By Gina P. Morley

What is a child?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as being a "human being under the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." It further invokes State Parties to "seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognised as, having infringed the penal law..." In the Caribbean, whether the law relating to child offenders is called a Criminal Code (as is the case in Belize, Grenada, St. Lucia); a Juvenile Act (as is the case in Anguilla, Antigua, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, the Virgin Islands); or a Juvenile Ordinance, (as is the case in Turks & Caicos Islands); a Juvenile Offenders Act (as is the case in Barbados, Guyana), a Children Act (Trinidad & Tobago), or Children and Young Persons Act (Dominica), Children and Young Persons Act (Administration of Justice) (Bahamas), the children who come within the respective juvenile justice systems in the Caribbean are known as 'juveniles.'

This is in line with the Beijing rules, which define a juvenile as "a child or young person who, under the respective legal systems, may be dealt with for an offence in a manner which is different from an adult."

It is important to appreciate these distinctions because in the Bahamas, with respect to the issue of the application of juvenile justice laws, there is a further definition within the concept of juvenile which separates juveniles into "children" and "young persons," the former being defined "as a person under the age of fourteen years," and the latter, as "a person under the age of sixteen years." This distinction allows the Country or State to apply different punitive measures to the two groups - the young person, being subject to the harsher treatment, at times irrespective of the nature of the offence. In the Bahamas, there are the Boys and Girls Industrial Schools which are established by legislation for this specific purpose. Chapter 90 of the Subsidiary Legislation of the Bahamas (1987) provides for the establishment of such institutions in the Children and Young Persons (Industrial School for Boys) Order (Section 20) and in the Children and Young Persons (Industrial School for Girls) Order and the ancillary Rules.

Such distinctions are relevant because sometimes, some children fall between the cracks in the system and are incarcerated in the same institutions as young persons found guilty of serious infractions of the penal law.

The United Nations recommended from as far back as 2000, that its Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) described as "a universal reference point" for juvenile justice systems, should be adopted by signatory states. To that end, to "assist states to not only gauge their performance, but also to realise their obligations under the CRC, the Convention mandated State Parties to report to the Committee on the Rights of the child (the Committee), the measures they have adopted to implement the CRC."

Interestingly, the Bahamas was not a signatory at that time. Nonetheless, the Committee, having reviewed the Initial Reports of Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, called for "reform in the administration of juvenile justice in the spirit of the CRC, as well as other relevant international standards," such as the Beijing rules, the Riyadh Guidelines and the Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (JDL) Rules.

Next Week: My child was locked up in Fox Hill due to a mix up in his age. What can I do? What is the law with reference to juveniles in the Bahamas?

Gina P Morley is an Attorney-at-Law and advocate for women and children's (human) rights, and the founding editor of the All Woman magazine published in the Jamaica Observer.