Recently much attention has been paid to the protection of children. Unfortunately, many children have to be protected in their homes. The behaviour of the adult depends to a great extent on the upbringing of the child. We observed Child Protection Week September 20th – 26th 2009.
Now there is a Protection of Children Bill 2009, Bill No 3 of 2009, which was debated in the National Assembly and passed with amendments.
There is no explanatory memorandum in the Bill. I therefore list the parts and the conditions under which children are considered to be in need of protection.
The parts are as follows.
Part I – Preliminary; Part II – General Principles; Part III – Protective Interventions; Part IV -Court Proceedings; Part V – General Court Matters; Part VI – Placement of Children on Removal; Part VII – Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information; Part VIII – Offences against Children; Part IX – Accountability Provisions; Part X – Protection from Unsuitable Individuals; Part Xl-Miscellaneous.
Miscellaneous includes Clause 62 – Regulations; Clause 63 – Protections of Director and authorised Officers; Clause 64 – Powers of the Children and Protection Agency.
I see no provision for Penalties.
I quote Part III – Protective Intervention
“A child is in need of protective intervention where the child –
“(a) is, or is at risk of, being physically or emotionally harmed by the action or lack of appropriate action by the child’s parent, guardian, person in whose care the child is left or other persons living in or visiting the household;
“(b) is, or is at risk of, being sexually or emotionally abused or exploited by the child’s parent, guardian, and person in whose care the child is left or other persons living in or visiting the household;
“(c) is, or is at risk of, being physically harmed by a person and the child’s parent, guardian or person in whose care the child is left, does not protect or seek protection for the child;
“(d) is, or is at risk of, being sexually abused or exploited by a person and the child’s parent does not protect the child;
“(e) is being emotionally harmed by a person;
“(f) is in the custody or de facto custody of a person who refuses or fails to obtain or permit essential medical, psychiatric, surgical or remedial care or treatment to be given to the child when recommended by a qualified health practitioner;
“(g) is abandoned;
“(h) has no living parent or has a parent who is unavailable to care for him and who has not made adequate provision for his care;
“(i) is living in a situation where there is violence;
“(j) has –
(i) been left without adequate supervision;
(ii) allegedly killed or seriously injured another person or has caused serious damage to another person’s property; or
(iii) on more than one occasion caused injury to another person or other living thing or threatened, either with or without weapons, to cause injury to another person or living thing either with the parent’s encouragement or because the parent does not respond adequately to the situation; or
(iv) been exposed to drugs, or obscene printed material or objects.”
