A/HRC/6/7
page 37
We attach herewith some court rulings issued in 2005 that were not brought to the attention
of the Special Rapporteur and the Human Rights Council, together with some rulings delivered
in 2006.
1.3
Children and armed conflict
We should like to provide the following examples of legal protection of children:
On 3 May 2007, a Niyala court sentenced defendants Abd al-Rahman Zakariya and
Ahmad Abdullah Sulayman to death for murder and robbery. The appeal court overturned the
death sentences, on 10 June 2007, because the two defendants had been under 18 when they
committed the crime. It ordered that they be placed in a reformatory.
At a regular session held on 20 March 2006, the Azhari Criminal Court, which was hearing
the Suba case involving an attack upon a police station and the killing of 16 policemen,
referred 3 of the defendants, who were minors, to a juvenile court.
The Dukkah General Criminal Court in Qadarif, in eastern Sudan, sentenced a woman
called Fatimah Adam Yahya to death under article 130 (premeditated murder). Since there were
legal documents proving that the woman was a minor, the Advisory Council wrote to the
Department of Legal Assistance to request leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court for an
annulment of the sentence.
The Al-Damazin General Criminal Court convicted a man called Najm al-Din
Qasim al-Sayyid and sentenced him to death under article 130 (premeditated murder). Counsel
for Mr. Al-Sayyid appealed the verdict on the grounds that his client had been under 18 when he
committed the crime. The appeal court ordered that a medical examination be conducted to
determine the age of the convicted man when the offence was committed. Based on the results of
the examination, it upheld the guilty verdict and the sentence, as did a higher court. Counsel for
the convicted man appealed to the Constitutional Court, which is still hearing the case. Three of
the five judges have delivered their opinion in writing.
A workshop on juvenile justice was held on 26-27 June 2007, in cooperation with the
Children’s Rights Monitor organization and the United Nations Gender Unit. The workshop was
designed for judges and prosecutors and 50 participants were given training.
A workshop on the demobilization of child soldiers is being held in September 2007 by the
Advisory Council for Human Rights, in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence, the
Disarmament and Reintegration Commission and the National Council for Child Welfare, and
with the participation and support of UNICEF. The event is designed for 30 members of the
regular forces and 30 members of the joint forces.
The Advisory Council paid a visit to the Al-Jarif children’s reformatory, which houses
63 children, 13 of them girls. It investigated reform measures and the offences committed by the
children, ranging from theft to murder and rape. The Advisory Council helped with the
recruitment of a social worker to work at the reformatory. The children were also informed about
the Children’s Unit set up at the Department of Legal Assistance to provide assistance in cases
involving minors.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents