PESHAWAR, Sept 4: Participants of a four-day workshop asked the government and other stake-holders to fully implement the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, and extend the law to Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Provincially- Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).

The juvenile justice training workshop was arranged by an international organization — Penal Reform International — in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan which concluded on Thursday.

The workshop was attended by probation officers, NGOs workers, police officers, prosecutors and journalists. PRI Training Director Hans H. Wahl, Andre Dunant, a former juvenile judge in Geneva, Zakir Shoaib of Dost Foundation and M. Irshad Chaudhry of the HRCP conducted the training.

After discussion the participants put forward various recommendation for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) and alternatives to detention of juvenile offenders.

They recommended that there should be separate juvenile courts as in the present set-up the existing judicial officers had been assigned additional powers of juvenile courts and they had to look after the routine cases.

Moreover, they added that juveniles should not be tried jointly with adults and their trials should be conducted separately as envisaged under the JJSO.

The participants highlighted the role of probation officers and regretted that they had not been extended due importance by the police as well as the judiciary.

They recommended that soon after arrest of a juvenile his family members and concerned probation officer should be informed.

The Social Investigation Report (SIR) of an offender prepared by a probation officer should be given due importance by the police and trial courts.

They proposed that instead of keeping the children imprisoned they should be released on probation or bail. “The number of probation officers should be increased and provided important facilities like conveyance, telephone and staff,” the participants proposed.

The participants also discussed the system of Restorative Justice, stating that the police and judges should also adopt that system especially in petty nature cases and should try reconciliation between a juvenile offender and a complainant instead of sentencing an offender and sending him to prison.

They recommended that the Criminal Justice Coordination Committees in every district should be activated so that they could play active role in the implementation of the JJSO.

It was recommended that the bail provision to the juvenile offenders should be simplified and in bailable offences they should be allowed bail even by the concerned police officer as he was empowered under section 496 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Addressing the concluding session, Michael Semple, advisor on human rights, Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK, said that instead of sending a child to prison, which were universities of crimes, s/he should be sent for community service.

He said it was always easy to enact a law but difficult to implement it. He added that the promulgation of the JJSO was a good step, but efforts should be made for its implementation.

He referred to an evaluation report of the AGHS Child Rights Cell, about implementation of the JJSO, stating that children were handcuffed, the courts had not been fully using the probation officers and the facility of bail had not been extended regularly to the offenders.

“If annual reports on same pattern are published on national and provincial levels about the implementation of the JJSO, it will be useful for the government and civil society groups,” Mr Semple said.

The dean of the faculty of law, University of Peshawar, Professor Ahmad Ali, said that the laws in Pakistan should be brought in conformity with the international conventions.

He said that there was no clear definition of a child as in some of the laws the age was given 15 or 16 years and even in some cases the issue of criminal responsibility was attached to attaining of puberty.

He added that although the JJSO was not a comprehensive law, but it was a step in the right direction.

The trainers explained different aspects of the juvenile justice system including alternatives to detention, non-custodial sanctions and measures, parole and probation, restorative justice system, education, training and rehabilitation programmes and international conventions regarding child rights.