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Wandering charge is obnoxious – RCC CEO
– should be repealed forthwith
The Rights of the Child Commission [RCC] is continuing its call for the charge of wandering to be abolished. Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of the Commission, Amarnauth Panday, said of the wandering charge, “It is an obnoxious charge and it should be abolished forthwith.”
“We have made this position known for many years and we know that the Draft Juvenile Justice Bill, which will be tabled in Parliament, imminently will abolish the charge of wandering.”
According to Panday, the wandering charge is essentially one that stems from a child being the victim of an abusive and neglectful environment.
“This is what this charge usually is and [children] are criminalised and incarcerated coming from such a situation,” said Panday.
But the RCC has not been alone in this call to swiftly abolish the wandering charge. It was just last year that the Women and Gender Equality Commission amplified its concerns on this matter.
Statistics have shown that the majority of children who are housed at the New Opportunity Corps [NOC] in Region Two are there for wandering.
According to Women and Gender Equality Commissioner, Ms. Nicole Cole, a survey that was conducted found that about 70 per cent of the residents of NOC are there for wandering.
NOC is said to be a juvenile facility that offers psycho-social support to youths in order to help them improve their self-esteem and self-worth in preparation for their return to society.
Rights of the Child CEO, Mr. Amarnauth Panday
Cole pointed out that the Juvenile Justice Bill which is slated to be tabled in the National Assembly is supposed to have a provision to ensure that juveniles should no longer be charged with wandering.
According to Cole, who doubles as a Commissioner on the Rights of the Child Commission, a research conducted by the latter Commission into NOC found that many girls who are charged with wandering are sent there.
“Children are actually picked up while wandering and are not afforded an opportunity to have legal counsel,” said Cole as she emphasised that “this is also a contentious issue to which the Rights of the Child Commission has been providing tremendous support via collaboration with the Guyana Legal Aid service.”
Wandering as a charge, Cole emphasised, has done much damage to those who are deemed “children in difficult circumstances.” But according to Cole, “children in difficult circumstances” require a wide range of support including psychosocial, economic and social services. These children, she firmly ascertained, do not deserve to be charged and punished.
The Juvenile Justice Bill, according to Cole, contains a crucial provision which mandates that “any child that will be institutionalised should have a psychological evaluation.” That is not being done currently, Cole said.
Sandra Hooper, who also holds a place on the Women and Gender Equality Commission and the Rights of the Child Commission, has also publicly spoken of plans by the two Commissions to write to the office of the Director of Prosecution [DPP] requesting that the charge of wandering be taken off of the statutes so as to ensure that children are never sent to the NOC for such an offence.
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