Juvenile Justice Bill will abolish wandering, truancy – Ramjattan

… slated for Parliament by month-end

The Juvenile Justice Bill, slated for Parliament by July month-end, would see the abolishment of truancy and wandering as crimes, according to Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan. He added that the Bill would also pave the way for more ‘stringent’ methods when dealing with juvenile matters.
“The Bill would be taken to Parliament by the end of July and then debated in October. Truancy, wandering, all those economic crimes are going to be abolished and they are not going to be made crimes anymore because the days for those are long gone,” Ramjattan told stakeholders at the University of Guyana Turkeyen-Tain Talks on Wednesday at the Pegasus Hotel.
“Also the policing authorities will have far more stringent methods before they can put a juvenile into the lock-ups with big people. But, we must have in the Police Station a room that will take care of those persons,” he added.
The rehabilitation process for the juvenile justice rooms is already ongoing, according to the Minister. He further stated that the Bill was expected to be taken to Cabinet very soon, but before he took it, he would like to ensure he had the ‘costing’. He revealed that UNICEF was assisting with the process, which was expected to be completed very shortly.
“Every new bill there is a cost attached to it. This new Juvenile Justice Bill when it is passed in Parliament would mean that we would have to have training for Magistrates – probably a Magistrates’ Court for only juvenile justice matters; we have to have halfway houses and a number of infrastructure to take care of juveniles. That costs a lot of money. Then, social workers will have to be employed in these institutions, that cost and the electricity bill and everything else and each would have to be done in a line item,” Ramjattan stressed.
During the consultative period, Ramjattan expressed his support for the exclusion of status offences such as truancy, wandering, running away and vagrancy, noting that laws were discriminatory since the same acts perpetrated by adults were not considered illegal. “These are acts which are often the result of psychological or socio-economic problems,” he was quoted as saying.
The Bill is also expected to address the age of criminal responsibility. Overall, the Bill aims to “have a more modern system of dealing with juvenile justice”, to stand in conformity with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Guyana is a signatory state.
Article 37 (Detention and Punishment) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that no one is allowed to punish children in a cruel or harmful way. Children who break the law should not be treated cruelly. They should not be put in prison with adults, should be able to keep in contact with their families and should not be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
Article 40 (Juvenile Justice) says that children who are accused of breaking the law have the right to legal help and fair treatment in a justice system that respects their rights. Governments are required to set a minimum age below which children cannot be held criminally responsible and to provide minimum guarantees for the fairness and quick resolution of judicial or alternative proceedings.
The draft Bill was conceived in 2004 under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration with the support and input from UNICEF. The first draft was produced in 2007 after a series of consultations and submissions by stakeholders, inclusive of the Rights of the Child Commission; however, progress was delayed and efforts to revive the process began in 2014. The 11-part Bill makes provisions for the establishment of facilities to enable the rehabilitation and education of juvenile offenders. (Lakhram Bhagirat)