With Amos Yee’s sentencing due tomorrow, the Office of the United Nations HIgh Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a statement that sentencing Amos to reformative training is completely disproportionate for the offences for which he has been convicted. They urge the Government to review Amos’s conviction, which they state as being for uploading a video and images critical of Lee Kuan Yew, and for prosecutors to drop their demand for reformative training. The statement ends with the strong words:

“OHCHR calls for the immediate release of Amos in line with its commitment under the UN Convention on the Rights of Child. OHCHR also hopes that the judiciary will exercise its authority in the protection of human rights including the rights of the child”

Even if the PAP Government refuses to recognise Amos as a child, internationally he is seen as such and that he should not be in prison. I have been writing about this since Amos was first charged and have been particularly upset by the prospect that Amos was looking at potentially years of imprisonment. By prosecuting, convicting and imprisoning a child like Amos, potentially for years, merely for criticising our late dictator and the hagiography of Saint Harry, our Government has reduced Singapore’s standing in the eyes of the world. Our signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been revealed to be a hypocritical sham.

Today is Amos’s sentencing. I only hope that the prosecution will see sense and drop their demand that Amos be sentenced to reformative training or that the judge will change her mind and show the mercy that so far has eluded her.

Here is the text of the UNHCHR statement:

Published by kjeyaretnam

I'm a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That's why I've never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I'm quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don't work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I'm a liberal. I'm not sure what the middle think of me. I don't think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I'm a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I'm not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean. View all posts by kjeyaretnam