Afghanistan / Violence against Males

Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalized, Study Finds
By Gareth Porter
Inter Press Service dispatch on Truthout.org, March 30, 2010
"Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country's juvenile justice system. The study, carried out by U.S. defence attorney Kimberly Motley for the international children's rights organisation Terre des Hommes, reveals a justice system that subjects juveniles, many of whom are already innocent victims, to torture, forced confessions and blatant violation of their rights in court. ... The author personally interviewed 250 of the 600 juveniles in jails and rehabilitation centres across the country, including half the 80 girls and 40 percent of the 520 boys, as well as 98 professionals working in the system. Although only two of
the girls interviewed reported being beaten by police, 130 out of the 208 boys under the age of 18 interviewed said they had been beaten. The interviews were carried out by Motley in 28 provinces from September through December 2009. Those statistics parallel the findings of a study published by the U.N. Children's Fund and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in 2008, which found that 55 percent of boys and 11 percent of girls reported having been beaten upon their arrest. Virtually all the male juveniles said the police beatings were aimed at forcing them to sign a confession. They said they had signed either while being beaten or threatened with being beaten, and that the confessions were then used to convict them. ... Many of the boys interviewed by Motley reported that they been beaten by several police simultaneously. In one case, a 17-year-old said he was 'kicked liked an animal' by six or seven policemen after his arrest. ... Almost half the children brought before a court in Afghanistan are also denied the right to speak in their defence, according to Motley's study. Forty-seven percent of those interviewed, including 62 percent of those in the western region, were not allowed to testify on their own behalf. One of the male juveniles denied the right to testify in court was a boy charged with pederasty, or sexual relations between an adult male and a child. As is often the case, he was the victim of rape, after having been kidnapped by three adults, all of whom were released and never charged. [...]"