Young offenders imprisoned in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan's
North Western Frontier Province are being held in alarming conditions in direct
contravention of the country' Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), according to
The Society for the Protection and Rights of the Child (SPARC).

"Children are subjected to degrading and inhuman punishment, whilst in prison,"
according to Arshad Mahmood of SPARC. They are denied access to adequate medical
care and nourishment as well as lawyers and relatives. No separate facilities exist
for children, leaving them vulnerable to physical, mental and sexual abuse in
overcrowded adult prisons. These conditions violate the key principles of
rehabilitation and the importance of the child?s wellbeing: the key principles
espoused in the national ordinance on juvenile justice, says Mahmood.

The Ordinance, which was promulgated by the federal authorities in 2000, was
implemented to better protect children in conflict with the law. Innovations include
the prohibition of labour during imprisonment, corporal punishment in police
custody, arrest under preventive laws, trial procedures, the use of fetters and
handcuffs and the death penalty for young offenders.

However, according to SPARC, these measures have not been applied to the Frontier
Province. In this area, children are caught in a legal twilight zone where the
Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) still holds. Established by the colonial
administration in 1901, this out-dated statute gives wide discretionary powers to
administrative and political agents, as well as to elders and leaders to administer
justice according to Sharia and tribal custom, often resulting in the torture and
death of young offenders.

[Source: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) and the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)]