United Nations Radio

The UN Children's Fund-UNICEF-is concerned about the fate of Omar Khadr, who is in detention at the American military base at Guantanamo Bay.

He was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 for crimes he allegedly committed when he was 15 years old. Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Omar Khadr is considered to have been a child soldier and subject to special protection. His case is being reviewed by a military commission at Guantanamo. Geoffrey Keele, Child protection spokesman at UNICEF, insists that Omar Khadr should be treated as a victim of adults rather than as a criminal.

"He has been locked up with adults. He was never treated as the child he was. Our concern is that in front of a military court, which is not set up to provide the kind of hearing that a child soldier needs, that this can set a dangerous precedent for other children affected by conflict."