The government has welcomed the People’s Majlis’ decision not to unnecessarily criminalise children, by reducing the age at which a person is considered an adult offender from 18 years to 15.
Members of parliament, in a debate on 6 June, rejected amendments that would have seen children aged 15, 16 and 17 treated as adults by the police and the courts.
“The experience from many developed countries such as Sweden and Australia proves that locking children up in an adult prison doesn’t reduce crime. Rather, it tends to turn children into professional, life-long criminals because they learn the tricks of the criminal trade from adult inmates,” said Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair.
Zuhair said that countries that treat child offenders as special cases, and run specific programmes that return children to the correct path, have been best able to reduce crime.
Zuhair added that the Maldives is running correctional programmes specifically for young offenders, aimed at rehabilitating wayward children to play a constructive role in society.
The Press Secretary also noted that a number of criminal justice bills remain pending in the People’s Majlis which, if passed, would help to reduce crime.