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Select committees begin meeting on Children Bills
The Special Select Committee has commenced meeting in a bid to gain consensus on several Children Bills that were tabled in the National Assembly recently by Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand.
In an invited comment, Manickchand told this newspaper that she was pleased that the committee has begun meeting and will utilize every opportunity available to ensure that its business is completed in a timely manner so that they could be passed in the National Assembly.
One such proposed legislation that will be dealt with is the Protection of Children Bill.
Under this legislation a person, who, by commission or omission, willfully contributes to a child being in need of protective intervention, commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $200,000 or imprisonment for a term of six months.
Also under the proposed legislation, a person could now be found guilty of selling, giving, or causing narcotics to come into the possession of a child.
It will also now be an offence to expose a child to an obscene book or other printed material, copies of written obscene matter, an obscene picture, photograph, or pornographic material or model available through electronic means.
As in the case of several developed countries, causing a child to be in the possession of intoxicating liquor or tobacco products will (if the legislation is approved) be outlawed, and will cause the culpable persons to be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $200,000 or to imprisonment for a term of six months.
The proposed legislation also targets persons licensed to sell alcohol, in that a person who is a holder of a licence, and who employs a child on a licensed premises that sells intoxicating liquor under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Act will be liable on summary conviction to a fine of $200,000 or to a term of imprisonment of six months.
Causing a child to become a prostitute in the establishment in which that child is employed will cause the owner thereof to be guilty of an offence under the proposed legislation.
Another such Bill tabled was the Adoption of Children Bill.
Minister Manickchand, in a recent invited comment, had told this newspaper that the bills have been in preparation for several years now and have gone through a number of consultations hosted by the GAWL (Guyana Association of Women Lawyers), UNICEF and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
The drafting of the children’s bills, she said, started under the stewardship of then Minister in the Ministry of Human Services, Indra Chandarpal, and continued under the guidance of Minister Bibi Shadick.
“This is the end product of the very many consultations and meetings held on this piece of legislation.”
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