• Home

Proposal for setting up a juvenile court in Sharjah

SHARJAH — A proposal to establish a juvenile court in Sharjah, presented recently by the Sharjah Supreme Family Council, has been referred to the Sharjah Amiri Court for approval.

The proposal to establish the juvenile court comes in the wake of an increasing number of juvenile crimes in the UAE reported in 2005, 70 per cent of which are committed by UAE nationals. The proposal also recommends amendment in the Federal Juvenile Law No. 9 for the year 1976 to cope with international charters of the United Nations presented by experts specialising in juvenile issues.

An official from the Research and Studies Centre at the Sharjah Supreme Family Council stressed that following the approval of the proposal, the procedure of establishment of the court will immediately be carried out.

Khaleej Times spoke to several experts specialising in juvenile issues on the importance of establishing the juvenile court and the proposed amendment to the Juvenile Law No 9.

Dr Ismail Essawi from the Faculty of Shariah Law and Islamic Studies at the University of Sharjah said that several articles in Law No. 9, specifically Item No. 24 which mandates ostracising the juvenile for two weeks after the court’s sentence is dangerous punishment, as isolation can easily transform the child into a criminal.

He added that the establishment of a juvenile court is a step forward in the right direction. He stressed the importance of launching alternative reformative mechanisms to replace condemnation.

“Use of the integration method to replace exiling, rehabilitation in lieu of punishments, are perfect reformative mechanisms,” Dr Essawi suggested.

Yousif Sharif, a legal consultant in Sharjah described the Juvenile Law No. 9 for the year 1976 as outdated, which has contradictory articles, explaining that this issue required immediate intervention by consultants and authorities concerned.

Dr Ahmed Al Amoush, from the Education Faculty at the University of Sharjah attributes the increase in misdemeanours among juveniles to the lack of the father’s supervision on children. He pointed out that the statistics of 2005 revealed that juvenile misdemeanours among UAE nationals is 70 per cent, 15 per cent of the juveniles repeated the misdemeanours, 68 per cent belong to unstable families, and 18 per cent belong to stable families. The number of male juveniles in the Special Care Centre was 2,255 and female juveniles were just 7 during 2005.

He called for the abolition of the condemnation and blaming methods in taming and reforming children, urging social intervention in protecting children from being involved in crimes before the construction of the juvenile court.

Dr Shifa Al Bakri, Head of the Research and Studies Centre at the Sharjah Supreme Council, said the phenomena of juvenile crimes has increased due to the weakness in raising children and instability of families who neglect children. The establishment of a juvenile court with the amendment of the Juvenile Law is very important as these courts would contribute to solving juveniles crime issues in society, he added.

• UAE