Juvenile court to be established soon

May 06, 2018 News

Days after Ian Henry was released from the State Detention, the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) and Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) announced that they will be working together to ensure the establishment of the Youth Court in Guyana.

Sylvie Fouet, Ian Henry and others at the Press Conference held at the RCC on Friday.

Addressing a Press Conference, on Friday in Queenstown, UNICEF Representative, Sylvie Fouet, said that the establishment of the Youth Court in Guyana will address issues plaguing youth that would have committed criminal offences.
Fouet said that the Youth Court would assist in fast tracking cases. It will also have “dedicated personnel to make the judgments.”
She said that the importance of having dedicated and trained persons to deal with child-related cases cannot be overstated.
“We need the Bill, and more importantly, we need the people to make it happen,” Fouet said.
Speaking on the recently passed Juvenile Justice Bill, the CEO of RCC, Andre Gonsalves, said that he is satisfied with the way in which it was constructed.
“We don’t think it is a perfect Bill but it will address many of the glaring inequities we have right now, and we think it is a good starting point…”
Also speaking of the Bill, was Fouet who said that its operationalisation is important. She said that the intent of the Bill has all the elements that were important to have.
“It has the criminal aging; you have the detention as the last resort. Then you have the use of corporal punishment, and the use of alternative sentencing,” Fouet said.
She said that UNICEF is currently finalizing the costing of the Bill and consultations will be done in the coming weeks.
She further stated that the assumption that institutionalisation of children regardless of if it’s a detention centre or alternative centre is not a solution.

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