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Monday, January 21, 2019 #1

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Challenges to juvenile justice system in pakistan

CHALLENGES TO JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN

Justice systems designed for adults often lack the capacity to adequately address the protection of the
rights of juvenile offenders and are more likely to harm than improve a juvenile offender’s chances for
reintegration into society. To resolve this problem, Juvenile Justice System was incorporated in
criminal legal system of Pakistan in the year 2000. Unfortunately, this law was not a perfect piece of
legislation for juvenile offenders and was ultimately declared annulled by the Lahore High Court.
Juvenile offenders continue to be treated as hardened criminals thus deflecting the attention from
rehabilitation to punishment.

The Juvenile Justice System (JIS) Act of 2018 is a new law, which has been enacted by the federal
government earlier this year. The JJS Act of 2018 overcomes the shortcomings, which were present in
the JJSO 2000 and provides a much better system of criminal justice and rehabilitation for juvenile
offenders. The JJS Act of 2018 provides specialised procedures for arrest, investigation, bail, trial,
detention and the rehabilitation of juvenile
offenders in order to protect them from maltreatment. But some of the key challenges in
implementation of this Act are:

1. It is clearly mentioned in the JJS Act of 2018 that the government in consultation with the
concerned high court shall by notification in the official Gazette establish or designate juvenile court
for one or more sessions divisions within a period of three months from the commencement of this
Act. But separate juvenile courts are still not established in every district of Pakistan, excluding a
juvenile court at the Judicial Complex in Lahore that
was established to deal with cases involving children on December 19, 2017.

2. Not a single Juvenile Justice Committee has been established so far, whereas it is clearly written in
the JJS Act of 2018 that the government in consultation with the concerned Sessions Judge shall
establish the Committee for each sessions division no later than three months from the
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commencement of this Act. The committees shall dispose of the cases of juvenile offenders without
resorting to formal judicial proceedings.

3. Juvenile offenders are maltreated and sexually abused in prisons, because of no proper monitoring
of juvenile cells and not establishing separate jails for juveniles. The JJS Act of 2018 says that the
government shall establish and maintain observation homes and juvenile rehabilitation centres for
reception of juveniles, including separate centres for female juveniles. Not a single observation home
and juvenile rehabilitation centre has been established or certified so far.

4. Although the law expressly prohibits corporal punishment and sentencing of juvenile offenders to
death, 10% of the current death row population consists of juvenile offenders, according to a Justice
Project Pakistan’s report. Low birth registration rate, weak implementation of juvenile justice law and
lack of age determination methods are primary reasons for several juveniles being sentenced to
capital punishment and executed in the country.

5. The last challenge is the enactment of new rules of business for carrying out the purposes of JJS
Act of 2018. Because the previously enacted rules are repealed after the promulgation of the JJS Act
of 2018, so the federal
and provincial governments are required to make new rules in this regard. Complete implementation
of law is further challenging predominantly due to inadequate infrastructure and resources.

The newly elected Prime Minister, Imran Khan, and President, Dr Arif Alavi, assured in their inaugural
speeches that resolving the child protection issues and implementation of child rights and national
action plan for children are one of their top priorities. Hence, the PTI government should take up the
matter of implementation of the JJS Act of 2018 on a priority basis and must allocate a sufficient
budget and resources for this cause.

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