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Countries No Longer Imposing LWOP Sentences
South Africa, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Kenya once imposed them but now prohibit the practice. Tanzania says no youth under 18 gets LWOP sentences. A child welfare department and parole review board monitor children in custody, so when "satisfied that the child has been rehabilitated," they initiate a process for release.
South Africa also prohibits the practice, but its 1977 Criminal Procedure Act 51, pertaining to life sentences, mandated parole eligibility after a minimum of 25 years or age 65 was reached, provided 15 years were served. No parallel clause benefited juvenile offenders.
Burkina Faso and Kenya once allowed LWOP sentences, but now adhere to international law standards banning the practice. In Burkina Faso, however, youths after age 16 potentially may be tried as adults, but the government says it abides by Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provisions protecting them.
Kenya also complies, having passed a law banning LWOP sentences for youths under age 18.
Nine other countries have laws permitting juvenile life sentences, but it's not clear whether parole is allowed. Yet international law is clear and unequivocal prohibiting them for juveniles.
America's common law heritage provides for "a separate punishment structure on children," prohibiting LWOP sentences. In England, the Children Act of 1908 required they be treated differently from adults, including "leniency in view of the age of the offender at the time of the offense." Globally, imposing LWOP sentences evolved largely since the 1990s, only by a small minority of countries treating youths the same as adults.
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by all countries except America and Somalia) prohibits LWOP sentences. In 2007, its implementation authority, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, specifically stated:
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