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LRF Calls For Amendment Of Juvenile's Act
By Monica Kunda Tembo
CHILDREN are a gift from God and should be taken care of. They are human
beings like any other person who are prone to falter once in a while and end
up committing offenses.
And when the children, who are juveniles in legal terms, commit offences,
how should society treat them?
According to the Juvenile Act Cap 53 of the laws of Zambia part one, section
two, a juvenile is a person who has not attained 19 years; and includes a
child and a young person.
In many cases juveniles have been found to commit offences which are against
society.
Being aware of such cases, the government has put in place measures to
ensure that juvenile offenders are responsible for their actions and to
protect juveniles from injustices and unfair treatment.
Many juveniles have been arrested and made to answer for there offenses.
When they are arrested they are detained in police cells, taken to court and
later detained in prisons - a process which is a legal way of making sure
that justice prevails.
The difference between a juvenile offender and an adult offender need not to
be overlooked when talking about offences and punishment given to the two.
One of the differences is that juveniles are not detained in a prison while
adults are. The other one is that juveniles are represented by a legal
guardian called next of kin while adults represents themselves.
The Act states that when a person under the age of 19 has been arrested and
appears before a court of law, he is supposed to be represented by a legal
guardian.
It further stetes that a court on committing a juvenile for trial who is not
released on bail shall instead of committing him to a prison, commit him to
custody in a remand prison or place of safety named in the commitment, to be
detained there for the period for which he was remanded or until he is
thence delivered in due course of law.
However, some juveniles that were visited at Kamwala Remand Prison by the
LRF staff on the Prison Desk complained that when they were arrested the
police officers that arrested them never informed their parents that their
children are in police cells.
Some juveniles said they had been neglected by their parents and relatives
since they were arrested.
They complained that the only period that their relatives visited them was
when they were in the police cells.
Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) Lawyer Sandra Wamulime said the Foundation
is in the process of filing the petition to amend some provisions of the
Juveniles Act. One of the provisions is section 60 of the Act.
The petition states that government be ordered to provide a separate
detention centre for juvenile offenders who are deemed not fit for detention
in a place of safety as per section 60 (a) to (c) of the juvenile Act.
It also states that section 73 (I) of the juveniles Act be declared null and
void as it allows for imprisonment of juveniles for unlimited period of
time.
Wamulume said the foundation felt that separate detention centres of
juvenile offenders will help address the repeated violation of section 58 of
the juvenile's Act which prohibits the juvenile from associating with
adults.
She said they have also asked for a speedy way of dealing with juvenile
offenders so that they do not have always to enter into criminal justice
system.
"We believe that as long as we have the same prison, the problem will
not end," Wamulume said.
She commended the efforts made by the Child Justice Forum who have
introduced the arrest reception and referral services for the arrest the
children (ARRS).
She said the ARRS centres such as Matero and Simon Kapwepwe police stations
which has police officers who are trained to handle juvenile cases are there
to ensure that all juveniles who are arrested are taken to court within a
short period of time and that the social welfare or their relatives are
informed in time.
Wamulume said she has an experience where some juveniles were very fragile
because they did not know the offenses they were charged with and did not
understand the criminal process.
And child justice administration project, project Coordinator Ngosa Kaloto
Lesa said the purpose of the project is to ensure that children's rights are
protected at all levels. She said the child justice project has identified
three police stations in Lusaka where children are supposed to be detained
when they are arrested.
She said Simon Kapwepwe, Matero police and stations have been turned into
the arrest reception and referral services for the arrest the children (ARRS)
and have separate facilities for children.
She further said that the other reason for establishing these centres is for
easy collection of data of children that have been arrested, taken to court
and convicted.
She said these police stations do not have trained police officers because
most police officers that were trained in juvenile offenders matters have
been transferred to other police stations.
She said it is important to have these centres because the detention of
juvenile offenders at specific police station would make transportation of
juveniles to court easy.
She added that the project's aim is to ensure that children's rights are
protected at all levels starting at police level..
"When a child is arrested, the police officer should ensure that the
child is separated from adults, and when being taken to court they have to
be taken in different vehicles to that of adults," she said.
She continued that the juveniles have to appear separately at courts in the
child friendly court in chambers.
She stated that at the courts the juveniles are to be detained in separate
cells and later put in safe places while they are awaiting trial or to be
taken back to court.
She said the forum consist of government ministries that deals with children
like the ministry of community development and social services which is
charged with the responsibility of establishing places of safety for
juvenile offender while waiting trial and other ministries.
She said other members of the forum are the civil society like Legal
Resources Foundation (LRF) young women Christian association (YWCA) and many
more.
She said the other issue that is the issue of the police notifying the
relatives or social welfare officers when the children are arrested.
She said when the child is arrested the police officer should contact the
parents or social welfare officers over the arrest of the child.
She condemned the behaviour of some parents who blame their children when
they are arrested and refuse to visit them.
She said in some cases parents contribute to the behaviour of their children
and if the parents are found to have contributed to the child committing a
crime, she can be charged with negligence.
She said Child justice forum is there to help children to grow up into
reproductive adults.
NGO Embarks On Widows and Widowers' Charter
Campaign
By Perpetual Sichikwenkwe
Every married person, husband or wife is a potential widow/widower who one
day may loose a spouse in one way or another and may be vulnerable to many
vices that discriminate and exploit a widowed spouse.
TO protect widows and widowers, states and civil society through out the
world have been pushing for rights of widowed spouses to be recognised and
respected.
