Transcript
Kiribati has moved to pass a bill to create a youth justice system and keep children out of adult prisons.
Young offenders are put through the adult justice system in Kiribati and ten are in prison for crimes such as stealing bike parts.
The Juvenile Justice Act will set standards for the youth justice system including a new youth court and a focus on community based punishments instead of a prison sentence.
UNICEF's child protection specialist, Salote Kaimacuata, told Daniela Maoate-Cox Kiribati is setting an example for the rest of the Pacific but implementing the changes will be a challenge.
SALOTE KAIMACUATA: Young people represent about between 40 and 43 percent of the population of all our Pacific countries so we want to emphasise the need to use diversion programmes, so young people can stay at school and stay in paid employment and use their soccer, or their rugby time when they go out with their peers to put that time into the community.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: If you are a young person and you're put in to prison are you more likely to reoffend when you come out?
SK: Well, I'll go by the programme we used to have in Fiji, we did a survey and young people who have been imprisoned for less than 12 months, the recidivism rate was about 52 to 54 percent so it's also a worry because they come out linking up and networking with older, more experienced offenders, so you really want to prevent any of that networking starting in the first place, but you also want to ensure that they stay on at school and in paid employment if they are working.
DM-C: So what are the best ways to make sure that does happen?
SK: In this way the new juvenile justice bill for Kiribati, mandates the duty bearers, magistrates, police and unamane, these are the elderly magistrates in the outer islands of Kiribati, to follow the law and use the diversion options that are provided for in the new legislation.
DM-C: What are some of the common crimes that these young offenders are alleged to have committed or have committed?
SK: Well in Kiribati, one of the biggest challenges for the police are these young boys who steal bicycles and sell spare parts, and they take it away and sell a bicycle or they'll take it apart and sell the spare parts. When the police first told me, I thought, well you've got some intelligent children here so you need to work with them on how you could use them in a more constructive way.
DM-C: So stealing bike parts, that's enough to earn some time in prison?
SK: Well, you know it's Kiribati, they think that's really naughty. It's their perspective. Kiribati was also known in the past for putting young people into what they call the banana circle. A banana circle, is a very deep trench and they grow bananas around it and they put their food rubbish in it but the newly dug out ones, sometimes they put their children in the pit, they can't get out of it. You know, that's pretty scary if you're a young kid. That's stopped since we've been taking out awareness raising on how to treat children in contact with the law and in conflict with the law. There are other ways to manage and discipline if you're not happy with what the child's behaviour has been.
DM-C: Is that message spreading throughout the Pacific? How are the other countries faring?
SK: Yes it is, Solomon Islands has a draft child and welfare bill right now that we're advocating for enactments. Kiribati has been the one that's been in the front in terms of their enactment of the child, young persons and family welfare act. That's really a protection measure for children who are victims, and young people who are victims, and treating the family in terms of a whole system approach. the Juvenile Justice Act is really about handling children in conflict with the law and trying to keep them out of prison but also taking that message on how to prevent offending in the first place.
DM-C: What are the challenges in implementing these new systems. Is there enough training for people to help deal with them?
SK: You know our challenge for the Pacific is the geographic spread and it's very costly to fly in and do capacity building. Like for magistrates, lay magistrates, there's probably about one hundred in Kiribati and two hundred in Vanuatu, it's about access to justice, so it's really about sustaining the capacity building, because people move on. In Kiribati, to be a lay court magistrate in the outer islands, they call them unamane or elders, you have to be 60 before you can qualify to sit on the island court circuit and they sit on the panel, like three of them, so to leave it too late for training at 60 might be a challenge, so you need to continue, you need to start with the upstream, downstream young people, parents, teachers and police and your magistrates and lay magistrates. You know, child protection as we say is everyone's business, you don't just confine it to the justices, but you also have to work holistically with a whole systems approach, so especially with young people too, they grow over 18 very quickly, so we hope that they'll be the ones to run the messages when they become teachers or decision makers later on in their life.
