THE Attorney General (AG), Professor Adelardus Kilangi, has moved the Parliament of United Republic of Tanzania to amend the Law of the Child Act to expand the jurisdiction of Juvenile Courts to determine cases involving children aged below 18 years.
Proposed amendments aim at conferring jurisdiction to all district courts and courts of resident magistrate to handle juvenile cases and place juvenile courts under the management and supervision of the district courts and courts of resident magistrates in their respective districts and regions.
In the Special Bill Supplement published late last year, the AG seeks for amendments of section 97 of the Principal Act by deleting subsection (2) and substitute for it with provision accommodating the District Courts and Court of Resident Magistrate premises to be used as Juvenile Court.
Such provision reads, “Without prejudice to subseccourtstion (1), a District Court premises or a Court of Resident Magistrate premises may be used as a Juvenile Court.
The sought amendments also introduce other subsection (3), (4) and (5) to the section. It is stated under subsection (3) and (4) that notwithstanding subsection (2), a District Court or a Court of Resident Magistrate may hear and determine any matter triable by Juvenile Court, and for the purpose of subsection (3), suchcourts shall follow the procedure prescribed under section 99 of the Act.
Subsection (5) states that a Juvenile Court established in terms of subsection (1) shall, as the case may be, be under the management and supervision of the District or Resident Magistrate Court within the district or region, respectively, which the Juvenile Court is established.
During the Law Day celebrations in Dar es Salaam recently, the Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma, explained that under powers conferred to him through laws enacted by Parliament, in 2019 he issued various rules and guidelines aimed at expediting and simplifying hearing and determination of cases.
Among the rules issued within the judicial calendar year, according to him, include the Government Notice No. 158 of 2019 under which he ordered that all Primary Courts should also be Juvenile Courts to hear and determine cases involving children.
It is stated in “A Handbook for Magistrates in the Primary Courts, Revised and Updated Version, 2019,” published by Judiciary of Tanzania withupport of the world Bank, that Under section 97 (2) of the Act, the Chief Justice may by notice designate any premises used by a Primary Court to be a Juvenile Court.
A juvenile is a child or young person who is not yet old enough to be regarded as an adult. In the eyes of the law, a juvenile or a minor is any person under the legal adult age.
This age varies from state to state, but in most states, the legal age of majority is 18. Therefore, a juvenile is a person who has not reached the age, usually 18 years, at which one should be treated as an adult by the criminal justice system.
When children commit crimes, whether it is shoplifting or assault and battery, their cases are typically heard in juvenile court, where the emphasis is on counseling and rehabilitation versus hard time.
The common belief is that juveniles still have a lot of time to mature and become functioning members of the society, along with concerns that adult prisons are no place for a minor.
The age of the offender at the time the offense was committed typically determines jurisdiction. One’s status as a juvenile or as an adult is pertinent for the court’s determination of the jurisdiction under which an offender falls: the adult or the juvenile court system.
Relying on age as a sole determinant for adulthood has been criticised by many criminologists and policy makers since individuals develop at different rates. Some youths are far moremature at 17 or 18 than are some adults.
Because of this discrepancy, juvenile court judges have been given broad discretion to waive juveniles to adult court for trial and sentencing.
In rare situations, the courts also have the power to emancipate a juvenile in a civil proceeding so that they become an adult under the law and are granted certain adult privileges.
For example, if a 17-year-old loses both parents and has no other living relatives, they could be emancipated in order to pursue custody of their younger siblings.
