rights activists voice concern over child justice bill 
06 February 2008

After five years in the doldrums, the urgently needed Child Justice Bill received bouquets and brickbats when it arrived in Parliament’s justice committee with its revival being both welcomed and some sections described as ridiculous. The original bill was tabled in Parliament in 2002 after consensus among civil society organisations active in the field of children’s rights. But after substantial changes in the justice committee in 2003, it was sent back to the department for redrafting. The legislation is needed for SA to comply with its adoption of both United Nations (UN) and African Union charters on children’s rights.

Central to the intention of the bill is the diversion of child offenders away from the criminal justice system detention and imprisonment. It provides a comprehensive system of how children accused of crimes of varying seriousness should be treated.  In the first public submission to the committee yesterday, Childline national co-ordinator Joan van Niekerk welcomed the “strong crime prevention” element of the bill and the focus on restorative justice for children by diverting them from the criminal justice system.

Van Niekerk, however, had serious concerns about the provision in the bill that the age of criminal capacity is 10 years of age, which she described as ridiculous. The presumption in the bill is that children of 10 years and younger do not have the knowledge to understand they have committed a crime. “Although it is recognised that children under the age of 12 years can commit serious crimes, Childline SA respectfully submits that the age (of criminal capacity) should be at least 12 years,” Van Niekerk said. She said this was in line with research conducted on the development of children and their ability to make appropriate choices about their behaviour.

She said the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child believed that an age of criminal capacity below the age of 12 was internationally unacceptable. The committee was told that in the Philippines the age of criminal capacity was 15, and across Latin America it was 18.  Van Niekerk also expressed concern about the clauses which guide the police in how they treat children in custody.

She suggested a clause should be included that compelled daily contact for children in detention with a probation officer or other suitably qualified people. Ann Skelton from Pretoria University’s centre for child law, who has been involved with the bill since 2000 , said that some of the changes in the bill took child justice backwards. She said the original was easy to read and the latest was not. The public hearings on the bill continue.

Wyndham Hartley, www.businessday.co.za