No juvenile courts yet despite country’s new law
Rights activist urges government to ensure children are not tried in courts meant for adults
Aleading human rights activist has urged Pakistan’s new government to take steps to ensure a juvenile justice system is in place and working effectively.
The Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA) was formally enacted in May, 2018 with the signature of the president.
The new law has been hailed as different and far better than the previous JJSA 2000, with experts saying it met the international criteria set by the United Nations Convention on Rights of Children (UNCRC).
However, according to Franco-Pakistani campaigner for women and children’s rights activist, Valerie Khan, the mere passage of the law doesn’t guarantee children’s protection against abusers nor does it prevent their trial in the same criminal courts that are meant for grown up criminals.
Welcoming the passage of the act, Khan, who is also chairperson of Acid Rights Victims, said the government in consultation with the stakeholders needed to take three steps urgently: Develop model juvenile courts; identify challenges and involve the community.
Khan has been living and working in Islamabad for 22 years. Her work mainly focuses on rights and rehabilitation of socially, physically and criminally abused women and children.
Dismissing the impression that Pakistan is not a safe country for children she said child abuse existed everywhere in the world, and what was key was the knowhow to tackle it.
“The worst form of this abuse is, however, sexual and the threat mostly comes from family relatives, house workers and community living nearby,” she said.
Pakistan is the first Muslim country and fifth in the world to have ratified the United Nations Convention on Rights of Children yet the figures related to the cases of child sexual abuse are quite disturbing, she said.
Valerie Khan | Child rights activist
Zainab case
In 2017 alone, according to a report, 2,077 girls and 1,368 boys in the age bracket 9-11 were subjected to sexual abuse.
Seven to nine children are abused daily, data shows.
Khan said, after rape and murder of Zainab last January there was behavioural change and more awareness among the public and the general feeling was that such cases should be highlighted.
However, handling such cases is extremely sensitive business and there should be a procedure to prevent the media from exposing the identities of the victim and victim’s family so that their security is not compromised, Khan said.
All over the world, the activist added, there is a certain way to report such gender sensitive issues, and after the juvenile justice act her team’s focus would be to get some law passed or framework implemented with regard to secrecy and security of the victims and their families.
Unfortunately, she said, Pakistan’s laws dealing with such cases are not aligned with the internationally accepted framework of laws.
Khan has been closely following the Tayyaba torture case, involving a child maid subjected to torture by a serving judge’s wife in Islamabad.
Seeing the bruised Tayyaba standing in front of a magistrate didn’t go well with her. She terms it a horrifying experience as a little girl has to face the same procedure that an adult accused or victim has to undergo. Although the judge meant well and police were kind, the courtroom atmosphere was not child-friendly, she said, adding, “it further emphasises the need of juvenile courts in Pakistan, and the sooner, the better.” Former President Mamnoon Hussain in May, 2018 ratified Pakistan’s Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA 2018).
According to High Court advocate Wajahat Ali Malek, the law classifies criminal offences by juveniles into three different categories:
1) Minor: That means an offence for which maximum punishment under the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 is imprisonment for up to three years with or without fine. A juvenile is entitled to bail in minor offences, with or without surety bonds by Juvenile court.
2) Major: This means an offence for which punishment under the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 is imprisonment of more than three years and up to seven years with or without fine. Bail shall also be granted in major offences with or without surety bonds by juvenile court.
3) Heinous: It means an offence which is serious, brutal, or shocking to public morality and which is punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 with death or imprisonment for life or imprisonment for more than seven years with or without fine.