Amend laws to ensure fair trial of juvenile offenders

There must be a clear distinction between criminal as well as juvenile justice system and juvenile offenders must come under the purview of juvenile courts and not under the criminal courts, they said.

The roundtable, organised by Save the Children UK at the Jatiya Press Club in the city, deliberated on "Can a juvenile be sentenced to death? A discussion on the Judgement of the Appellate Division Court, in Md Shukur Ali vs State."

Supreme Court lawyers Md Nizamul Huq Nasim, Nayeem Ahmed, Alena Khan and ABM Bayezid spoke at the roundtable with Shaheen Anam, team leader of Manusher Jonno, in the chair.

Earlier, Save the Children UK's head of programme Habibun Nessa introduced the topic on which the keynote paper was presented by Dr Shahadeen Malik of Brac University.

The speakers referred to juvenile Shukur Ali who was sentenced by a criminal court to death in 2001 in a 1999 rape and murder case under Section 6(2) of the Women and Children Repression Act.

"The verdict is a shameful example of major failure of the country's juvenile judiciary system", said Nizamul Huq Nasim.

Shahadeen Malik pointed out that in the Children Act of 1974 it was manifested that the Juvenile Court was to rehabilitate the children, not to subject them to the rigors of criminal justice system, which was for adults only.

"The Children Act prohibits death sentence and imprisonment of youthful offenders and, most importantly, the juvenile Justice system is centered around the youthful offender and not the criminal act committed by the offender," he said.

ABM Bayezid said the Children Act did not specify the age limit of juvenile and that is also problem of determining the actual age of an offender in the absence of valid birth certificate.

The participants called upon the government to reconsider the existing Children Act and the Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Ain and to bring necessary amendments to clear the legal confusion over age.