Children's rights infringed at Muthanga
By Roy Mathew
Decision-makers and the police totally disregarded children's rights in planning and executing the action against tribals at Muthanga in Wayanad district last month.
Police hit children on the head with lathis during the operation to evict the tribals from the Muthanga forests.
Given the fact that several children had been injured, the injuries cannot be considered to be the result of an accidental hit or two. Rather, the indications are that the beating up of women and children was deliberate and criminal.
Children were separated from their parents in the forests. A television channel reported on Tuesday that some tribals were searching for their missing children in the forests.
The United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child specifies that the State has the obligation to protect children from all forms of abuse and neglect.
The Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, has said that the tribals were launching an armed rebellion against the State to establish self- rule. Even if this is assumed to be true, the children's rights are not extinguished.
The convention, which is a legally binding international instrument, states that children must be treated as a distinct and priority concern in the cases of armed conflict. Children have a right to help if hurt, neglected or badly treated.
However, the State did not offer any special help to children even after they were admitted to hospitals. Moreover, there are complaints that tribals were treated in a discriminatory fashion at the hospitals. No effort was done to find the missing children. No explanations were sought from the police personnel concerned.
Article 38 of the Convention says that ``Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.''
Even if the children are above the minimum age to be presumed to be capable of infringing the penal law and are accused of having infringed the law, they are to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of their sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces their respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account their age and the desirability of promoting their reintegration and their assuming a constructive role in society. At Muthanga, several of those at the receiving end of the police were infants, some held by their mothers.
It is to be noted that women also are to be given special consideration even in war.
The Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, proclaimed by U, N. General Assembly resolution 3318(XXIX) of 14 December 1974, has the following clause:
``All forms of repression and cruel and inhuman treatment of women and children, including imprisonment, torture, shooting, mass arrests, collective punishment, destruction of dwellings and forcible eviction, committed by belligerents in the course of military operations or in occupied territories shall be considered criminal.''
The HinduMarch 13,2003