Prosecutor General (PG) Hussain Shameem has said that sentencing juveniles would create a generation of criminals.

In a social media post, Shameem said that there are children who commit crimes everywhere in the world and instead of jailing such children, the countries conduct rehabilitation programs to help them.

"Everywhere in the world, delinquent children are treated. Not punished. Lowering the age of taking responsibility form crimes is not the solution. If every child who commits a crime is sentenced to jail, it will create a generation of criminal," PG Shameem said

He added that sentencing juveniles to prison will result in driving the latter to a life of crime. PG Shameem noted that Maldives has a system in place to provide necessary rehabilitation to juvenile offenders.

"There are professionals in the country who can do this. If the state is focused on the programme for the 50-odd juveniles who commit crimes, it will be a successful investment," he said.

Speaking at a news conference held last night after a video of a group of children being beaten up at a mosque in Rasdhoo, Attorney General Ahmed Usham said that Article 33 of the Constitution obliges the state to provide protection to children and that is why the Juvenile Justice Act was passed in 2019 and came into force in 2020.

Usham said that four years after the act came into force, the rehabilitation centres to be built by the state under the Act and most of what was required to be done under it were not done, but the present government has been working on amendments to the act in the last four months.

"For one thing, the government has decided to increase the age limit for liability for offences mentioned in Section 27 of the Juvenile Justice Act from 15 to 12 years," Usham said.

Usham said that if a child is taken to a detention centre, a court order is required, but the law does not specify which court has to go to seek the order.