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The plight of juveniles in prisons must be addressed
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 17, 2009

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is concerned by the plight of children charged with criminal offences and brought before Zimbabwe's sadly collapsing criminal justice system. Such a plight was recently highlighted in cases wherein ZLHR represented three (3) sixteen year (16) old juvenile offenders. The three juveniles (herein referred to as P, S, T) where detained at Marondera Remand Prison when their plight came to the knowledge of ZLHR on 9 March 2009. Upon investigation into their matters it became apparent from court records that there had been numerous children's rights violations as well as serious oversights that culminated in the wrongful and prolonged detention of the three juveniles. The rights and safeguards accorded juvenile offenders in our criminal justice system as well as the various international standards and norms were being totally ignored.

One of the juveniles, P, brought before Marondera Magistrates Court had not only been forced to conduct his own defence without the assistance of a guardian or court appointed probation officer as required by law but had also been continuously remanded in abstentia for over 6 months while awaiting sentence for stealing a chicken. Compounding P's misfortune was the fact that Marondera Prison wherein he was detained was designed as an adult prison facility and the result was that P was abused by older cell mates. The other juvenile offender, S, had languished in remand prison for 3 months primarily because the Public Prosecution had failed and or neglected to comply with a court order to find a probation officer to investigate his personal circumstances. The last juvenile offender, T, was also remanded in custody just because the prosecution wanted to see a birth certificate which birth certificate he could not collect from his grandfather in rural Buhera, ironically because he was now detained in custody. The law requires that juvenile facing criminal charges must be released in the custody of their parent or guardian or into the custody of a social welfare authority. In this case, all three juveniles are orphans and had no legal guardian in whose custody they could be released. In the end, ZLHR had to find a home in which to have them placed after being granted bail on 16 March 2009.

While the Marondera Provincial Magistrate commended the efforts made in seeking to protect and promote the rights of persons in places of detention, especially children; ZLHR believes that more should be done to guarantee the rights of all accused persons, especially their right to liberty and to protection of the law, more so when juvenile offenders are involved. There is need for the State, through the judiciary, to be more considerate of the social and economic circumstances of each accused person. While the Court has been more than willing to keep minors in remand prisons simply because there is no guardian to release them to, the very same minors, prior to being incarcerated, have for years been living as adults fending for themselves after being orphaned and with no one to care for them. The court must strike a balance and consider the best interest of such minors before subjecting them to the harsh, deplorable and inhumane conditions that are Zimbabwe prisons.

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