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Canberra Today 19°/23° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Lawyers push to raise age of criminal responsibility

AUSTRALIAN Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) are calling on the ACT government to raise the age of criminal responsibility, which is the age below a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. 

ACT convenor Sangeeta Sharmin.
ALHR wants the age raised from 10 years to 12, after an 11-year-old girl recently was charged in the ACT Children’s Court with offences relating to alleged violence against her carers. Due to the lack of a “therapeutic protection place”, which is legislated in the ACT Children and Young Person’s Act, she was sent back to her carers.

ALHR says its noted a lack of services for those above eight years of age but under 12 years of age in the Australian Capital Territory. Attempts have been made to set up a dedicated “therapeutic protection place” but this has failed to date (read more).

ALHR ACT convenor Sangeeta Sharmin says the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory recently recommended that the age of criminal responsibility be urgently raised to 12 years of age.

“The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated very clearly that anything below 12 years of age is not internationally acceptable. Indeed, the European average is 14 years of age,” Ms Sharmin says.

“ALHR urges the ACT government to set an example to other Australian jurisdictions by leading the way and raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years of age.

“We also call for urgent measures to create a ‘therapeutic protection place’ as provided for under ACT legislation or a similar alternative to deal with children falling between the gaps and not receiving appropriate care.

“The results of the ACT taskforce looking into the achievements of a long-term youth justice framework should be released, recommendations made and implemented as a matter of urgency.”

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