‘Reform all child-related laws’
Eye of the Child, a child rights organisation, has called on government to champion reform of all childrenrelated laws to be in line with the amended Constitution, which pegs the child’s age at 18.
While praising government for facilitating the amendment, and legislators for amending the Constitution, The NGO’s executive director Maxwell Matewere said there was now a need to reform all childrenrelated laws, for example, the Child Care Protection and Justice Act, which defines a child as a person under the age of 16.
lot of capacity building
He said other pieces of legislation to be considered include the Penal Code on the age of criminal responsibility, which is at 10 years; age of defilement and sexual consent, which is at 16 years and the Employment Act, which puts the age at 14.
“We also need a lot of capacity building training for service providers, including law enforcement agencies in managing the change,” he said. The child rights activist said there was a need to engage district councils to develop by-laws that will enforce the amendment of district plans and budgets for children.
Eye of the Child has since thanked lawyer Bruno Matumbi for accepting its request to provide pro bono legal representation to Stanford Kashunga whose appeal case resulted in the amendment of the Child Protection and Justice Act (2015) on the age of the child.
