By Shauna Jemmott

HELP and Shelter Project Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Danuta Radzik is urging the Government to make adjustments to the laws governing juvenile justice in order to accommodate legal matters against minors at the Family Court.Radzik said she expected to see the possibility of a “Juvenile Court” for the airing of juvenile matters in a more private setting in the proposed Juvenile Justice Bill, which was published recently on the Ministry of Public Security’s Facebook page.

“I did not see in the new bill that is proposed the possibility of a juvenile court – a system in which juveniles would not just go to the ordinary magistrate’s court or to the High Court,” Radzik pointed out at a forum at Parliament Building. She added: “There is a need for specialised services for juveniles, and I saw that kind of left out of the new bill. I would like to recommend that the Juvenile Justice System should be part of the Family Court.”

Radzik also expressed concern over the slothful establishment of the official Family Court, which she said was first recommended more than a decade ago by former Chief Justice Desiree Bernard.

“Could we please fast-track this and have the court established, with counsel which we need and all the necessary things to ensure that it really can deliver justice, including services for children?” she pleaded.

IMPORTANT
Radzik said services for children at the court are important, since some people who attend the court seeking protection orders, for example, are parents with no access to care services at which they can leave their children, and are being told that children cannot accompany them in court.

President of the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers, Sadie Amin, said the Family Court, located in the High Court compound, employs two judges and has already started hearing matters.

She cited outdated rules as one drawback within the Family Court, and named Guyana as the only country in the Caribbean which still has old rules within its High Court.

The ‘Draft Juvenile Justice Bill’ published on the Ministry of Public Security’s Facebook page states that the ministry, “in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been engaged in extensive work on crafting a Juvenile Justice Bill in an effort to adequately provide justice for children”.

The final draft of the bill shared was part of the consultation process for concerned citizens to share their comments and suggestions by March 1, 2016.

AGE OF CONSENT
The ministry said it would be particularly grateful for views on the “age of culpability, whether it should be at fourteen (14), sixteen (16) or eighteen (18) years.”

The draft bill states that the minister shall appoint a nine-member Juvenile Justice Committee, consisting of a chairperson, a deputy chairperson and seven other persons.

“Members of the Juvenile Justice Committee shall include an attorney-at-law, a retired probation officer who served in a senior capacity, a retired head of a secondary school, a retired head of a vocational institution and other persons who possess skills, knowledge, experience and training in matters relating to juveniles, sociology, social work and psychology,” the draft bill states.

It also proposed that “The Juvenile Justice Committee shall make its own rules, and shall set out the manner in which the Committee shall perform its duties and exercise its powers conferred by this Act, and prescribe the remuneration of any person appointed to the Committee,” among other vital functions.