AG, stakeholders discuss Juvenile Justice Bill
The AG in discussion with stakeholders at his office
The AG in discussion with stakeholders at his office

Issues affecting children and their rights were addressed yesterday when Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG) Basil William met with stakeholders to discuss the Juvenile Justice Bill.The Juvenile Justice Bill is set to deal with issues of sentencing pertaining to youths.
Attending the meeting at the AG’s office were UNICEF Country Representative for Guyana and Suriname Marianne Flach, Learning and Developmental Officer Audrey Michele Rodrigues and Child Protection Officer Pat Gittens.
According to the UNICEF Country Representative, there is a draft of the bill which is being discussed with various ministries and stakeholders, and it is the hope that it will be introduced to Cabinet soon.
Adding that issues surrounding the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) were discussed, Flach said “the NOC in itself is a good institution and an open institution that provides for children in the manner of a correctional facility and not a prison”.
She continued: “We should not regard students there as prisoners. But, we are concerned that 75 per cent of the young people there are locked up for wandering for instance and we think that should not be the case and there should be other correctional type of facilities for that type of children and they should be much closer to the family.”
The UNICEF representative noted that there should be a solution within all the Administrative Regions to house youth offenders who commit minor offences closer to their relatives.
“We need to think of solutions in the regions which are much closer to the families. Then there would be a reduced number of children in the NOC then we can pay much better attention to their special needs and reintegration into society,” she said.
The Attorney General said other issues discussed pertained to private international law and family rights.
“As a cross-border country between, Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname, even countries farther afield like the U.S. and England where our citizens go and marry people and make children and return home with their children will bring issues of child abduction, custody, maintenance and those things which are situated in the Hague Conventions and the questions of their rights in that context.”

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.