Child Justice Bill draft in progress

Wimbainashe Zhakata Manicaland Correspondent
THE Ministry of Justice and Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is working the Child Justice Bill in a bid to come up with sustainable ways of dealing with children caught on the wrong side of the law.

This was revealed during a meeting on the alignment of the Child Justice Bill to the Constitution in Mutare last week.

In an interview, Director of Legislative Drafting in the Office of the Attorney-General, Mr Jameson Mukaratirwa said the Bill was now at an advanced stage.

He said it will be gazetted soon.

“We are now at an advanced stage after the various consultations had been done and inputs obtained from various stakeholders,” said Mr Mukaratirwa.

“We are now seeking to finalise the draft that we will send to Cabinet for consideration before it goes to Parliament.”

Mr Mukaratirwa said the basic principles of the Bill were designed to protect the interests of juvenile delinquents.

“This means that when a child has been in conflict with the law, the idea is to divert that child from the normal or conventional criminal procedure because it is noted that most children are in conflict with the law not of their volition, but because of the environment that surrounds them,” he said.

Mr Mukaratirwa said the Bill sought to establish a distinct criminal justice system for children who were in conflict with the law, so that due protections accorded to children by the Constitution were observed.

While addressing the stakeholders, Deputy Director, Strategic Policy Planning and Legal Research Mrs Tapiwa Chiwenga said the Children’s Act focused more on the well-being of the child, while the Child Justice Act would focus on children who were in conflict with the law.

“The Children’s Act addresses issues of care, while the Child Justice Act addresses the acts and omissions of children with the criminal, to a lesser extent the civil justice system,” she said.