1,300 juveniles in jails: report

Source: Dawn News

Dated: 02 Jul, 2010

ISLAMABAD, July 1: Pakistani jails hold at least 1,300 juvenile prisoners and an up to 10,000 children are facing criminal litigation and appearing in courts.
These statistics come from a report launched by the Society for Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) here Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO).

According to the report, there were 1,357 juvenile prisoners in jails in December 2009, and the number dropped to 1,300 by the end June.

Speaking at the report launch, National Manager Juvenile Justice Abdullah Khoso said the noticeable decline in the number of juvenile prisoners was an achievement of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, which was promulgated in 2000 when the figure was anything over 5,000.

“Sparc commemorates 10 years of the JJSO in the hope that this figure will further decline and there will come a time when children will not be detained

in cells, at least not for petty crimes,” Khoso noted.

For more details: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/islamabad/1,300-juveniles-in-jails-report-270