has not the authority to catch the child.
Question: Mr. Balouchzada; based on the civil rights, how do you evaluate the handcuff of the violator children and what are the differences between handling the cases of the children with that of elders?
Answer: First of all I would like to mention that why a child become violator and why commits such an action; the Constitution of Afghanistan has responsibility in this regard to help the families until they handover sound children to the society but unfortunately the government authorities could not succeed in this regard so that the family law to be established in Afghanistan, the civil society is working on the design of this law but the point of consideration is that the parliament of Afghanistan has also not paid any attention regarding this law. Regarding the treatment of children cases to that of elders I would like to say that as the children have their own literature as compare to the elders their courts should also be different to handle their cases.
Question: There are some people who are involved in such cases, is there any punishment for such people based on the law?
Answer: Well; these points are legal and whenever a person is identified as criminal then for sure a punishment is considered for him but regarding the children it is to mention that the lack of awareness of children and their families causes such problems.
Question: Mr. Eftekhari; sometimes when a child is known as violator then until his case is followed he is kept in the police station and as they are small children therefore their cases are not quickly considered and until their cases are process are there safe places considered for them?
Answer: Until their crime and their ages are not identified then for sure that they would be kept under police custody and sometimes before their age identification they are shifted to the children steerage centers and in these centers children of lower age than eighteen are kept until they reach their legal age and then the court will decide about them.
Question: How do you evaluate the role of the Ministry of Education regarding the awareness programs of the children?
Answer: Exactly one of the important duties of the Ministry of Education is the awareness of the children and their families where the child should first know about his/her rights and then to their families.
Question: Mr. Siddiqi; what is the difference between the violation and crime?
Answer: The law has predicted that whenever a child commits a violation then the police can keep him for 24 hours in his custody but for the elders it is considered 72 hours. In the attorney it is also two months for the elders and one week for the children until their cases are followed and the court make a decision about their cases. It is to mention that whenever someone is doing a violation and his age is above eighteen years then his action is known as crime but if he is less than eighteen years then his action is considered as violation.
Question: The laws which are consider for the children during their violation period is applicable or not?
Answer: There is no doubt that these laws are existing but at the time when the child is facing with such problems or a violation is committed by him then he is caught by the police, insult and abuses occur to him and even he is beaten by the police and then he is carried out in the vehicle to for the further inquiry and on the way very though and improper words are said to him and it is all because there is no specific police for the children and for all steps there should be specific things for the children; currently whatever is predicted by the law is not implementing.
The children are not safe from the irresponsible behavior of the relevant people and in fact their rights are violated and the fact is to mention that these children are targeted of insult, abuse and bad behavior in the centers and these behaviors are not good in the socialization process of the child which means that he should learn those things which are important and have the value of learning to him and keep him away from the horrid actions and give him a chance to start a better life. The people who are working these centers are also not having the behavior with these children which they should and meanwhile the children are also not allowing these people to talk to them and the reason is that they know that they committed a violation and mostly the psychic issues are intervening in these issues but as a whole we can say that things are happing wrong in both men and women but mostly children are the victim of these cases.
Question: We could have an elected government after the years and many countries of the world are involved here and they have their cooperation here and are having some laws that should be implemented; based on your views how applicable were these laws so far?
Answer: The thing which is really important and I am once again enforcing on it is that the learning institutions are very weak and whenever the children are entering to these training and learning institutions they learn nothing because the Ministry of Education could not give the children the proper awareness which was required and a good example is that whenever the children are going from the schools towards their homes they don’t know how to obey the traffic laws and easily they are violating these laws and finally I can say that in our system there is no institution to aware the children properly.
Question: Mr. Eftekhari; as a final question I would like to have your opinion because it is said that in the reform and steerage centers of the children there are some problem; the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) is aware of these problems and what steps have taken in this regard?
Answer: From the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) different types of the proposals are asked but whatever is done in this regard is the responsibility of that institution; here a collaborative struggle should take place, if we start from the families then at least there is one educated person in each family and can be aware by studying and then he can convey this awareness to the other members of the family and the thing which is related to the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) is to ensure that the cases of the children are properly followed up and they should not anymore known as violator. Until now three thousand cases were not followed and a serious attention is given to it because previously it was reported to us but no action was taken place afterward on these cases.
Question: Mr. Siddiqi; as a final question, is there any statistics registered in your organization regarding the violation of the children and what solution you are proposing for the betterment of this issue?
Answer: Thank you; the statistics which are available with the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan is showing that more than six hundred children are under steerage in the reform and steerage centers of the children and the proposal for prevention from the victims of these children is the national stability and these centers should be equipped based on the standards and sympathetic people should be assigned for these children.
Question: Mr. Balouchzada; at the end we would like to have your concern as well regarding the betterment of the situation of children?
Answer: The duty of the civil society organizations are the monitoring and lawsuit from the created problems but they don’t have the executive power and the proposal that I have in this regard is to further empower the training centers and don’t let that these children commit such actions and aware the citizens not to let the children commit such actions.
With many thanks from Mr. Ajmal Balouchzada activist of the civil society, Mr. Muhammad Ali Eftekhari the spokesman of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) and Mr. Muhammad Bilal the deputy of the children section of the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan that have participated in our today’s discussion.
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