Juvenile courts to be established throughout Guyana

Government has plans to construct courts throughout Guyana that will specialise in juvenile justice, with one likely to be set up in Georgetown and another next year in either Berbice or Essequibo.
This is according to Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, who was the keynote speaker at a sensitisation workshop on the Juvenile Justice Bill on Monday. Ramjattan noted that an analysis of the cost involved will have to be done. But the plan is to have these special courts spread throughout Guy-ana, but in a phased manner.
“We want a special kind of Magistrates’ Court where you’re going to have the children dealt with. And so you can’t go and build courts all over the place. And so we starting with Georgetown, then next year, more likely than not we’re going to have in Berbice or Essequibo, and then we’ll have one in Lin-den and probably one in Lethem.”
“So it must take a phased implementation. That takes money. And then the staffing of the courts, be-cause the Judiciary will say fine we need some more monies in view of this paradigm shift… so all of these things are so important to see the actual realisation of the juvenile justice regime.
Four Magistrates, including Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, had attended a study tour in another ju-risdiction to observe the operations of their Children’s Court back in 2017. The tour was intended to show the best practices and the pitfalls to ensure that Guyana’s system is efficient and adheres to in-ternational standards.
Currently, all matters involving juveniles are held in camera. Thus, members of the public are not al-lowed in the chambers. In addition, strict rules govern the publication of information that relate to ju-veniles.
In February, acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonnette Cummings-Edwards had disclosed that various agencies including non-governmental organisations were consulted last year to share their thoughts on how these effectively these matters were being handled.
“We have to see the situation from all angles, so we have had courses… the Magistrates do their best but they are some persons who come to court and say they have made up with the perpetrator and they do not wish to proceed and that is their right.”
She had also said training was ongoing for Magistrates since the bulk of the domestic violence cases are dealt with in the Magistrate’s Court. However, those that result in felonious wounding, murder or manslaughter are handled at the High Court.
Further, the acting Chancellor had alluded to the fact that having specialised courts to deal with juve-niles, sexual offences, domestic violence and other sensitive matters will eliminate re-victimisation and trauma for victims, as well as the speedy disposal of the cases.
She said as an example, in any given session of the November 2017 established Sexual Offences Court there are over 100 cases to be tried coming from the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“There is also a component which comes through the Ministry of Social Protection and we are working with them in that regard for a Victim Support Unit and we are working with all stakeholders in relation to the Sexual Offences Court,” she added.