Widows suffer many abuses such as sexual, denial to right to employment,
education and are subjected to unfriendly tradition and custom norms when a
spouse dies. Their right to own land is also denied. Usually, the
relationship between a widow and relatives of her late husband and sometimes
even her own relatives determines which rights she enjoys after the death of
her husband. There is an increase in the number of young widows who usually
remain with the burden of bringing up children as they lose their husbands,
especially to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This among other reasons is caused by
early marriages that young women are forced into especially, in Africa. This
exposes widows to denial of their rights and plunges them into extreme
poverty.
Although Zambia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1980 and has other pieces of law
that seeks to protect widows and women in general, the current constitution
gives dominance to customary law in matters of inheritance and sexual
cleansing which has been the major cause of widows' problems. Even in
situations where strong laws exist to prevent these abuses, ignorance of the
law or cultural habits have continued to hold back on widows' rights.
Although widows are seeing light at the end of the tunnel in having their
rights recognised through many organisations advocating for their rights,
their rights to be forcibly married to the dead husband's kin, right to keep
their home and property, right to inheritance and land ownership and
possession, right to keep their children and right to work outside the home
are largely still being denied.
To help solve such problems, a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Justice
for Widows and Vulnerable Children Project (JWOP) has been working to
promote the recognition and respect of widows 'rights in Zambia. Currently,
JWOP has embarked on a new programme to sensitize masses on the rights of
widows that it feels are still violated. The programme is aimed at
campaigning for the recognition and implementation of the Widows Charter to
combat the negative social attitudes which leads to the exploitation and
discrimination of widows in Zambia and beyond.
JWOP Communications Officer Felix Kunda said in an interview with The LRF
News that his organisation had embarked on a sensitisation programme to
educate members of the public on the Widows' Charter that protects and
promotes the rights of widows so that they know how to protect and claim
their rights.
The internationally recognised Charter has been in place for some years now
but its campaign was officially launched in Zambia by JWOP on February 5,
2007.
Kunda said JWOP has realised that many Zambians are not aware of the Charter
hence the need to embark on a country-wide campaign to educate them.
He explained that the current Interstate Succession Act does not cater for
certain rights of widows that are found in the Charter adding that they is
need to push forward the campaign so that certain rights that a widow enjoys
in the Charter can be incorporated in the Interstate Succession Act that is
currently being reviewed by the Zambia Law Commission Development (ZLCD.
The Charter for Widows 'Rights demands the elimination of all discrimination
against widows both within the family and in community and public life. Some
of the rights that the Charter spells out are; equality with all women and
men, irrespective of their age or marital status. Any treatment of a widow
which differs from the treatment, legally, socially, economically, of a
widower shall be deemed to be discriminatory and therefore illegal. Widows
shall not be discriminated against, in word or deed, either in family and
private life, or in community and public life. The Charter further states
that the State is guilty, by omission, of breach of the law, if it
implicitly condones discrimination and abuse of the widow by non-state
actors, such as family members. It gives widows the right to inherit from
their husband's estate, whether or not the deceased spouse left a will.
Widows may not be "inherited" as wives or concubines to their
husband's brother, nor forcibly placed in a "levirate"
relationship, nor forcibly made pregnant by a relative in order to continue
producing children in her dead husband's name.
In addition, the Charter says anyone who has sexual relations with a widow
in the context of funeral and burial rites shall be guilt of rape, and
subject to the maximum penalty.
Anyone who forcibly deprives the widow of custody of her children shall be
guilty of a serious offence.
Any restrictions on a widow's mobility, even where based on 'custom', which
continues after the 14th day after the death of the spouse are unlawful and
anyone responsible for restraining the widow is guilty of a criminal
offence: It is an offence under the Employment Acts for anyone to dismiss a
woman from her employment because she has become a widow and must take some
reasonable time off work for the funeral rites is guilty of an offence.
It is an offence to refuse to employ a widow who opts to dress in a certain
way (usually black outfits) to signify that she was still mourning her
husband and that no widow-abuse may be justified by citing custom, tradition
or religion.
Kunda said the current Intestate Succession Act has gaps that do not protect
widows especially when it comes to inheritance citing the case of Theresa
Chilala, a 79-year-old Monze widow in southern province of Zambia whose
relatives of her late husband grabbed land from her and property which they
turned into a graveyard after she refused to be inherited by her brother in
law.
He said the Intestate Succession Act could not protect Chilala's interest
because the matter was considered customary when it was tabled before the
local court in the area as well as the Lands Tribunal.
Kunda said if some of the rights that are in the Charter were incorporated
in the Interstate Succession Act, Chilala would have been protected from
such tormenting traditional and customs norms.
He said they is need for the Zambia Law Development Commission to
incorporate some of the pieces of law found in the Charter into the
Intestate Succession Act as they are reviewing it to fill in the gaps and
protect widows.
Kunda further said that the Charter is comprehensive because if many
Zambians are educated about it, by using it, they will protect lives of many
widows and vulnerable children. He said they is need for massive
sensitization of members of the public on the Charter because some people
abuse widows out of ignorance adding that ignorance of the law was no
defense.
"What we have come to learn as we fight for the rights of widows is
that people sometimes abuse widows because they are ignorant of the law
while others know the law but they can not protect widows because it does
not concern them at that particular moment" adding, "In this
campaign, we are targeting all members of the public because most of them
are potential widows and widowers. It is better they are aware of these
rights a forehand and not when they lose a spouse" Kunda said.
Kunda urged members of the public to get access to the Charter and submit
their recommendations to the Zambia Law Development Commission to be
incorporated in the reviewed Intestate Succession Act.
Advocating and campaigning for rights of widows by JWOP and other
stakeholders is a good gesture that should be embraced by many Zambians to
help fight the bad vices that impedes on the rights of widows. However, even
if governments ratify such international laws that seek to protect widows,
domesticating them to make them justiceable
is the question at hand.
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