Prosecutors Meet to Discuss Treatment of Incarcerated Minors
The judiciary has signed off on a new set of guidelines designed to regulate the work of prosecutors in many areas, including the rights of minors in the judicial system. Ouk Savuth, general director of the Court of Appeal, signed off on the guidelines on August 1, and said the topic of incarcerated minors featured heavily in the new rules. The guidelines propose better implementation of existing laws and call on prosecutors, judges and prison directors to communicate better in order to alleviate case-file backlogs in the justice system. The guidelines also recommend that judgments be released as soon as possible after verdicts are pronounced, and shared promptly with prosecutors, prison officials and the Court of Appeal. Better communication between court officials to provide child offenders with alternative punishment to an adult jail is also mentioned. … The age of criminal responsibility in Cambodia is 14, but the country does not have a separate juvenile justice system and young offenders are often incarcerated with adults. Rana Flowers, Unicef’s representative in Cambodia, said that violence and the prolonged detention of children is never justifiable in prisons. … According to figures provided by rights group Licadho, in the 18 prisons it monitors, there are 206 convicted minors and 162 minors being held in pretrial detention. Kuy Bunsorn, general director of the Interior Ministry’s department of prisons, said that around the country, “there are 412 minors of which 19 are girls; 127 are charged persons, 75 are accused, 132 are suspects and 78 have been convicted.” … However, he said, real reform is needed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which governs how suspects are treated by the authorities after arrest. “[T]he criminal procedure code still uses the same procedure for adults. Maybe in the future, we should reform the code,” he said. “Another possibility is that the government lacks juvenile facilities and a lack of education programs. Minors in prison lose their education. I recommend the government think about that and make sure children in prison can continue their education,” otherwise they are likely to re-offend upon release, he said. …
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prosecutors-meet-to-discuss-treatment-of-incarcerated-minors-41526/
