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National law and policies on minimum ages – Dominica

 

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/8/Add.48, 28 May 2004
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
57. The Education Act No. II of 1997 defines compulsory school age to mean from 5 years to 16 years of age. According to section 36 of the Act, ‘…the parents of every child of compulsory school age shall ensure that the child receives an education by regular attendance at school’.
343. The Education Act 11 of 1997, section 27, makes provision for compulsory education. The compulsory school age is defined to be from 5 years of age to 16-years of age. Section 36 legislates that it is the duty of parents to ensure that the child receives an education by regular attendance at a school. Section 38 of the Act also makes provision for school attendance counsellors to assist teachers in the counselling of children of compulsory school age and their parents in the enforcement of the compulsory attendance provisions of the Act. However, no such officers have been appointed.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
58. The Employment of Children (Prohibition) Act (chap. 90:05) defines a child as ‘a person who is under the age of twelve years’. Section 3 of that Act prohibits the employment of persons under that age.
59. The employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act (chap. 90:06, sect. 4(1)) states: ‘No child shall be employed or work in any public or private industrial undertaking, or in any branch thereof, other than an undertaking on which only members of the same family are employed.’
60. The Act defines a child as a person under the age of 14 years.
62. The Act states that no child shall be employed or work on any ship. In respect of young persons, section 7 (1) states: ‘No young person shall be employed or work during the night in any public or private industrial undertaking, other than an undertaking on which only members of the same family are employed.’
 
Minimum age for marriage
65. The minimum age at which someone may enter marriage is 16 years. The Marriage Act, (chap. 35:01, sect. 29 (2)) states: ‘Any marriage solemnised or celebrated between persons of whom [one] is under the age of sixteen years shall be null and void.’
66. The Act specifies that where either of the parties, not being a widower or a widow, is under the age of18 years, no marriage shall take place between them until the consent of a parent or guardian is obtained. The court may dispense with such consent on the application to the court by either party (sect. 31).
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
69. The Children and Young Persons Act also fixes the age of criminal responsibility. Section 3 states, ‘it shall be conclusively presumed that no child under the age of twelve years can be guilty of an offence’.
 
Source: Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add.48, 28 May 2004