The Jamaica Observer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A human rights group here says that more than 50 chil­dren are cur­rently sub­jected to harsh treat­ment in jails in the earthquake-ravaged, French-speaking Caribbean country.

“These minors are receiv­ing no spe­cial treat­ment what­so­ever and rou­tinely face pro­longed pre­ven­tive deten­tion, over­crowd­ing, poor con­di­tions and no reha­bil­i­ta­tion strat­egy,” said the Hait­ian National Human Rights Defence Net­work in a state­ment, dis­clos­ing that at least 58 chil­dren have suf­fered this fate.

The net­work said that since the Jan­u­ary 12 dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake 43 boys and 15 girls have been trans­ferred to two pris­ons built for adults.

“There are 15 girls jammed into one lit­tle cell in which there are sup­posed to be a max­i­mum of four peo­ple,” it said.

This comes in the wake of a report by a United Nations human rights expert, which describes con­di­tions at two of Haiti’s main pris­ons as “cruel, inhu­man and degrading”.

Michel Forst – who vis­ited the National Pen­i­ten­tiary in cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince, and the prison in south­ern city of Cayes, from April 21 to May 1 – also told the UN Human Rights Coun­cil in Geneva, Switzer­land that the pris­ons in Haiti are severely overcrowded.

He said this became even more unbear­able in the wake of the Jan­u­ary 12 earth­quake that rav­aged cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince, leav­ing sev­eral pris­ons destroyed.

“Both places are over­crowded with detainees liv­ing in cruel, inhu­mane, and degrad­ing con­di­tions, in the mean­ing of the (UN) con­ven­tion against tor­ture,” said Frost, adding that con­di­tions at the two pris­ons are “even more severe than before the earthquake”.

He called for a “seri­ous and impar­tial” probe into the alleged shoot­ing death of about 10 pris­on­ers at Cayes, who sought to escape in the after­math of the earthquake.

Late last month, the UN said it and Haiti will look into the deadly prison riot in Les Cayes amid alle­ga­tions that unarmed inmates were shot by local police officers.

The UN said the inde­pen­dent com­mis­sion will be “a joint UN-Haiti” effort.

“The com­mis­sion is being set up under an agree­ment reached between Hait­ian Pres­i­dent René Pré­val and Edmund Mulet, the Secretary-General’s Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and the head of the UN peace­keep­ing mis­sion, which is known as MINUSTAH,” the UN state­ment said.

Accord­ing to reports, more than a dozen peo­ple were killed and dozens of oth­ers wounded dur­ing the attempted prison escape in Les Cayes on Jan­u­ary 19, rais­ing ques­tions about the role played by the Hait­ian National Police (HNP).

“As far as we’re con­cerned, there was a major human rights vio­la­tion in that prison,” UN spokesman David Wimhurst said.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Group-says-children-suffer-in-Haiti-jails