Maintain children's age limit at 18
Speakers tell roundtable
Participants at a roundtable on “Responsibilities for the safeguard of the children” organised by the daily Prothom Alo at its office in the capital yesterday.Photo: STAR
Speakers at a roundtable yesterday criticised the law ministry's observation that the age limit for being considered as children should be reduced from 18 to 16 years in the draft "Children Act 2012" and urged the government to cohere with different existing laws and treaties. Recently the law ministry vetted the draft and recommended setting the maximum age limit of children at 16. But, the speakers said, it was inconsistent with the UN-approved Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which defined any person below 18 as a child. Bangladesh ratified the CRC in 1990 and formulated the National Policy on Children 2011, defining a child as any person below 18. The draft act maintains the same definition. Mohammad Omar Faruque, deputy secretary to the ministry of social welfare affairs, recognised the inconsistency with law ministry's observation, but said his ministry would do everything to fix the age at 18 to cohere with domestic and international laws. “We have got the copy of the law ministry's observation on the children's age, which suggested reducing the age limit from 18 to 16. But our ministry will implement the demand of the bodies concerned to affirm the existing age limit of children”, he added. Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed, however, told a June 9 programme that he saw no problem in fixing the maximum age of children at 18. In addition, Justice Muhammad Imman Ali of the Supreme Court told the same programme that the definition of a child in the new Children Act should keep consistent with other laws, the High Court judgement, the CRC definition, and internationally accepted standards. “A child is defined in the National Child Policy 2011 as anyone under the age of 18. At least three other laws, including Domestic Violence Act 2011, Prevention of Trafficking Act 2011, and Vagrancy Act 2011, maintain the same definition,” he said. The roundtable, "Responsibilities for the safeguard of the children", was organised by the Prothom Alo with assistance of Save the Children at the newspaper's office in the capital.
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