GUYANA: National Laws

Summary: General overview of Guyana's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.

National laws on children's rights

Status of the CRC in national law
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not directly enforceable in Guyanese law. Further legislation would have to be enacted to make the CRC's provisions enforceable in the courts as domestic legislation. It is not clear if the Convention can be used as interpretative guidance by national courts.

Constitution: the Constitution of Guyana contains a number of rights provisions that apply regardless of age, as well as a number that specifically address the rights of children:

• Art. 29(2): in making provision for the rights of women, requires the material and moral support of mothers and children, including paid leave and other benefits for mothers and expectant mothers
• Art. 30: entitles child born out of wedlock to the same legal rights and legal status as children born within marriage, as well as prohibiting all discrimination against children on the basis of being born out of wedlock.
• Art. 139(1)(f): includes detention for the purposes of the education and welfare of a person under the age of 18 as among the permitted grounds to deprive a person of his or her liberty
• Art. 144(1)(a): permits courts and tribunals to exclude the public if to do so is in the interests of the welfare of persons under the age of eighteen
• Art. 145(3): provides that no one attending a place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or take part in or attend any religious ceremony that relates to any religion that is not his or her own, except with his or her consent or, when under 18, the consent of his or her parents
• Art. 215(1): makes provision for the application of pension rights for widows, children and dependants

Legislation: there is no single consolidated Children's Act in Guyanese law, rather legislation of relevance to children can be found in a number of Acts. Legislation of particular relevance to children includes, but is by no means limited to:

• The Status of Children Act No. 19 of 2009
• The Childcare and Protection Agency Act No. 2 of 2009
• The Protection of Children Act No. 17 of 2009
• The Criminal Law Offences Act No. 16 of 2005
• The Adoption of Children Act No. 18 of 2009
• The Prevention of Crimes (Amendment) Act No. 11 of 2008
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act No. 32 of 1997
• The Sexual Offence Act No. 7 of 2010
• The Marriage Act 2005
• The Amerindian Act 2006
• The Persons with Disabilities Act 2010

Legal Research
The Constitution of Guyana is available through the website of the Organisation of American States (http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/en/guy/en_guy-int-text-const.pdf) and the Government Information Agency has published domestic laws related to the functioning of the State (http://gina.gov.gy/wp/?page_id=134). The World Law Guide website provides access to a selection of national legislation in English (http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/oeur/lxweguy.htm) as does the International Labour Organisation website, NATLEX (http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.country?p_lang=en&p_country=GUY). In addition, the World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/2727.html) and the U.S. Law library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/guyana.php) both provide a access to a selection of legal and governmental resources.

Case Law
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Case Law Research
The Caribbean Court of Justice, the final court of appeal for Guyana, publishes its judgments in English through its website (http://www.caribbeancourtofjustice.org/judgments-proceedings).

Compliance with the CRC
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its Concluding Observations of 2013, noted the adoption of legislation in relation to children, but expressed concern that the State had not conducted a comprehensive review of its laws to ensure full compatibility with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee expressed further concern at the States failure to conduct reforms of the judicial system, including by establishing a Family Court and by adopting the Juvenile Justice Bill.

In depth analysis
Juvenile justice was an area of Guyanese law about which the Committee raised a number of concerns. In particular, the Committee expressed concern at the low minimum age of criminal responsibility (10 years) and that children aged 17 could be tried as adults. The fact that the Juvenile Justice Bill of 2008 had not been enacted was also a source of concern, alongside the fact that status offences, such as vagabondage, continued to exist in criminal law, and children in conflict with the law did not have access to adequate free legal advice and representation. The Committee urged the State to conduct broad reforms of the juvenile justice system, including by raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility; by ensuring that children are never tried as adults; by abolishing status offences and by establishing juvenile detention and rehabilitation facilities, and corresponding independent monitoring bodies.

Child labour was also an area of Guyanese law that the Committee considered fell short of the requirements of the Convention. In particular, the Committee urged the State to address the lack of clarity on the definition of child labour within domestic legislation, a definition which should include domestic work and work in family businesses, and to define within law the forms of hazardous work in which all persons under 18 must be prohibited from being employed.

The Committee also raised concerns at the prevalence and legality of corporal punishment and urged the State to explicitly prohibit all such violence in all settings.

Current law reform projects
Guyana proposed a Juvenile Justice Bill in 2008, but as of the time of writing, this Bill had not been enacted.