responsibility as well. Thus, children remain in prison with their mothers for as long as their mothers are detained or they (the children) are able to fend for themselves. There are children in prison aged up to 8 years. Most of the children are not going to school and have no toys or other entertaining facilities for children. (b) Juveniles The prison structure does not adequately take care of juveniles. There is only one juvenile court in the whole country and this was based in the capital, Addis Ababa. There are no juvenile facilities in the regions – reformation centers or courts. Thus, juveniles are put together with adults in all the prisons. In the Harar Prison, the authorities have allocated a cell for juveniles but at the time of the visit, adults were found going in and out of the cell and it is not completely separated from the adult section. (c) Foreigners There are about 54 foreigners in the Addis Ababa prison. Foreigners are not imprisoned in regional prisons, so most of them are sent to Addis Ababa. Most of them are detained for drug trafficking. The Special Rapporteur met with the three female foreign prisoners detained in the Addis Ababa Prison and discussed their condition of detention. Their major complaint is insufficient access to their relatives. They are allowed to call only once in two weeks – thus, twice a month. They also complain about the heavy fine given by the court and said it would be difficult for them to pay as they have no relatives in Ethiopia. (d) Persons with disabilities There are very few inmates with disabilities. There are about three blind inmates in the Addis Ababa prison and one blind female prisoner in the Adama Prison. There are no inmates with mental disabilities. The Special Rapporteur was informed that such inmates are referred to the Immanuel Mental Hospital for treatment. (e) Prisoners on death row There is a small number of prisoners on death row. Most of those on death row are those charged for serious offences such as murder, genocide and crimes against humanity. Very few executions have taken place since 1991 when the Mengistu regime was toppled. The majority of the Derg officials are sentenced to life imprisonment or higher prison terms. Death row prisoners are not separated from the others and are not treated any differently as well. 26 Report of the Mission of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons to Ethiopia 15 – 29 March 2004

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents