22 Jun 2020

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr Eric Molale says there is need to revamp the children’s council.

Speaking at the African Child Commemoration Dialogue on June 20, Mr Molale said there was need for engagement to ensure everything is done in the best interest of the child.

“Some laws are already being reviewed and we will widen consultations on matters, including issues relating to child protection,” he said.

Meanwhile, human rights lawyer, Mr Uyapo Ndadi said a quick response to children’s justice could help protect and meet needs of children and get them justice. Mr Ndadi said magistrate courts, high courts and the court of appeal were busy with children’s cases, but the main concern was that they took  long to be handled.

He lamented that there was no special way that the cases were handled.

He said the Children’s Act shows that a magistrate court can be a children’s court, but it does not provide any mechanism on how these cases can be handled, while in contrast, the domestic violence act says cases should be handled at least within three days.

He said the gap between incidents and justice on the Children’s Act changes everything because by the time cases are handled, situations may have changed, saying some children may have grown up, and priorities, perceptions and the emotions no longer the same, making the cases irrelevant, with justice ending up not being served.

Mr Ndadi said there were situations where perpetrators ended up ‘buying’ the parents of the children to ‘kill’ the cases, stressing that handling children’s cases quickly could improve justice for children.

In addition, he said rape cases and defilement matters should be handled quickly, because even the evidence becomes less useful  due to the lapse of time. ENDS