PETALING JAYA: Release the six children being held under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), urge NGOs.
The CRIB (Child Rights Innovation & Betterment) Foundation and 19 other groups and individuals, in a joint statement on Tuesday (March 3), said that they were concerned about recent reports of the detention and that provisions under the Child Act 2001 must be used instead.
"The CRIB Foundation and the undersigned are concerned by reports that at least six children have been arrested and detained under Sosma, including two 17-year-old boys arrested at their homes in Alor Setar and Langkawi on February 15, and reportedly held at Bukit Aman for more than two weeks.
"The arrest of children at home and their continued detention under a security statute raise serious questions about whether the correct legal framework is being applied.
"Where the state forms the view that a child has committed a serious offence, the proper course is to charge the child and bring the matter before the appropriate court with the full safeguards afforded to children under the law. The use of Sosma detention powers in relation to minors bypasses those safeguards," it said.
It also urged the authorities to release the six back into their parents' care, where possible.
"If investigations are to continue, the children must be returned to parental care or placed within the lawful structures provided under the Child Act 2001, subject to judicial oversight and best-interests determination," it said.
It also urged that immediate access must be given to family members and that a directive must be issued stating that children are not to be arrested or detained under Sosma, and that all cases involving minors must proceed strictly under the child-justice system.
Legislative reforms must also be taken to explicitly prohibit the use of Sosma for the detention of children and to "introduce explicit statutory safeguards where national security allegations involve minors".
"Malaysia has affirmed, domestically and internationally, that the rights of the child are not secondary considerations. Those assurances must be reflected in the legal pathways chosen when children are arrested.
"Children should not be processed through security detention architecture designed for adults," it said.
