eng - World Organisation Against Torture

the reason for his arrest, and to advise himof his legal rights in a familiar language. Inpractice, this rarely happens. Almost all ofthe children interviewed reported a failure onthe part of the arresting officers to adequatelyinform them of their rights.RA No. 7438 also requires the arresting officerto reduce his custodial investigation reportto writing. Section 2(c) of the same Actdemands that the arresting officer mustensure that all accused persons have the contentsof the custodial investigation report explainedto them by an assisting counsel.Otherwise the custodial investigation reportis null and void.As none of the children interviewed had anylegal counsel present at this stage, any custodialinvestigation report, whether signed bythe minor or not, should be considered nulland void. Consequently, there is no writtenevidence that any minor interviewed wasever informed of his constitutional rights.It seems that the police largely ignores RANo. 7438. Despite the penalties set out,many breaches go unpunished.Right to Legal Counsel 39After arrest, it is usual for children in conflictwith the law to be brought to and questionedat the appropriate police station.According to the law, a child alleged to havecommitted any offence has a right to legalcounsel effective from the time of his arrest.In all of the cases of children interviewed,there was no legal counsel present during thepost-arrest interviews conducted by the police.Only rarely did the children have thebenefit of the presence of their parents orguardians or a social worker. Many of thechildren reported that they have signed variousunexplained documents under such circumstances.The law needs to clarify a child’s rights duringpost-arrest investigations, with questioningdisallowed in the absence of a socialworker or legal counsel. This would remove allconfusion if a child later asserts that his legalrights were not respected at the custodialinvestigation stage.39 - Several texts grant the right to legal counsel to persons inconflict with the law. Same of them especially apply to minors:Section 6 and 10 of the Implementing rules and section8 and 26 of the Supreme Court Rules on Juveniles inConflict with the Law 34