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Justice Department Admits to Holding Children at Bagram Air Force Base |
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May
16, 2008, New York, NY--
Attorneys from the International Justice
Network (IJN), the organization who has championed the rights of innocents
held at US prisons in Afghanistan, today expressed outrage over recent
revelations by the Justice Department that they are holding youth under the age
of 18 at the notorious adult prison. In a report released to the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United States government admitted to
holding over 90 children in Afghanistan, including 10 children who currently
remain at the Bagram prison among the adult population.
"With
all the documented torture, abuse, and injustice perpetrated at secretly-run US
prisons abroad, it comes as a shock to learn that even young children have not
been immune from being held without due process at Bagram." said Tina Monshipour Foster, Executive Director, International Justice Network.
According
to IJN Litigation Director and Stanford Human Rights Professor Barbara
Olshansky, "International law and practice clearly
prohibits holding children in such terrible and terrifying prisons, and there
does not appear to be any legitimate purpose for holding these children without
access to their families or lawyers."
The
International Justice Network is the only human rights organization
representing detainees at Bagram.
The group has filed several lawsuits on behalf of Bagram detainees since
October 2006.
Read the US Government's disturbing report here .
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