Video of Child Soldier at Guantanamo Bay Released

A video of 16-year old Omar Khadr being interrogated at Guantanamo Bay has been released today. Khadr, who is a Canadian citizen, was 15 at the time of his capture in Afghanistan. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a firefight in Afghanisatn in 2002. The video showed Khadr being interviewed by Canadian Secret Intelligence Services officials in the presence of a CIA officer during 2003. It demonstrates the effects of prolonged interrogation and detention on the Guantanamo prisoner and raises many ethical and legal questions concerning his detention.

Having been captured at the age of 15, Khadr is a child soldier and should, legally, have been dealt with according to the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which both the United States and Canada are signatories. Under the convention, governments and rebel groups are prohibited from deploying children under the age of 18 in any form of armed conflict.

According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: ‘Child soldiers, even those who have committed human right abuses, should be treated first and foremost as victims of adult crimes – that is the prosecution should be prioritised of those who unlawfully recruited and used them’. They should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society and should not be dealt with by prolonged detention, questionable treatement and possible torture. This should not preclude the possibility of prosecution, which might deny justice to the victim. However, any criminal justice process involving a former child soldier must adhere to international standards on juvenile justice. If we look at the International Criminal Court in the Hague we see that some of those accused of the worst atrocities receive due course before the law and are afforded their basic human rights. It will take courage by states to stand up to their responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child but this is necessary to ensure that children are not denied the rights they are entitled to.

The US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been criticised for breaking Internatioanal Law and the Geneva Conventions and has been subject to repeated calls for its closure. The reputation of the United States has suffered in recent years with scandals surrounding accusations of torture, the exercise of rendition flights and revelations of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq compounding the perception that the US is consistently mistreating prisoners in the conduct of the ‘War on Terror’.

Khadr is one of two Guantanamo detainees captured as juveniles and faces life in prison if convicted by the Guantanamo prison’s war crimes court.

Human Rights Watch state that children are direct participants in war in approximately 17 countries worldwide.