Why is Omar's age relevant?

Omar's young age matters for several reasons. Children and youth are treated differently from adults in every modern justice system. Children are more impressionable and are less likely to understand the significance and consequences of their actions. Because children are still developing, their treatment focuses on rehabilitation. Where a youth is held responsible for an action, they must receive different treatment from adults. Basic principles include: pre-trial detention should be as short as possible, young people must be housed separate from adults, they must receive education, and they must be protected from mistreatment.

These rights and others are recognized and protected in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the Canadian legal system. Canada has been a global leader in creating special international laws for child soldiers.

Even if Omar Khadr committed the offences alleged, we should be deeply troubled by his imprisonment in Guantanamo. Omar was captured when he was 15. He is now 22. He has been imprisoned with adults, he has not received an education, and he has been seriously mistreated. Finally, Omar has been held in pre-trial detention for six years, a term that far exceeds any post-trial sentence a minor would get in Canada, even for the worst crimes.

►This 3-page factsheet shows how Omar's rights as a child and child soldier have been violated.

►Read the Human Rights Watch report on Omar, A teenager imprisoned at Guantanmo

►Read the summary of Amnesty International's report on Omar's rights as a child, In whose best interests?

►The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's former chairperson wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, asking for Omar's repatriation and detailing breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child