Free 142 children detained under Poca now, gov't told
Human rights organisation Suaram has urged the government to release all children and juveniles detained without trial under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca)...
Human rights organisation Suaram has urged the government to release all children and juveniles detained without trial under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca).
Quoting statistics obtained from parliamentary replies, Suaram executive director D Sevan said that as of 2018, some 142 Poca detainees were below the age of 18.
“When the (previous) government introduced Poca and Sosma [Security Offences (Special Measures Act)], it promised to use the laws only against hardcore criminals. How hardcore are 16 and 17-year-olds?
“If they are suspected murderers, arrest them and apply the law on them in court. Do not use Poca.
“Poca should not be used on children. If the new government is committed enough, release all of them and give them due compensation,” Sevan told a joint press conference with Suhakam at the latter's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
According to Suaram and Suhakam, among the reasons for some of the existing Poca detentions were theft and being in a vehicle with stolen goods.
Sevan stressed that the Penal Code had sufficient provisions for such petty crimes and blamed the police for abusing their powers against children.
“The government should immediately probe investigating officers (IOs) who simply use Poca.
“Why are the police so lazy to investigate and just arrest (and detain) the children?” he asked.
Poca allows detainees to be remanded for 60 days without trial.
After it was amended in 2017, the law allowed electronic monitoring devices (EMD) to be used.
It also removed both detainees’ and their legal counsel’s right to explain their case to the authorities.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had stated that the government will retain Poca, despite Harapan’s promise to abolish it in its election manifesto.
Rehabilitation, not detention
Suhakam commissioner Jerald Joseph, who was also present today, said Malaysian children ought to be protected as the country had signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and also has its own Child Act 2001.
The CRC stipulates that the arrest, detention and imprisonment of children should only be used as a measure of “last resort for the shortest appropriate period of time”, he added.
“But we don’t see Poca being used as a last measure. Poca seems to be one of the first measures used.
“[...] And if you take them for one or two days to question that is a different story. But if you take them for 60 days for detention that is not the shortest (appropriate period of time),” Joseph remarked.
Rather than detention without trial in an adult facility, fellow commissioner Aishah Bidin suggested that underage offenders undergo rehabilitation programmes.
“In other jurisdictions, there are also other strategies [...] for instance, the idea of community service.
“Because the main idea is actually to rehabilitate children,” she said.
Don't just abolish all the laws that are actually wrongly used or abused in its application. The laws are all drafted with good and noble intentions. So focus on how the abuse of those laws can be prevented, not the laws itself !
One or more words are not allowed?.... come on Malaysiakini... publish words that cannot be used in comments section....
Kids? Just because they are slightly younger than 18 years old.... some of these so called kids are notoriously fierce and commits murder and cause terrible body injuries to their victims. Gang members are young as 14 years old and show no mercy when attacking their victims. So many innocent lives lost due to their actions while committing robberies. Suaram is defending these kids while ignoring the suffering of the victims and their loved ones. Maybe some of you do not understand pain that the victims went thorugh cos you still haven’t experience the trauma.
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