Act 18 2020 - CHILDREN (AMENDMENT) ACT

[25th May 2020] Supplement to Official Gazette 241 CHILDREN (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2020 (Act 18 of 2020) I assent Danny Faure President 19th May, 2020 AN ACT to provide for further protection of children; the abolition of corporal punishment against children; and to give effect to requirements under international conventions on children rights and for matters incidental thereto. ENACTED by the President and the National Assembly. 1. This Act may be cited as the Children (Amendment) Short title Act, 2020. 242 Supplement to Official Gazette [25th May 2020] Amendment of 2. The Children Act is amended as follows — Cap 28 as last amended by (a) in section 2 by inserting in the proper Act 14 of 2016 alphabetical order the following definition — “corporal punishment” means any kind of physical punishment of a child to maintain discipline or to enforce a rule in the exercise of parental authority, or rights or authority derived from having charge, custody, access, care, maintenance, or control of the child; (b) by inserting immediately after section 44 the following as section 44A — Application for “44A.(1) An application made an adoption under section 44 for an adoption order order to comply with shall be subject to the requirements the under the Hague Conventions. requirements under Hague Convention. (2) For the purposes of this section, “Hague Conventions” means the Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, 1993, and the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 1980, as ratified by the Republic. (3) The Ministry or Department responsible for children affairs is designated as the Central Authority to discharge the duties imposed by the Hague Conventions. (c) in section 70 by repealing subsection (7); (d) by inserting immediately after section 70A the following as section 70B — [25th May 2020] Supplement to Official Gazette 243 “70B.(1) Notwithstanding any other Prohibition of corporal law, no child shall be subjected to corporal punishment punishment. (2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of SCR25,000 or to imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or to both a fine and imprisonment, provided that the Court shall first consider other appropriate means of disposing of the matter, taking into consideration the relationship between the offender and the child.”; (e) in section 107 in paragraph (o) — (i) by repealing subparagraph (iii); (ii) in subparagraph (iv) by deleting the words “other lesser punishments for, or”. I certify that this is a correct copy of the Bill which was passed by the National Assembly on 12th May, 2020. Mrs. Tania Isaac Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly