Children’s Rights

 Written by: Najia Nijat

Zarmeena waits for her father and she doesn’t want to go the castle with her brother Ajmal and says to him that her girlfriend’s sister is a juvenile rehabilitation center (JRC). She adds that her father doesn’t have enough money to prepare him a toothbrush, shampoo, soap and other necessary things for her.

Ajmal asks about the reason of her waiting.  Zarmeena says that she wants some money from her father to buy these things for her girlfriend’s sister.

 Ajmal takes her to the castle of one thousand windows and says that she would get money when they come back.

When they reach to the yard of the castle, Lalo Mama welcomes them and he asks the reason for coming late.

Ajmal tells him the whole story. Lalo Mama says that juveniles have rights in the JRC and he takes them inside the castle and there he opens a window.

Window:

In the window, a drama is showing. In the drama, Nabi is new to the JRC and he is suffering from fever. Yusuf asks him to go to the doctor for his treatment. Nabi says that it’s not his private home to go to the doctor and he even doesn’t have money for his medicines. Yusuf says that all youth in the JRC have rights. Nabi says that in the first day, when a social worker was explaining about their rights in the JRC, he was sick. Yusuf takes him to the doctor inside the JRC.

Lalo Mama closes the window. Zarmeena asks about the rights of youths in JRC. Lalo Mama opens another window for their more information.

Window:

In the window, the reporter of the castle asks some youths about the offender.

Samia says: “A person who commits illegal acts is called offender like gamble, murder, and robbery and so on.”

Ismail says that he doesn’t know anything about offender and Frishta doesn’t know either.

Then the reporter asks about the rights of the offenders.

Abdullah, a 16 years old boy says: “I was in JRC for 3 months. At the beginning, I was not aware of my rights but when I went to JRC, they informed me from my rights in JRC. They said that I have the right to choose a lawyer for meto defend my case; I have also the right of food, water, doctor,… and I could meet our family members in GRC.”

Ismail says: “when I went to JRC, I was using my all rights like eating, drinking, and clothes and I chooed a lawyer to defend my rights.”

 Then the reporter talks to Assadullah Khalili, a social worker at Tdh office. Khalili says: “when a child commits a crime and goes to JRC, he/she should be aware of his/her rights. When the police arrests him/her, the police should treat him/her like an ordinary person, not as a guilty. The police office should inform their families from the arrest and should send their cases in 24 hours to the prosecutor's office. The child also has the right in the court to choose a governmental lawyer. The offender should have the right of talking and no one has the right to insult him/her….”