Child Protection Bill: Do not Seize Child’s Rights

07. Jun, 2011 0 Comments

Committee III DPD RI invited Prof. Dr. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, SH, MA, General Director of Human Rights Ministry of Justice and Human Rights as a resource in the meeting held on Tuesday (31/05/11) at PPUU boardroom Building B, 3rd Floor DPD RI Parliament Complex Senayan Jakarta. Meeting led by Ahmad Jazuli, senator from Lampung Province, discussed the Child Protection Bill that would replace Law No. 3 Year 1997 on Child Court.

In her presentation, Harkristuti mentioned that at first Law No. 3 Year 1997 will only be revised, but due to several considerations, Child Protection Bill was drafted. The basic idea of the preparation of this bill is to keep children away from the deprivation of liberty, but there are some obstacles encountered in the field. Some of the obstacles include inadequate facilities of Correctional Facility (LP), the absence of a system that can provide the fulfillment of children’s rights when in the LP and the limited human resources in the LP.

This bill does not just revise the law No. 3 / 1997, because there are many changes in it such as the idea of child delinquents, child age, child coverage and treatment of children who have a legal case. So far there is confusion in the execution of the law against child because of the disharmony between one Law and another. “Law No. 23 Year 2002 states that a child is referred to those who are not yet 18 years old, whereas in the Marriage Act the limit is still 16 years old. This has led to confusion among law enforcement, “Harkristuti explained. In addition, a person should not be deprived without free and impartial judicial process so that regulation that governs it is necessary, including for children.

Currently, several cases of children deal with the law that clearly robs children’s rights. Those matters become consideration and concern of DPD RI. The penalty for children found to be unfair. During the meeting, several proposals related to Child Protection Bill appeared. The proposals include assigning children to boarding schools to be guided and nurtured, clarifying the age range of children and providing the rights of children while in prison such as education.