“IF we don’t stand up for children … then we don’t stand for much,” says Marian Edelman, an eminent American activist for the rights of children, working the last 40 years for children’s cause. In Pakistan, the implementation of child rights laws is a nascent debate, which started only two decades ago. This debate, however, can gain effective momentum by creating more awareness and a deeper understanding of the issue.

One of the most important child rights protection laws is the protection of the rights of a juvenile offender. More often than not, a poorly treated child offender can mature into a criminal beyond redemption. Children of tender age and immature understanding can easily fall prey to motivations for crime, and therefore need to be dealt with differently than an adult offender. This principle of differential treatment has been recognised in Islamic jurisprudence as well.

The juvenile justice system is not what it was supposed to be.

To this end, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) was promulgated in 2000, to provide protection to children who are involved in criminal litigation, and for their rehabilitation in society. The law introduced a well-rounded concept of institutional (and non-institutional) treatment of the child to better ensure his or her reformation.

Not only does it prescribe separate juvenile courts, it also outlines specialised procedures for arrest, investigation, bail, trial, and the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. A probation system is also permitted under this law, whereby the juvenile courts are empowered to release a delinquent child under the care of a guardian — or can send the child to a ‘borstal’ institution to undergo the period of sentence. A borstal is a reformatory centre for particularly delinquent juvenile offenders, to keep them separate from hardened criminals in adult detention centres, which may have an adverse effect on their rehabilitation.

As much as this law seems ideally framed for the protection of juvenile offender rights, the juvenile justice system currently in place is still a far cry from what it was originally conceived to be. The powers of this law, rather, have been conferred on regular courts, and there are many stumbling blocks in the implementation of procedures such as arrest, investigation, bail, and trial. In regular courts, these young offenders are tried alongside other adult criminals, owing to the nonexistence of special juvenile courts.

What seems to have made this situation even worse is the severe lack of knowledge of this law, both on the part of society, and people in the criminal justice system. While this law strictly forbids a juvenile from being put in handcuffs or fetters, these young offenders are often handcuffed when they appear in court.

For want of a special, dedicated private room for interrogation in the police station, limited resources, and unfamiliarity with the law, juveniles are often being interrogated in the same space as other accused adults. Even though the JJSO delineates the process through which juvenile defendants may petition for bail, the rate of implementation remains low.

It is high time for a well-orchestrated effort to implement this law — on the part of society in general, and at the level of law enforcement in particular. Media and society can join hands together to create awareness for juvenile offenders’ rights, and can instigate new winds of change.

The government can take a step further by allocating a budget for special juvenile courts. The benefit of apportioning funds would likely trickle down to police stations, where a dedicated room could be allocated, both for investigation purposes and for psychological counselling. Detention centres can only keep juvenile offenders insulated from adult crim­inals once policy decis­ions are made rega­r­ding the enact­ment of the JJSO.

By establishing borstal instit­utions, inclu­ding skills development training centres, law enforcement can help juvenile offenders reform and become law-abiding individuals, able to participate productively in society once they serve out their sentences. Skills development, by being a mandatory function of borstal institutions, is an effective way to redeem child offenders; not only do they offer productive outlets for the child, they also often function therapeutically, and equip the child with skills which he or she may use to earn an honest livelihood in the future.

Much more still needs to be said and done regarding the state of juvenile justice, but creating awareness about child rights and rights of juvenile offenders is the necessary first step towards this goal. A proper implementation of this law, truly in letter and spirit, will ensure our children’s future as rehabilitated citizens.

Our country’s future rests in the hands of its children, and the JJSO clearly aims to protect this future. As responsible citizens, it is the duty of each of us not only to make ourselves familiar with the particulars of this law, but also to create more awareness of this law among others.

The writer is a police officer.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2016