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Human rights defenders / Links / Benin / 2015 / December

Benin: Meet Norbert: Better protecting children to break Benin’s cycle of violence

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8 December, Cotonou (Benin) – “Violence is the first inheritance of a child born within a violent family,” says Norbert Fanou-Ako.

As director of a non-governmental organization called Solidarity for Children in Africa and the World (ESAM) he is trying to break Benin’s vicious cycle of violence. The violence deeply engrained in this country starts at home and in school with commonplace whipping, caning, slapping and other uses of ill treatment against children and then extends to regular beatings to force confessions out of suspected juvenile delinquents at police stations.

Though Benin ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2006, its criminal legislation still does not include the « principle of absolute prohibition of torture », nor state that executing orders from a superior is not a justification of torture, nor forbid the use of confessions obtained through torture.

In 2007, in its second review of the country’s implementation of the Convention the United Nations Committee Against Torture had encouraged Benin to ensure the strict enforcement of legislation prohibiting corporal punishment in the family, schools and within institutions other than schools and to conduct awareness-raising and educational campaigns to stop such violence.

Things, however, have not improved that much since, especially with regards to children in conflict with the law. These are especially vulnerable, when in fact the State should grant them special measures to prevent situations of risk, and safeguard their life and physical integrity. 

 In 2011, the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture ­­– which is currently visiting the country again – asked Benin to take steps to ensure that: “children are not held in initial custody except as a genuinely last resort; they are held separately from adults; their rights are fully and clearly explained to children in a way that is readily understandable; a relative or trusted person is immediately informed of the custody of the child concerned; no child is subjected to questioning without the presence of a trusted adult; no child is subjected to restraint while in a custody cell.”



Fighting violence with information, dialogue and progress

Trained in banking and human resources, Norbert, 64, is trying in a joint project of ESAM with OMCT that involves monthly visits to civil prisons, regular trainings and meetings with authorities, to disseminate such recommendations of the CAT, the SPT, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child among all those dealing with children’s justice and child delinquency – from lawyers, to magistrates, to policemen, village chiefs, and to civil society.

“They all have to understand that children must spend the least time possible in jail,” he says. “Only a few days in prison are enough to scar the life of a child for ever; it’s a time bomb for society.”

Though judges are increasingly protective of children in Benin, in particular thanks to the work of organizations such as Norbert’s and OMCT, the discrepancy between child rights and their application is still too big, mainly because of the State’s negligence in enforcing the law, according to him.

Though information sharing, training, and advocacy will constitute the basic structure for aiding the protection of children’s rights, Norbert believes that dialogue between children and their families, who tend to give up on them too easily, is also a key factor to putting an end to the pervasive recourse to violence in Benin.

Yet Norbert stresses that the onus is on the State to effectively punish torturers and fight corruption and, more importantly still, address the fundamental problem of fostering economic and social development in the country without which prisons will continue to see new youths arriving. In Benin, over 47 per cent of the population was below international poverty line of US$1.25 a day from 2007 to 2011, according to UNICEF.

“When you live in sheer poverty, you develop survival strategies, and kids often think to themselves that at least in jail they’ll get a warm meal every day,” says Norbert.

-- by Lori Brumat in Geneva



To know more about the "10 December, 10 Defenders" campaign, click here.

Pledge your voice, an action, or funds and help us support 10 HRD continue their fight against torture!

 

OMCT wishes to thank the OAK Foundation, the European Union and the Republic and Canton of Geneva for their support. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institutions.



Properties

Date: December 8, 2015
Activity: Human Rights Defenders
Type: Links
Country: Benin
Subjects: Human Rights Defenders, Threats, intimidation and harassment, Torture and violence

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