Philippines: Rights group demands withdrawal of Bill to jail children

Children in the Philippines

23rd November 2016

THE Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Philippine government to immediately withdraw a Bill that will empower local authorities to jail children as young as nine for a crime, saying approving such a law would be a “direct attack on children’s rights”.

According to the global rights group, Congress filed the Bill in June, just a week after Rodrigo Duterte took office as president. If approved, the age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines would be lowered from 15 to nine years of age.

In a statement, HRW Children’s Rights Division associate director Juliane Kippenberg spoke out against the Bill, and reminded the Duterte administration that the internationally accepted age of criminal responsibility is 12-years-old.

She added that the Bill does not specify what rights children would have when they are in conflict with the law.

“For example, that they are entitled to have access to a lawyer, to be treated humanely and in an age-appropriate way, and that they will be protected from violence.

“The measure’s sponsors in Congress should immediately withdraw this abusive bill, and remember that it is their job to protect the rights of Filipino children,” she said.

SEE ALSO: Body count rises as new Philippines president calls for drug addicts to be killed

Kippenberg also pointed out that the Philippines is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that the arrest, detention, or imprisonment of children should only be used as a last resort.

“Instead, rehabilitation should be offered wherever possible,” she said, citing the international treaty.

Back in July, shortly after the Bill was filed, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) issued similar objections to it. In a statement then, the children’s rights organisation said the move would have “long-lasting damaging effects on their (children) cognitive, psycho-social and neurological health; harming their overall development.”

“Reducing the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) goes against the best interests of the child and threatens the well-being of the most vulnerable children.

“If children who have been exploited by criminal syndicates are penalized instead of the adults who had abused them, we fail to uphold the rights and well-being of children. If we fail to understand the underlying reasons why they commit crimes, we fail children,” the group added.

Since coming to power, President Duterte has waged a very public war on drugs, even going on record in the past to invite the public to help his government take up arms and join his government’s fight against the menace.

Months later today, the leader’s anti-drug campaign has claimed the lives of over 4,900 people, according to Rappler, among them both adults and children.

As such, the Bill to reduce the age of criminal responsibility is seen as vital to the president’s war on the narcotics trade, despite the proposed legislation drawing widespread concern. Since it was tabled, however, there has been few media updates on the status of the Bill and whether the Philippine government intends to proceed with it.

SEE ALSO: Philippines: Duterte says he will kill his kids if they do drugs

In an interview with Al Jazeera last month, Duterte called children and adults killed in the ongoing war on drugs collateral damage.

“This is the law of my land…[the policeman] he’s armed with an M16 the gangster only a pistol but when they meet they exchange fire. With the policeman and the M16 its one burst and hits one thousand people and they died that’s not criminal liability, it cannot be negligence, because you have to save your life. It cannot be recklessness because you have to defend yourself,” he said in the exclusive interview with the broadcaster.

Duterte also claimed there is no law in the Philippines against threatening criminals.

“There is no crime at all when you threaten criminals with death. In my country at least, there is no law which says I cannot threaten criminals… We have three million drug addicts… if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem. You destroy my country I will kill you.”