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Yesterday, the US Supreme Court justices heard arguments in two appeals that challenge the constitutionality of sentencing children to life in prison without parole for non-homicide offenses. The cases of Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida involve a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old who committed rape and armed theft, respectively.

Defendant Joe Sullivan, now 33, is represented by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization. Mr. Stevenson maintains that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the cruel and unusual punishment characterizing such sentencing of youths under 14. In a quote from the New York Times, Mr. Stevenson comments, “To say to any child of 13 that you are only fit to die in prison is cruel. It can’t be reconciled with what we know about the nature of children.”

Bryan S. Gowdy, the lawyer for convicted juvenile offender Terrance Graham, expressed skepticism about a case-by-case determination of juvenile crimes not involving murder, saying, “At that age we cannot make a determination about whether or not the adolescent will or will not reform.”

These cases have received immense media attention and responses from practitioners at the frontline of health care and criminal justice for youths.

Drawing from his global health and justice work with children, Paul Farmer commented yesterday in a Boston Globe Op-Ed about the issues at stake in these Supreme Court hearings:

These are serious crimes and both young men must be held accountable. The question before the court is whether they should be held accountable in a way that takes into consideration their immaturity, lack of judgment, vulnerability to peer pressure, and – perhaps most important – their capacity for redemption, growth, and change. If the court strikes down life without parole for juveniles as unconstitutional, no offender would have an automatic right to parole release. Juvenile offenders would simply be given the opportunity to appear before a parole board and make the case that they have changed and deserve another chance.

 

Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children must not be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishments, including capital punishment or life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Only two nations in the world have not ratified this convention: Somalia and the United States. It is noteworthy that sentences of life without parole for juveniles were uncommon in the United States before the 1990s, a period of fear about a potential rise in juvenile crime that was based on data later proven false.

 

There are those who argue that international laws and norms should have no bearing on how the United States decides to dispense justice. But having treated thousands of children all over the world, I can say with confidence that American children are not more vicious, less human, or less deserving of mercy and compassion than children in any other country. Every other nation in the world finds ways to hold young people accountable for their actions without sentencing them to languish in prison until they die. The United States must do the same for its children.

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, is professor of social medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he is chairman, and is cofounder of Partners In Health, an international nonprofit health care organization. He is the author of “Pathologies of Power’’ and co-editor of “Global Health in Times of Violence.’’

[Editor's note: This is a guest post written by Ms. Katherine Moloney.]

Sexual violence against civilian populations during armed conflict is recognized as a deliberate tactic of war, the gravity of which determines whether it is considered a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an element of genocide [see Statute of the International Criminal Court art 7.1(g) and art 8.2(b)(xxii); Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security (SCR 1325) para 11; Security Council Resolution 1820 on widespread or systematic violence in armed conflict paras 1, 4]. The widespread and systematic rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and recruitment and kidnapping of civilians is at pandemic proportions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The majority of victims are children. By November 2008, World Vision spokesperson, Kevin Cook, and Save the Children spokesperson, George Graham, considered the DRC to be potentially the world’s worst place to be a child. The Congolese army is the single biggest perpetrator of sexual abuses according to a Human Rights Watch report published in July. This is despite commitments from both the government and the military that those found guilty of such human rights abuses would be punished. However, sexual violence offenses extend beyond the Congolese army to rebel groups, armed actors, and even UN personnel.

The deadliest war since World War II, the forgotten conflict in the DRC as been particularly devastating for women and children, who remain targets of sexual violence. These attacks are frequently exceptionally brutal, including gang rape, rape with a weapon, and rape accompanied by serious bodily harm. The medical consequences include death from injuries, contraction of HIV, pregnancy, or the development of a fistula. The psychosocial impact can be just as serious. Victims face stigma and familial and social rejection or ostracism. This can restrict their access to education or marriage and leave them displaced and at risk of further abuse.

In March 2009, a Comprehensive Strategy on Combating Sexual Violence in the DRC was finalized by the UN Office of the Senior Advisor and Coordinator on Sexual Violence after consultation with key stakeholders. The four strategic components are the following:

1. Combating impunity for cases of sexual violence;
2. Prevention of sexual violence and protection of victims;
3. Security sector reform; and
4. A multi-sectoral response for survivors of sexual violence

Further, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, an initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research, facilitated its first conference, SVRI Forum 2009: Coordinated evidence-based responses to end sexual violence, earlier this month. Held in Johannesburg, South Africa, the global event assembled 200 experts for the purpose of endorsing research, highlighting good practice in program design, and fostering increased partnership and network building in the field of sexual violence. Read more

The beginning of the school year is both anticipated and bemoaned by students around the world, but most students will never have to worry about being let in the front door. This is not the case for HIV-positive children in some communities, where stigmatization and fear can keep them from going to school.

