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Zvamaida Murwira-Senior Reporter
Parents and guardians will now become liable for offences committed by their children and can be charged for failing to rein in their children as the Government takes major steps towards enhancing child protection in the country by ensuring children are not neglected or abused.
Under the Children’s Amendment Act signed into law by President Mnangagwa, parents or a guardian can be charged and convicted of an offence that a child commits, if it is proven that they did not take reasonable steps to stop the child from committing the offence.
A major change is to define a child as anyone under the age of 18. Before, there was a distinction between children and young persons.
That has now fallen away, so protection for a one-year old is now carried forward until the child turns 18 and becomes an adult.
The Act was passed by Parliament last month.
Under clause 12, anyone, including a parent or guardian, can be liable to the penalties of the crime the child committed if they: encouraged the child to commit an offence; or trained a child in the commission of an offence; or knowingly provided a child with facilities to commit an offence; or being a parent or guardian of a child who failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the child did not commit an offence where the parent or guardian could have done so.
The court can then make that convicted parent or guardian pay the damages arising from the child’s crime.
The Act will also establish a Child Welfare Council whose function is to receive representations from civil society organisations helping or representing children for the purpose of devising child protection measures and for the promotion of children’s rights.
Other functions will be to develop and monitor not later than every five years, one or more national action plans for adoption by the Social Services Minister and implementation by that Ministry together with other Ministries and donor agencies dealing with the protection of orphans and vulnerable children or the rights of children.
But the council must seek the views of children and that children participate fully through already existing child participation structures or other appropriate methods.
Anyone allowing a child to reside in or to frequent a brothel or causes the seduction, abduction or commercial sexual exploitation or other immoral acts to a child will be guilty of an offence.
Children are anyone who is still under 18, so this would also impact on those plotting child marriages.
“Any parent or guardian who, without reasonable cause, denies medical treatment or access to medical treatment to a child in their care can be fined up to level 5 or jailed for a year,” reads the new law.
Zimbabwe has been committed to creating safe environments for children, and the country has made a formal, public commitment to work towards ending all forms of violence against children.
The Act lays out requirements for all institutions housing children to better protect them.
This includes incorporating early intervention and family preservation programmes, or programmes that aim to promote parenting skills, positive and non-violent forms of discipline, provide psychological, rehabilitation and therapeutic programmes for children and prevent the neglect, exploitation, abuse or inadequate supervision of children in the family environment.
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