DALLAS, United States – The Center for Public Policy Priorities has released A Child Alone and Without Papers which reveals that children are mistreated when they are removed from the United States and repatriated to their home countries.  The report found that children’s rights, safety, and well-being, are compromised contrary to international law and U.S. child welfare standards.  The paper reported that children are transported home unsafely and denied access to representation.

Children interviewed for the study reported going without water at U.S. Border Patrol stations, being handcuffed and having their requests for medical attention ignored. At least one child reported being struck and knocked down by an agent.

According to the study, many children faced complicated immigration proceedings without legal representation. Last year, 50 to 70 percent of detained unaccompanied minors went before an immigration judge without a lawyer.  The study found that , at  times, consulates were not notified that children from their country were being removed, a violation of an international treaty.

Children flown to non-bordering countries were shackled during the flight and those taken by vehicle across the border to Mexico were transported in kennel-like compartments.  Mexican officials reported that children were returned in the middle of the night and brought to ports of entry that were not specified in agreements.

According to the study, an estimated 43,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children were removed from the U.S. in 2007.

For more information, please see:

Center for Public Policy Priorities – De Falta de Representacion a Maltratamiento: Reporte Demuestra Lo Que Pasa A Ninos Indocumentados – 13 November 2008

Houston Chronicle – Study Says Immigrant Children Mistreated – 14 November 2008

Market Watch – From Lack of Legal Representation to Maltreatment: Report Reveals What Happens to Undocumented, Unaccompanied Children Removed From U.S – 13 November 2004

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – The U.S. has released a report admitting that it has held as many as 12 juveniles at Guantanamo Bay. In May, the U.S. told the United Nations that it held only eight juveniles. Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon said that the U.S. did not intentionally misrepresent the number of detainees. “As we noted to the committee, it remains uncertain the exact age of many of the juveniles held at Guantanamo, as most of them did not know their own date of birth or even the year in which they were born.”

The Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, based at the University of California, Davis, released a study last week that concluded that the U.S. has held at least a dozen juveniles at Guantanamo, including a Saudi who committed suicide in 2006. Almerindo Ojeda, director of the Center, stated, “The information I got was from their own sources, so they didn’t have to look beyond their own sources to figure this out,” said Almerindo Ojeda, director of the center at the University of California, Davis. According to the study, eight of the 12 juvenile detainees have been released.

Rights groups say it is important for the U.S. military to know the real age of those it detains because juveniles are entitled to special protection under international laws recognized by the United States.
Two of the remaining detainees are scheduled to face war-crimes trials in January. Canadian Omar Khadr, now 21, was captured in July 2002 and is charged with murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. special forces soldier. Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who is about 24, faces attempted murder charges for a 2002 grenade attack that wounded two U.S. soldiers. The study identified the only other remaining juvenile as Muhammed Hamid al Qarani of Chad.The Saudi who hanged himself with two other detainees in 2006, Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, was 17 when he arrived at Guantanamo.

For more information, please see:

USATODAY – U.S. confirms it held 12 juveniles at Guantanamo– 16 November 2008

Fox News – U.S. acknowledges it held 12 juveniles at Guantanamo– 16 November 2008

The Press Association – Dozen juveniles at Guantanamo Bay- 16 November 2008

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUERRO, Mexico – On Tuesday, Amnesty International demanded the immediate release of five Indian activists jailed in southern Mexico on suspicion of homicide.

Amnesty International contends that all five are innocent of the murder charges and their detention and prosecution is politically motivated. The activists were detained in connection with the Jaunary killing of a government supporter in the mountain community of El Camalote. Leftist rebel groups and drug traffickers have been active in this area over the past decade.

The five activists, belonging to the Organization of the Tlapaneco Indian People, were arrested in April.  The organization is an activist group that has protested army patrols and forced sterilization of some men in their remote mountain communities in the 1990s.

A court ruled in late October that there was not enough evidence to continue holding the five men, but federal prosecutors appealed that ruling, guaranteeing the men would remain in jail.  It is believed that the men’s continued prosecution is aimed at quashing the protest movement. The Mexican government has sought to decimate and disband the Tlapaneco organization.

This story illustrates a wider pattern of abuse against human rights activists in Guerrero in Mexico. Authorities have often misused the judicial system to punish those who promote respect for the rights of marginalized communities and dare to speak up about abuses. In June, Guerrero state authorities agreed to pay 35,000 pesos ($3,400 at the time) in compensation to 14 indigenous Mexican men coerced into having vasectomies, and give them water storage tanks and cement to build homes.  Other parts of the compensation agreement, the punishment for the authorities who coerced the men into the procedure, and the construction of rural health clinics have been unfulfilled.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Mexico: Amnesty International adopts five indigenous rights defenders as prisoners of conscience – 11 November 2008

Taiwan News – Amnesty demands Mexico release Indian activists – 12 November 2008

UK MSN – Amnesty International says Mexico Indian activists are prisoners of conscience, demands release – 12 November 2008

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – At least two people have been killed and six others injured in Nicaragua in the days following the Sunday election of new representatives in 146 municipalities.  Official election results have placed 94 mayorships in Sandinista hands, with 46 going to the opposition party, the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). With the majority of votes now being counted in favor of the Sandinista party, protests erupted on Monday between Sandinistas and supporters of the opposition party, the PLC.

Nicaragua’s police chief Aminta Granera dispatched anti-riot forces to the streets of Managua on Monday to contain the violent clashes between supporters and opponents of President Daniel Ortega. Opponents of Ortega’s Sandinista government are claiming the municipal elections were rigged by Ortega’s government.

Nicaraguan people prepare to throw stones in a demonstration to support opposition candidate Eduardo Montealegre who rejected municipal poll results by the Electoral Supreme Council. (Xinhua Photo)

Ortega has been accused of manipulating the elections and has prevented at least two groups from being observers at polling places, including the Nicaraguan civic group Ethics and Transparency, which reported a 32 percent rate of irregularities at the polling places it was able to monitor. The Organization of American States (OAS) and U.S. State Department have also denounced Ortega’s ban of OAS observers from Nicaraguan polling stations: “Unfortunately the Supreme Electoral Council’s decision to not accredit credible domestic and international election observers has made it difficult to properly assess the conduct of the election…We urge the government of Nicaragua to ensure that the official election results accurately reflect the will of the Nicaraguan people” – Robert Wood, U.S. State Department spokesman.

Ortega, dismissing the allegations of fraud against his government, stated that election observers were rightly rejected from the political process “because they are financed by outside powers.”

The PLC will likely contest the results in court.

For more information, please see:

The Associated Press – Nicaraguan Opposition Demands Election Review – 11 November 2008

BBC News – Nicaragua Election Clash ‘Deaths’ – 11 November 2008

Bloomberg – Nicaragua Election Results Provoke Clashes in Managua – 11 November 2008