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National law and policies on minimum ages – Haiti

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Source: Initial report: CRC/C/51/Add.7, 21 June 2002

 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
Information unavailable
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
34. The Labour Code sets the minimum age for paid work by children at 15, but hiring requires the authorization of the Labour Department. However, according to the Labour Code, a child may enter domestic service at the age of 12, although this requires the authorization of the Social Welfare and Research Institute (IBESR), which no longer grants authorization as it is against such domestic service on principle.
 
Minimum age for marriage
32. In Haitian legislation, the child is referred to as a “minor”. Article 392 of the Haitian Civil Code defines a minor as a person of either sex who has not yet reached the age of 18, which is the age of civil and political majority and matrimonial capability. However, a girl who becomes pregnant before reaching the age of majority may marry the baby’s father provided that her parents consent or accept responsibility and that the President of the Republic authorizes the marriage.6
6 In practice, things do not happen like this: people marry without taking this authorization into account or requesting it.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
264. […] Haitian legislation establishes the principle of exemption from criminal liability of minors under 13 years of age, and sets the age of criminal majority at about 16 years. Between 13 and 16 years a minor who has committed a minor offence will be liable to a simple reprimand or a fine. A minor who has committed a serious offence or a crime will be punishable by an educational measure or, if appropriate, by a criminal sentence, whereby the juvenile court has discretion, by a reasoned decision, to reject the mitigating excuse of minority.
265. Article 51 of the Criminal Code stipulates, however, that when the circumstances of the case or the personality of the accused minor so require, mitigated responsibility may be recognized. In this case, the minor may receive a sentence of eight years of treatment in a State corrective education centre or a maximum of three years in a specialized professional centre.
266. In the case of a serious offence or crime, the juvenile court will take measures for the protection, supervision or education of children under 11 years of age.
 
Source: Initial report: CRC/C/51/Add.7, 21 June 2002