Geneva update

12 March 2009

Five young campaigners from Y Care International’s Youth Justice in Action campaign are currently in Geneva to give evidence at the UN Human Rights Council. 

The group of campaigners from five of our campaign partner countries arrived in Geneva on 5 March to attend the tenth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to lobby the Council on how justice systems around the world are failing young people. The group include Darwin Alvarez Funes (Honduras), Martin Galligan (Ireland), Mohamed Oman Bushin (Sierra Leone), Thandanani Ndlovu (South Africa) and Daniella Abbate (England).

This morning, Mohamed Oman Bushin (OB) from Sierra Leone delivered an oral statement to the Council's full day meeting on the rights of the child. He was one of just four NGO representatives to address the Council and the only young person to give evidence.

Watch OB's speech

OB said: "We are a group of young people who are here to advocate on juvenile justice based not just on reports and statistics but on our own personal experience," he said. "We speak as children and young people who have been prisoners and who have been in conflict with the law."

OB explained that detention is not being used as a last resort and that prisons around the world are full of children and young people who have been jailed for petty crimes and are not rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

At the age of 14, OB was falsely detained and held without trial in a police cell with adult offenders during Sierra Leone's civil war. Following his ordeal, he developed a passion for justice and young people’s rights and now heads up the Youth Justice in Action campaign in Sierra Leone. Last year, he was awarded the 2008 Children and Youth Advocate of the Year by the government of Sierra Leone for his work.

Read the full statement here.

During their time in Geneva, the group have been busy lobbying Council delegates to support a resolution on juvenile justice. They have taken messages from young people from all over the world in support of the campaign. Messages like the fact that in some countries, young people are being held for long periods without trial in cells with convicted adult prisoners, are not provided with education or rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

Prior to the Council, Y Care International and our partner, the World Alliance of YMCAs, made a written submission, using evidence gathered by young people in each of the campaign partner countries. Download it here.

Find out more about the Youth Justice in Action campaign
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