To All Living Things
Last Week's Column

Amnesty Action:
Torture and Ill-Treatment
by Kathy Gay

his week’s action from Amnesty International concerns the torture and ill-treatment of two boys, aged 15 and 16, who were beaten while being held in a juvenile detention center in Venezuela. Both suffered fractured ribs as a result of the beatings they received from police. 

Specific information about this action is included in the sample letter that follows. 

Background Information

Venezuela signed the United Nations (U.N.) Convention of Children’s Rights in 1990 and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment in 1991. In spite of this, when members of an Amnesty International delegation visited the Juvenile Division of the Technical Judicial Police in Coche, Venezuela in July 1996, they found dozens of children as young as twelve years old enduring cruel, inhuman, and degrading conditions of detention. They lacked water, sanitation and adequate food, and had no access to medical care and no recourse to legal defense. All the children were subjected to daily beatings by the wardens. "Many showed signs of recent torture such as bruises in several parts of the body and even fractured bones," said a forensic expert who participated in the delegation.

How you can help

This action expired on February 4, 1997 and its accompanying sample letter removed. Thanks to everyone who sent appeals on behalf these two Venezuelan boys.

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Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.