HIV stigmatization is widespread, especially among people who do not understand how the virus is transmitted. Fear that their children will become infected can lead parents to demand the removal of HIV-positive children from school or to remove their own children to prevent interaction with HIV-positive students.

A recent Time Magazine article describes the stigmatization of HIV orphans in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The situation in Vietnam shows that it is not enough to have strong laws to protect the rights of HIV-positive individuals (as Vietnam does) — countries also need to have programs of active community involvement so that HIV-positive individuals are not targeted by their fellow community members.

Restriction of children’s access to school because of HIV stigmatization is not just a problem in Vietnam. On August 25, the Times of India reported that an 8-year-old boy was thrown out of school because of his HIV status. There have also been recent reports from Thailand and Uganda of children being barred from school or harassed because of their HIV status.

The social and economic consequences of poor education mean that it is imperative that HIV interventions focus not only on treatment and prevention but also on combating stigmatization. Many children who are affected by HIV stigmatization are already vulnerable because of loss of family support structures — these children should not be further disadvantaged because of the fear and ignorance of their communities. More needs to be done to reduce HIV stigmatization and to make sure that HIV-positive children — and the other children who would be removed from school because of fear — get the education they deserve.

It is now common knowledge that smoking is a major contributor to poor health, particularly with respect to respiratory and cardiovascular health. Now there is also evidence that smoking affects health in another, more subtle way — by contributing to childhood malnutrition.

In a study published in the October 2009 issue of Economic Development and Cultural Change, two researchers from Tufts University, Steven Block of the Fletcher School of International Affairs and Patrick Webb of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, explored the links between smoking, food expenditures, and childhood malnutrition in Indonesia. A survey was administered to households in rural Java, most of which were poor. Based on the surveys, the researchers found that households with at least one smoker spent 10% of their budget on tobacco and that 70% of the money used to purchase tobacco apparently came from funds that would otherwise be used for food. Households with at least one smoker spent 68% of their budget on food, in contrast to nonsmoking households, where the average food expenditure was 75% of the total budget.

The 7-percentage point difference in food spending between households with at least one smoker and households of nonsmokers might not seem substantial, but the researchers found that this decrease in food expenditures was associated with a difference in childhood nutritional status as measured by height-for-age. The reduced nutritional status of the children may be related to the types of foods being purchased; in households with at least one smoker, less money was spent on fruit, vegetables, and meat, which are important sources of nutrients in the heavily rice-based diet of most rural Indonesians.

It is already known that smoking puts people at risk for many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and childhood asthma and that tobacco use causes more preventable deaths than anything else. This new report shows that we have another compelling reason to advocate for reducing tobacco use: reducing child malnutrition.

More information:

Economic Development and Cultural Change Press Release on smoking and malnutrition study

WHO: Tobacco and the Tobacco Free Initiative

CDC: Smoking and Tobacco Use

A new report from Breaking the Silence describes the testimonies of 30 Israeli soldiers, many of whom stated they were encouraged by military leaders to “shoot first and worry about civilians later” during the Israeli military offensive into the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The soldiers, all of whom remained anonymous, also reported using Palestinians as human shields and bombing buildings indiscriminately. One soldier said of white phosphorous, a lethal incendiary agent found to have been used against civilians: “[I]n training you learn that white phosphorus is not used, and you’re taught that it’s not humane. You watch films and see what it does to people who are hit, and you say, ‘There, we’re doing it too.’ That’s not what I expected to see. Until that moment I had thought I belonged to the most humane army in the world.”

Groups conducting investigations on the Gaza Strip include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The results of these investigations have generally indicated that “Israeli forces inflicted civilian death and destruction on an unjustifiable scale” during the assault. Amnesty International estimated that 1400 Palestinians (including 300 children) were killed during the attack, although Israeli officials put the number at closer to 1100 and stated that most of those deaths were Hamas terrorist operatives. The Israeli government has not cooperated with any investigations and vehemently denies these claims; a spokeswoman for the Israeli military stated recently that their forces went to “extraordinary lengths” to avoid civilian deaths during the offensive. Read more

There is a growing trend around the world of children being accused of witchcraft. Once accused of witchcraft, a child is punished, beaten, starved and sometimes killed to “cleanse” her or him of supposed magical powers. What is pushing the trend?

