The CRC in Jamaican Law

1
The CRC in Jamaican Law

• Prepared by Tania Chambers

2
The CRC in Jamaican Law

• 1. The Child Care and Protection Act
• Overview
• Best Interests Principle
• Provision Rights
• Participation Rights
• Key Institutions
• 2. Child Rights in Other Laws and Policies
• Provision Rights (Maintenance, Education)
• Protection Rights (Sexual Offences)
• Participation Rights (Divorce Proceedings)

3
The CRC in Jamaican Law

• 3. The Child in Conflict with the Law
• Overview
• NPA on Child Justice and Restorative Justice
  Policy
• 4. Gaps in Laws and Policies
• Child Rights Perspective
• Social Investment Perspective
• Child Inclusion Perspective

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 1. Overview
• Introduces the best interests principle
• Emphasizes the primacy of the family
• Creates new mandatory roles for
• parents
• duty-bearers
• Creates a new care and protection regime for
  children

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 1. Overview contd
• Introduces mandatory reporting
• Introduces new offences against the child
• Introduces new institutions within the child
  justice system
• Creates a new licencing regime for Childrens
  Homes
• Creates a new framework for dealing with children
  in conflict with the law

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 2. Best Interests Principle
• Focal point of decision-making
• Creates a new freedom of expression in court
  proceedings
• Linked to primacy of the family and other close
  relationships
• Linked to child participation and evolving
  capacities

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Exercise 1
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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 3. Provision Rights
• Centres around parental NOT state
  responsibilities
• Broadens definition of parent
• Gender neutral
• Moves from a maintenance-centred approach to
  acknowledging different rights involved in
  providing care (s.27)
• Specifies school attendance within the 4-16 age
  bracket (s.28)
• Creates linkage between child delinquency and
  parental responsibility (s.69)

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 4. Protection Rights
• Mandatory reporting the main avenue through which
  protection services reach children
• Gives wide definition of a child in need of care
  and protection
• Creates a zero tolerance approach to
  destitution
• Child on the streets
• Protects both victims of abuse/offences as well
  as those exposed to abuse/offences
• Introduces punitive measures for acts of neglect

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 4. Protection Rights
• Protects children from exploitation through
• Child labour
• Trafficking
• Exposure to liquor, tobacco, drugs
• Being in a night club
• Begging

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 4. Protection Rights
• Protects children from exploitation through
• Child labour
• Trafficking
• Exposure to liquor, tobacco, drugs
• Being in a night club
• Begging

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 4. Protection Rights
• Basic premise around which childrens home
  licensing regime is designed

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 4. Participation Rights
• Interwoven into best interests principle
• Representation before the courts provided by
• Emphasized for children in residential
  care/children deprived of their liberty. Linked
  with
• Privacy rights
• Right to information
• Gap Evidence of child of tender years (s. 20)

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Child Rights in the CCPA

• 5. Key Institutions
• See handout

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Child Rights in Other Laws and Policies

• Provision Rights
• Maintenance Act
• Widens net of responsibility for children
• Education Policy
• Education for All
• Pregnant teen mothers
• Delinquency and expulsion
• Health, registration and user fees

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Child Rights in Other Laws and Policies

• Protection Rights
• Exercise 2
• Offences Against the Persons Act
• Sexual Offences Bill
• Participation Rights
• Matrimonial Causes Act

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Child in Conflict with the Law

• Main international child rights standards
• Best Interests principle
• Participation Rights
• Right to life, survival and development
• Procedural rights for children in conflict with
  the law
• Rights of children deprived of their liberty

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Child in Conflict with the Law

• CCPA Provisions
• Age of criminal responsibility 12 (s.63)
• Separation from adults
• Rights of child offenders preserved
• Childrens Courts established
• Proceedings held in camera
• Restrictions on news reporting
• Restrictions on punishment

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Child in Conflict with the Law

• Range of approaches open to Courts in dealing
  with child offenders (CCPA s.76)
• Dismissal
• Probation Order (see s. 80)
• Supervision Order
• Correctional Order
• Order Requiring Parents to Pay Fine/Damages/Costs
• Recognizance
• Fit Person Order
• Curfew Order
• Mediation Order
• Community Service Order

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• GAPS IN THE LAW

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Gaps Survival and Development

• Legal obligation (e.g. fulfilling the right to
  health or education) lies with parents/family,
  not the state!
• CCPA ss27 28
• Education Act
• No specific legal protection in place for
  children with special needs
• Children with disabilities

22
Gaps Protection

• Gender specificity of sexual offences
• Boys have no age of consent
• Boys cannot be raped
• Women cannot be perpetrators of sexual abuse or
  incest
• No distinction between adult-child exploitation
  and child-child experimentation
• Teen boyfriends being charged with carnal abuse
• Blurs the line between girls who are
  experimenting sexually and those who are true
  victims of abuse or molestation

23
Gaps Protection

• Grey area of parental consent and parental duty
  in sexual and reproductive health issues
• Should parents be consulted prior to distributing
  contraceptives, performing abortions, treating
  pregnant teens, testing teens for STDs etc.?
• Do parents have a duty to keep under-aged
  children abstinent?
• Who carries the brunt of the responsibility
  (healthcare, education, protection etc.) for
  teens and their off-spring?

24
Gaps Protection

• Legal net strong but infrastructure is weak
• Children who have exhibited violent or
  anti-social behaviour
• Children in adult prisons
• Children living on the street
• Children in need of advocacy or intervention
• Non-separation of children in need of protection
  from children in conflict with the law
• Exposure and access to alcohol and cigarettes

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Gaps Participation

• Legal net strong but infrastructure is weak
• Experiences of children in the courts
• Resourcing of child advocacy system
• Cultural views on child participation in schools,
  communities, families etc.
• No entrenched role for children in monitoring of
  childrens homes and other child care facilities

26
Gaps Participation

• Special considerations and resources needed for
  children usually deprived of a voice
• Children with disabilities
• Children outside of the formal system (on the
  streets)
• Very young children

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• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
• CHILD CARE INSTITUTIONS

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FAQS on Child Care Institutions

• What is the difference between the role of the
  CDA, the OCA and the Registry?

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FAQS on Child Care Institutions

• When reporting an issue having to do with
  children, who do you call?

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FAQS on Child Care Institutions

• What happens if you refer a case to the CDA and
  do not get a response?

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FAQS on Child Care Institutions

• Why should we remove children from abusive
  families when childrens homes can be just as
  bad?

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FAQS on Child Care Institutions