Treat Khadr as child soldier: UN envoy
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | 1:31 PM ET Comments110Recommend50
The Canadian Press
The UN envoy in charge of child protection said the war-crimes prosecution of Canadian Omar Khadr could set a dangerous precedent and is calling on Canada and the U.S. to treat him as a child soldier.
Khadr, 23, is facing prosecution in Guantanamo Bay before a military commission for alleged crimes he committed when he was 15.
International conventions afford special safeguards for children during armed conflicts, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, who is the UN's under-secretary-general, special representative for children and armed conflict.
Khadr needs to be rehabilitated, she said.
Khadr is charged with murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism, after being accused of tossing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. medic during a battle in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border in 2002.
He is into a second week of pre-trial hearings at Guantanamo Bay, where his lawyers are arguing self-incriminating statements he gave were the product of torture.
Khadr has so far refused to attend his pretrial hearing, claiming his prison guards were intimidating him and tried to humiliate him during body searches
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/05/omar-khadr-un-envoy.html#ixzz0n00UVPuS
Ottawa International Poets and Writers for human Rights (OIPWHR)
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