The UNHCR report Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights: a review of the evidence points out that witchcraft provides an answer to the question “why me?” when misfortune strikes. Unfortunately for many areas in Africa and elsewhere in the world, misfortune seems to be striking with vengeance. Particularly in countries where the people have been scarred by war, famine, economic collapse, death, and HIV infections, there are many “why me?” questions to be answered. As Father Horácio Caballero, director of a shelter that cares for children accused of witchery in Angola, says, “when AIDS begins to kill, someone in the family gets blamed for it.” Other children in Angola have been accused of transforming into animals and eating crops at night. Yet scientific analysis found that late rains had caused poor crop yield during that period.

Some common traits in children accused to have witchcraft are: stubbornness, learning disabilities, physical disabilities such as epilepsy, unruly behavior and not taking school seriously. Many of these traits deemed “witch-like” are usually considered normal adolescent behavior in the West. Children suffering from disease such as AIDS and malaria are also prime targets of witchcraft accusations. Read more

[Editor's note: This is a guest post written by Stephanie Psaki.]

Last month, the World Bank published a review of its health, nutrition, and population programs from 1997 through 2007, totaling US$17 billion in support. The review found that a third of the projects in this portfolio did not meet their objectives, and that, “none of the projects with explicit fertility or population objectives achieved them.”

The Bank’s current (2007) Population Strategy does not promise much greater success. Amidst a general endorsement of past approaches, the report states that they will target high fertility countries, where total fertility rates (average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime) exceed 5.

However, this strategy does not appear to take into account the level of unmet need – the proportion of women who no longer want to have children but lack access to contraception – in these countries. From an economics perspective, this is analogous to trying to sell a product to a new market with no indication that anyone wants to purchase it.

In fact, there is reason to believe that most people in these high fertility “markets” do not currently want to use contraception.

In a 1994 paper, Dr. Lant Pritchett – a World Bank economist – famously pointed out that worldwide 90% of differences in total fertility rates could be explained by differences in desired fertility. In other words, in most cases women and couples are having children because they want to have children. While Pritchett’s conclusions have been the subject of heated debate, the distinction between wanted and unwanted fertility remains crucial. Read more

A former child soldier from Uganda, Grace Akallo, recently spoke at the UN Security Council about her experiences being abducted, sexually assaulted, and forced to fight for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 16. She described being sent into battle with an AK47 and forced to kill other children who attempted escape. The Security Council is now discussing using stronger methods to stop “repeat offenders” from recruiting children.

It is estimated that 250,000 children, some age 10 or younger, are currently recruited into armed conflicts around the world and used as soldiers, guards, messengers, or sex slaves. Such recruitment of children occurs most often in conflict zones such as Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Sri Lanka. The use of child soldiers has been officially prohibited by a UN treaty ratified by 126 countries since 2002. Children in conflict areas are guaranteed special protection under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.

It is no surprise that rehabilitating child soldiers is a difficult and lengthy process. Because of the severe trauma they suffer, children who have been in combat require extensive long-term support to be re-integrated into communities, says UNICEF spokesman James Elder. He explains that child combatants “live in a theatre of violence and suffering…Instead of hope, fear defines their childhood.” Read more

The tragic death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié in 2000 from abuse and neglect by her guardians led to major changes in child protection policy in the UK, among them the launch of the controversial ContactPoint database in England this year. Victoria had been seen by doctors, nurses, police, and social workers who noted her injuries, but failed to coordinate and act to stop the abuse. In response, the database was set up in order to improve communication between services about the needs of children, and holds basic information about each child, including name, address, gender, date of birth, school and health provider. On May 18, ContactPoint entered the next phase of roll-out when it became available to workers in 17 authorities in northwest England, before it is fully rolled out to the rest of the country.

While the government’s efforts to ensure children’s protection rights are laudable, the approach is problematic. ContactPoint infringes on the right to privacy, and more importantly, may not be the best way to improve child welfare. The UK Joint Committee On Human Rights questioned in a 2004 report whether universal database coverage of children at the expense of privacy is justified in order to achieve such a “general aim” as ensuring the well-being of all children. Instead, the committee had suggested a more targeted registry aimed at protecting vulnerable children. Chris Mills also argued in the Guardian that since ContactPoint does not include children who are temporarily residing in England, children like Victoria Climbié ironically would not benefit from the database anyway.

Popular opinion since the database’s proposal has been that it will only create extra problems. The Joint Committee On Human Rights voiced concerns over the inclusion of contact details of service providers; although no medical or personal records can be included in the database, sensitive information may still be revealed, such as a referral for a teenager to family planning services. Even children themselves are worried. A 2006 report found that children fear the database will expose them to harm, and do not trust the government to keep the database secure. Many felt they would not use sexual or mental health services for fear of disclosure to their school or parents, and some even pledged to evade being entered into the database.

It will be interesting to see whether the unpopular database will actually be able to better coordinate children’s services, or if the critics are right.

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