At age fifteen, Russian teenager Arseny Turbin did not understand what he had done wrong. How could he? After all, he was not old enough to drive a car. He was not old enough to consume alcohol or purchase cigarettes. He was certainly not old enough to serve in the military.
Nevertheless, he was old enough to be sentenced to five years in a correctional colony.
Arseny, who was convicted in retribution for speaking out against Vladimir Putin, is among countless child and adolescent political prisoners around the world. In deeply repressive countries, child political prisoners are acutely at risk of marginalization, abuse, and denial of due process. Until the international community stands up for the rights and safety of child political prisoners, this trend will continue unabated.
Prisoners of conscience, regardless of age, undergo immense physical and psychological trauma. Yet, for underage detainees, the impact of such trauma is amplified. As their cognitive development is still ongoing, young detainees are often unable to fully understand the consequences of their actions and can experience profound psychological damage within the criminal justice system.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner outlines stringent rules and recommendations regarding juvenile criminal proceedings: a minimum age of criminal responsibility, separate juvenile justice systems, and an absolute prohibition on any forms of torture. Yet, autocrats regularly detain, convict, and torture children for politically-motivated purposes, facing minimal consequences for this brazen violation of human rights.
In Venezuela, authorities have detained hundreds of children for politically-motivated reasons. In 2024, the number of juvenile political prisoners reached unprecedented levels amid mass crackdowns on protesters. Amnesty International documented 198 child detentions, the youngest of whom were just thirteen years old. Some of the detainees had never taken part in the protests, such as one seventeen-year-old boy who was arrested while running an errand, detained for five months, and charged with terrorism. While on trial for terrorism, many children were required to use state-backed public defenders instead of private lawyers, never granted access to evidence against them, and tried in adult courts.
Similarly, the number of child political prisoners in Russia has increased since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. From 2022 to 2024, 544 children were detained and at least twenty were sentenced for allegedly supporting the antiwar movement. At age seventeen, Kevin Lick became the youngest person in modern Russian history to be convicted of state treason. In fact, child detentions are so frequent that Russia has designated juvenile correctional colonies to hold the alleged offenders.
Juvenile political prisoners often face brutal conditions while in detention. In Hong Kong, prison guards and other inmates reportedly physically and sexually abused young democracy activists. Terrified to report these crimes, children have resorted to desperate measures, such as one boy who attempted suicide after a severe beating. Similarly, child detainees in Venezuela have been tortured and sexually assaulted, at times with the intention of extracting illegitimate confessions.
Additionally, authoritarian actors detain or abuse the children of regime opponents to further traumatize or control their parents. In Myanmar, authorities arrested the wife and two daughters of democracy leader Soe Htay. His youngest daughter spent her fifth birthday behind bars, during which time authorities forced her to stand in stress positions. Although the little girl was released after eighteen days, her teenage sister and mother remained in prison. In Iran, the children of political prisoners are similarly perceived as enemies of the regime. Juveniles have faced retribution for their parents’ actions, including but not limited to beatings, harassment, and exit bans.
Autocrats similarly crack down on parents as punishment for their children’s actions. Alexei Moskalyov spent one-and-a-half years in a Russian penal colony after his daughter, age twelve, drew a picture condemning the invasion of Ukraine. Raised by a single father, she was sent to an orphanage until her estranged mother agreed to take care of her.
Authorities also detain juveniles as part of wider geopolitical disputes. In 1995, Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared six-year-old Gendun Choki Nyima and his parents, after the Dalai Lama had declared him to be the next reincarnation of the Panchen Lama (a key spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists). He has not been seen for thirty years. More recently, the Kremlin has illegally deported at least 19,546 Ukrainian children to Russia, Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, and Belarus. The children are often indoctrinated against Ukraine, placed for adoption, and even trained for the Russian military. The McCain Institute, in coordination with four other NGOS, recently submitted this case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention so that these children can be legally designated as arbitrary detainees.
No child should spend a single day behind bars for their political opinions, that of their parents, or as collateral damage in wider conflicts. Democracy defenders must center these young victims at the heart of advocacy for prisoners of conscience and wrongful detainees. Their names and their stories must not be forgotten. It is time to bring these children home.