DOHA: Experts attending a workshop on ‘Child and Justice’ have urged authorities to amend the relevant law to increase the age of a minor to 18 years from 16.
The law defines a juvenile as a person aged up to 16 and bars children below seven from being questioned for committing crimes.
The two-day workshop was held earlier this week with experts saying the juvenile law needed to conform to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which describes persons aged up to 18 as children.
The experts also called on authorities to replace the term ‘juvenile’ in the law with ‘children’ to conform to international practice.
Addressing the workshop on its first day on Sunday, Dr Anwar Al Hajana, who teaches at Police Institute, said juvenile delinquency was not unknown in Qatar.
There were 541 cases in 2011 and 94.8 percent of the children involved were male, but the ratio dropped in 2013. In 2013, some 578 cases of juvenile crimes were recorded and 24 percent of children were female.
Some 47 percent of the cases involved children aged 12-14 and 39 percent of the crimes were committed against individuals.
Mariam Al Jaber, from Family and Juvenile Prosecution, Public Prosecution Department, told the workshop that the law regulating the procedures followed in juvenile crimes was framed in 1994 and since then a lot of social and other changes have taken place. So there is the need to amend the law, she added.
She said under the law no action is taken (including no questioning) in cases of delinquency involving children under seven.
The workshop was held by Qatar Foundation (QF) for the Protection of Women and Children’s Rights and Social Rehabilitation and Supreme Education Council, among other state agencies.
Mariam Al Malki, Consultant at QF, told the workshop that it was a matter of concern that social advisers in schools were helping students organise celebrations and events and not being used for the job they know best: Counselling and helping students discipline themselves and improve their performance, among others.
The role of social advisers is to help reduce student dropout rates, aid students in improving their performances and better their behaviour if behavioural issues are involved.
Schools are using social advisers for things like organising events and celebrations and the school environment has tremendous impact on students’ overall behaviour, even outside of it, she said.
Dr Ibrahim Al Kaabi, Associate Professor, Qatar University, told the workshop that families prevented children from reporting abuse or violence to law-enforcement agencies. He talked of circumstances that lead a child to get addicted to smoking and drugs. The Peninsula
