Will the adjudicating and sentencing guidelines produced by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC) for juvenile offenders serve its purpose? ADEBISI ONANUGA reports
Stakeholders converged on Makurdi, the Benue State capital last week to fine tune a draft adjudication and sentencing guidelines for child offenders.
The guidelines are based on the provisions of the Child Rights Act 2003. It is intended for use by judges and magistrates to enable them operate uniform process in adjudicating and sentencing erring child across the country.
Mainly, they are meant to create platform for child offenders at pre-trial and after trial stages.
The stakeholders, drawn from selected states, had representatives from ministries of justice. The judiciary was represented by judges and magistrates; states’ ministries of women affairs; representatives of the Child Protection Network (CPN) among other NGOs; social workers; the Police and Commissioners of the Nigeria Law Reform Commission (NLRC).
The three-day conference which held in collaboration with the NLRC, the United Nations Children Education Funds (UNICEF) in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and funded by the European Union(EU) at Smile View Hotel, Makurdi, between August 11 and August 15, was considered a critical part of Justice sector Reform programme for the country. It is a five-year programme initiated to provide support to key stakeholders at various governmental levels and in nine focal states and the FCT. The nine states include, Imo, Anambra, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Cross River and Bayelsa.
The guidelines reflected the legal and social protection requirements provided in the Child Rights Act.
At the conference, professionals in justice delivery sector and other participants committed to justice sector reform and the protection of child rights, carried out a comprehensive critique of the draft guidelines, with a view to improving and finalising the document.
Once finalised, the guidelines will be forwarded to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and states’ Attorneys-General before it is placed before the National Assembly for an enactment of necessary law to back it usage by the judiciary across the country.
In reviewing the draft guidelines, participants were grouped and given specific tasks, using specific formats to arrive at decisions that would be in the best interest of the child. This is to ensure that the final document comes out in simple, specific and unambiguous language.
Examples of offences critiqued include stealing of food of low value from a local shop; stealing of high value items like mobile phones on the street (pick pocketing); planned stealing of lady’s handbags by groups or gangs; assault (single blow) with lesser harm and lower culpability; sustained or repeated assaults with greater harm and lower culpability. There are also planned assaults with a degree of premeditation or group attack and or with use of weapon with greater harm and higher culpability; terrorism; possession of explosives or weapon courier; terrorist attacks including failed attacks and use of psychotropic substances- first incident and very small amount, where the child is a regular user, where the child repeatedly use drug and failed to respond to previous orders.
Other offences include rape-sexual intercourse involving child offender of similar age, who consented; penetration involving a victim of similar age, who did not consent and penetration involving a victim, who didn’t consent and at least one aggravating factor among other specified offences enumerated in the draft guidelines. The various groups made their suggestions and recommendations as appropriate, and the specifics were agreed on in the interest of the child by participants.
Participants shared their experiences on the field. One of them, Lilian Ekanem, said the role being played by Child Protection Network (CPN), other non-governmental organisations and traditional institutions must be recognised and supported by government for the protection of children in Nigeria.
Ekanem, who is the Chairperson, Cross Rivers State chapter of CPN, said her suggestion was as a result of her experiences on the field. According to her, whenever there are issues of children against the law or rape among others, the organisation is always the first to be called, even by the police, to give assistance because of their experience and knowledge on child related issues. She said in spite of her organisation’s lean resources, the police depend on them for funds for transportation and investigation of abuses. She said they also bore cost of laboratory tests and medications in the case of rape.
Taiwo Akinlami, who is Executive Director, Child Protection Solution (CPS), Lagos, said the organisation discovered disparities in states that have domesticated the CRA 2003. He lamented that in spite of the high crime rate involving children against the law and large number of police stations, only two stations, Alakara and Adeniji-Adele, have specialised units for child protection. He noted that efforts to include child protection in the curriculum of the Police College have proved abortive to date, including lack of budget for police training.
Benue State Chief Judge, Justice Iorhemen, Hwande, described the conference as lively saying that most of the issues thrashed by participants are very important in the CRA and in the interest of child offenders.
Justice Hwande said Benue State has domesticated the Act and is at the stage of implementation. Efforts, he said, are in advanced stage to get the family courts in operation in the state. He said when this is done, judges and others from the state, who came from the Ministry of Women Affairs, would be of great assistance in the implementation of the Act and the guidelines.
UNICEF Programme Coordinator, Vernice Guthrie, said the forum provided opportunity to talk about a practical framework to give the CRA a firm footing and complete implementation for use in the court and by other key institutions.
Vernice described the development as a critical begining and part of a much neeeded multi-purpose process for the courts, adding that UNICEF is committed to making the CRA and the guidelines to work for the courts in Nigeria and in the interest of the child offenders with the support of the EU.
She said participation at the conference has been fascinating, but according to him, there is still a lot to be done to change participants’ mindset and imbibe the new information process to ensure delivery in all areas of the CRA and in the scheme of things.
On how to reach the states that have not yet domesticated the CRA, she said the programme would serve as templates for other states.
Vernice said UNICEF is committed to providing technical services and support to other states to domesticate the CRA into law.
Chairman, Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC), Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor said the essence of the conference was to evolve guidelines for bodies involved in handling cases of child offenders. He noted that the conference was well attended as it had in attendance, not just commissioners of the NLRC, but also UNICEF representatives and other stakeholders involved in advocacy on the right of children.
Osunbor said it was heart warming that participants are well informed and have been working as specialists on child protection and rights, including lawyers and non-lawyers, the police with vast experience on matters concerning the rights and protection of children.
He stressed that the quality of their contributions reflected their cognate experience on the field, adding that their contributions enriched deliberation and would impact positively on the outcome of the exercise.
He said the project emanated from the first stage of the sentencing guidelines project embarked upon by his commission in 2012. “It is one of the project directed at introducing the draft bill for purpose of giving legal effect to the use of sentencing guildelines by judges and magistrates in Nigeria. ”It is one of that project, in the sense that that bill which would be passed by the National Assembly (NASS), hopefully at some future time, would lead to the establishment of the Sentencing Guideline Council under the headship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN).
“And the responsibility of the council is to come up from time-to-time with a guideline of the sort that we are doing now and of the such that we would be in phase two of the project which was directed and devoted to some specific offences”, he stated.
UNICEF consultant on the implementation of the CRA , Leila Nazarali had earlier taken participant through the draft guidelines and appropriate approaches to developing corrective measures. She said the adjudicating guidelines would serve as practice direction for judges and magistrates and other institutions that are going to use the document. Leila explained that the most important aspect of the Act is to ensure that the child offender is not seperated from the parents and that detention is used only as a last resort.
Leila said in the course of her tour of the states in Nigeria, she discovered widespread disparity and disproportionate sentencing because of unfettered discretion enjoyed by those adjudication. She said the guidelines would help to ensure that children are given uniform sentences for same offence in all the states of the federation.
Chairperson of Federation of International Women Lawyers Association (FIDA) in Bayelsa State, Mrs. Pere Egbuson said cases of child offenders are most of the time reported to and handled by the association. Egbuson said they have had to contend with issues of ages of the child offenders particularly onn criminal offences. She said plans to domesticate the CRA has reached advanced stage following their particiapation in the UNICEF workshop on the implementation of the Act in June, this year.
