KUALA LUMPUR: A special committee has been established to study possible amendments to section 97 of the Child Act 2001 particularly on the risk of indefinite detention of children, says M. Kulasegaran.
The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said the government was aware of the lack of a fixed detention period under the existing law.
He said the need to review the provision was essential after mandatory death penalty and life imprisonment were abolished in 2023, introducing clear imprisonment terms for adult offenders but not children.
"The committee will examine improvements to the provision, so that it is consistent with the principles of the best interests of the child, juvenile justice and international best practices.
"The government itself is in the phase of reviewing and discussing policy regarding proposed amendments to Section 97 of Act 611.
"This includes reviewing improvements such as clearer determination of detention periods, annual review mechanisms and approaches more focused on rehabilitation and reintegration of children into society," he told the Dewan Rakyat during Question time on Tuesday (July 7).
Kulasegaran said committee members would include representatives of relevant ministries and government agencies, professional legal bodies and child rights experts, such as from the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and Unicef.
He added that there are currently 40 individuals detained under section 97 of the Child Act 2001.
This comprises individuals from the age groups of below one year (four), one to five years' old (14); five to 10 (seven); 10 to 15 (eight); 15 to 20 (four) and 20 to 25 (three).
Kulasegaran was responding to Kesavan Subramaniam (PH-Sungai Siput) on the number of individuals still detained under Section 97 of the Children Act 2001 and the government's efforts to better align the law with international standards.
