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Home	ACR Weekly Newsletter Vol.1, No.2
Weekly Newsletter Main	Pakistan: 315 Child Prisoners Still on Death Row
Appeal Pakistan: Child Prisoners Feature Article Myanmar: Child Soldiers What you can do Working towards a solution Important Links [Child Prisoners in Pakistan's jails]	Pakistan’s prisons are house to more than 4,400 children, 90% (3, 750) of whom are still awaiting trial or currently under- trial. The latest available data mentioned 125 child prisoners on death row (Human Rights Commission Report 2001). However, this number has dramatically increased in the past year. In July 2002, President Pervez Musharraf enacted the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2002 (JJSO) abolishing the death penalty for anyone under 18 at the time of the crime. On July 25 2002, News International, Pakistan reported that with the enforcement of the JJSO in Punjab province of Pakistan, the death sentences of 74 young offenders had been converted to life imprisonment. The same report also said that 315 condemned juveniles were yet to see the effect of the JJSO. ‘The law minister observed that the government would constitute a special medical board to examine the ages of 315 other condemned juveniles’, the News International article said. However, that has not happen. Neither has the commutation of death sentences for the child prisoners.
Feature Article [Child soldiers in Burma's national army]	Myanmar's Children on the Front Lines
	Burma hit headlines recently due to three major reports released in the past year. All three of these reports, ‘No Childhood At All’ by Images Asia (June 1997), ‘Global Report 2001’ by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (June 2001) and ‘My Gun was as Tall as Me’ by Human Rights Watch (October 2002) revealed that Burma today has the highest number of child soldiers fighting in the front lines with the state and opposition army. Human Rights Watch estimates that children comprise 35 to 45% (nearly 70,000) of Burmese Army. Some soldiers are as young as 11 years old. ‘The overwhelming majority of Burma's child soldiers are found in Burma's national army, the Tatmadaw Kyi, which forcibly recruits children as young as eleven. These children are subject to beatings and systematic humiliation during training. Once deployed, ‘they are often expected to perform the same duties as adult soldiers and may be beaten or killed if they are unable to perform the required tasks. Children have fought in front-line active combat, gathered and prepared food, dug trenches and other physically demanding work, stood sentry-check-point duty, acted as body-guards, served as porters carrying ammunition and supplies, and sometimes been used in human-wave attack tactics in which hundreds have been killed’ the IA report said.	However, the Burmese government has denied the use of child soldiers in the state army. Burma also claims that such reports are "just another example of attempts to tarnish the image of Burma and the Burma Tatmadaw (military) in the eyes of the international community”. On the reported use of force in recruiting child soldiers, the Burmese government claimed that joining the military was purely military and that national laws setting the enlistment age at 18 were “strictly enforced” reported Irrawady News Agency. In 1991, Burma signed to the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Declaration and Plan of Action at the World Summit for Children in the 1990s. In 1993, the Burmese regime promulgated a Child Law for the country and established an Inter-Sectoral Committee on the Rights of the Child. However, in spite of all this the military regime has failed to provide protection for children suffering as a result of the civil war, and instead continues to actively use child soldiers. The situation now is worse than ever as the regime continues to raise the number of men - boys - under arms.
What you can do	Working towards a solution
What you can do	Write an Appeal Letter to the President of Pakistan expressing your appreciation for reversing the sentence of 74 young offenders and concern over the remaining 315 who are still languishing under the threat of the death sentence.	Update yourself with more information on the situation of child prisoners in Pakistan. Place print outs of the article on bulletin boards and notice boards in order to increase awareness of the issue among your peers and other groups.
	Important Links
	Amnesty International

In 1991, Burma signed to the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Declaration and Plan of Action at the World Summit for Children in the 1990s. In 1993, the Burmese regime promulgated a Child Law for the country and established an Inter-Sectoral Committee on the Rights of the Child.

However, in spite of all this the military regime has failed to provide protection for children suffering as a result of the civil war, and instead continues to actively use child soldiers. The situation now is worse than ever as the regime continues to raise the number of men - boys - under arms.