The Imprisonment of Children

I'm back and ready to write. I have all the time in the world now. It's very snowy out right now so today's post comes from the comfort of my living space. If it was warmer out I might consider walking down to the local coffee shop and sip on a macchiato and write away.

Today I'm going to touch on something that has been bothering me for a while. The way the US has taken to imprisoning Canadian citizens--more specifically children. As I write this there are two high profile cases of kids in jails in the US. One being the little Iranian boy who is Canadian by birth yet unable to stay in the country after we kicked his parents out, denying them refugee status and sending him to a country where he has no roots, to watch his father be tortured for three months and his mother raped. Despite all that we have done to the family, they escaped Iran again in hopes of returning to Canada--under false pretense but I'll look past that--and by some freak of nature incident had to land in the US where they were detained and transferred to a jail in Texas. We all know how Texans feels about imprisonment. They spend more money on jails then they do on the education of their citizens.

What upsets me the most right now is not only our governments inability to be flexible with certain immigrants but that the US has the audacity to put a child in jail. It's a huge human rights violation and for a country that talks about bringing democracy to other 'needy' countries they sure have a funny way of modelling said democracy. It sickens me even more to think that most of the Texans--I'm not saying all, but most--feel this is okay. It's not okay. A child needs to be in school and this jail he's in does not allow that for him. It also sickens me to see that the Canadian government took so long to act.

There is a happy ending to this story--kinda--in that the family has been granted a temporary visa to enter Canada until this matter is settled. This is not the case for the other child. His is a much more difficult and complex case to dissect. That being Omar Khadr.

I think Rosie Dimanno put it right in her editorial for The Star. In this editorial she compared two teenage boys who grew up in similar situations with similar outcomes yet because one happened on US soil and one happened in Iraq they should be treated differently. The other child Omar was compared to was Lee Boyd Malvo. You might have heard of him. He committed a terrorist like act. He will go down in history as the Washington Sniper.

Both boys grew up in a 'family' that used and abused them by moulding their minds of hate. I'm aware that the Khadr family has a rocky relationship with Canada but to allow one of our children to suffer the torture of the American Army in Abu Ghraib-we all know how that story ended-and the torture in Guantanamo Bay is quite sickening. We as Canadians should be ashamed of ourselves for not becoming involved in this case.

This detainment of Khadr is in direct violation of the United Nations Charter of Rights for Children and The Geneva Convention special treatment of children in armed conflicts. In these two documents it is said that children under the age of 18 shall not be recruited to the military as well as making it a war crime to recruit those under the age of 15 into armed conflict. It also allows for special treatment of children of armed conflict and the International Court Court will not charge those under the age of 18 with a war crime. According to them they are not criminally responsible for their actions.

The Optional Protocol of the Children's Rights Charter that specifically deals with child soldiers states the specific:

Reaffirming that the rights of children require special protection, and
calling for continuous improvement of the situation of children without
distinction, as well as for their development and education in conditions of
peace and security, Disturbed by the harmful and widespread
impact of armed conflict on children and the long-term
consequences this has for durable peace, security and development,

Mindful of the necessity of taking into consideration the economic,
social and political root causes of the involvement of children in armed
conflicts, Convinced of the need to strengthen
international cooperation in the implementation of this
Protocol, as well as the physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and social
reintegration of children who are victims of armed conflict,
Encouraging the participation of the community and, in
particular, children and child victims in the dissemination of informational
and educational programmes concerning the implementation of the Protocol,

What it says in essential is that someone like Khadr requires specific consideration regarding what he has been accused of. Sure he killed a US solider during the Iraq war but when he committed the crime he was just a child. A child solider who has every right to be re-educated and protected under international law. Unfortunately the US doesn't see it that way and their War on Terror is blinding them to the call for the release of a child in Guantanamo.

The war and prison industrial complex that is the US has blinded them to basic rights of children. I could go on about my thoughts on the US juvenile justice but I'll leave that for another day. My concern to date is the inability of the Canadian government to become involved in this case. We are failing a child and that saddens me.