Human Rights watch
Juvenile delinquency on rise
Oli Md. Abdullah Chowdhury
MANY of the readers have noticed several reports on juvenile delinquency published in the newspapers. In the 1st day of April, the report published in The Daily Star on the rise in juvenile delinquency in the port city of Chittagong has made the parents, guardians and conscious people wary of getting their teenage children involved in crimes.
However, Chittagong is not an isolated place as there are reported involvements of 500 juveniles either directly with the crimes or have linkage with criminals' gangs in the capital of Dhaka. It was disclosed in a press briefing after the monthly crime conference of Dhaka Metropolitan Police held in the month of March as reported in The Daily Star on March 10. What would be the solution to halt this trend? What could be done to prevent children from coming in conflict with law?
Some might argue that prosecuting those involved with the crime would end the problem. If punitive measures are taken against accused, situation would improve. In that case, other juveniles would take lesson and remain aloof from criminal gangs. However, many of the guardians would disagree with such proposition. Particularly, human rights activists would seriously argue in favour of alternative measures other than imprisonment as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Bangladesh is not only one of the earliest signatories of CRC, also acted as the elected member of CRC committee. The concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child indicate concerns and issues which require specific follow-up actions by the State Parties. The Committee welcomes the submission of the combined third and fourth periodic report submitted by Bangladesh and made recommendations. There had been specific recommendation on the administration of juvenile justice also.
Notably, the Committee appreciated the efforts mad by the government of Bangladesh to address the previous concluding observations including removal of some children from adult jails, establishment of juvenile development centres and the increased training for judges, magistrates and law enforcement officers concerned with juvenile justice. It is true that the number of children in jail decreased though there is still a significant presence of children in district jails. Due to socio-economic condition, children still come in conflict with law in large number and the trend continues to sustain. The scope of alternative measure is still very limited.
However, the CRC committee recommended to adopt a global and national policy in prevention and promotion of alternative measures to detention such as diversion, probation, counselling, community service or suspended sentences, wherever possible. Although there are 3 correction institutes in the country, demand is getting higher with an increase in juvenile delinquency. In 2003, the government renamed the “Correctional Institute” as “Kishor/Kishori Unnayan Kendra” and the decision to change the name is hailed as a milestone for the children justice system of Bangladesh.
Age of criminal responsibility is very low in the country and the CRC committee has repeatedly expressed concern as the legal age of criminal responsibility has been raised to only 9 years. In the last observation also, the committee recommended to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 12 with a view to raising it further.
On the other hand, immediate attention needs to be paid in the development of children. The right to development is one of the four key principles of CRC. The CRC committee urged the government to adopt comprehensive, preventive measures when formulating public policies to guarantee the rights of all children, in order to reinforce their right to life, survival and development. Preventative measures are required to be taken by the state so that children do not come in conflict with law.
It is of paramount important that education of children shall be directed to the development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential. It has been stated in Article 29 of CRC, “States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin”.
To recapitulate, allocation of resources would speed up the process of realizing the rights of the child. The CRC committee recommended Bangladesh to use all available resources to set the appropriate conditions for the enjoyment of the rights of the child. In order to prevent children from coming in conflict with law, sufficient allocation of resource is urgently needed.
The writer is a human rights worker.
