Dealing with children in conflict with the law : applying restorative justice in Maldives / Fathimath Roona

Abstract

As Maldives is about to endorse Restorative Justice as a principle to address and to combat Juvenile Crime in Maldives and to reintegrate children back to the society it is important to understand the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in Maldives and also provide policy direction and recommendations to bring a lasting change to society. Thus, the purpose of this case study is to explore the existing Juvenile Justice System and identify areas of improvement to enhance its efficiency. A qualitative case study was used to explore the issue. For this, relevant stakeholders from Male' city were selected based on convenience sampling while two cases were selected from juvenile justice unit using purposive sampling. Semistructured interviewing was applied. Data analysis involves collecting open- ended data based on asking general questions and developing an analysis from the information supplied by participants. Upon examining it became clear that Restorative Justice Approach is seen as a very contemporary concept to the criminal justice system in Maldives. In juvenile justice system there is some understanding about the concept and its practices among the stakeholders. It is a model that is being adopted by all the stakeholders within the juvenile justice system. Maldives is still in its infant stage in the implementation of restorative justice approach. There are few programmes and practices continuing within juvenile justice system. With regard to the current restorative justice programmes Juvenile Court and Juvenile Justice Unit plays a very significant role in promoting and implementing the restorative justice programmes in Maldives. These stakeholders conduct Family Group and Community Conferencing based on the principles of Restorative Justice Approach as a promising programme that will transform the way juvenile offenders are handled within the system. As children within the system are encouraged to be accountable and responsibility by allowing the offender to repair the damage that had been caused to the relationship. Where offender gets what he deserves and the victim, offender and the communities concerns and needs are considered as central aim within the system. However, the primary demerit that challenges the effort to strengthen the system is that there is no law that explicitly stated that juvenile justice system needs to be established nor a restorative justice approach needs to be applied and implemented in Maldives. In addition, political instability, lack of trained and qualified personnel within all stakeholders, lack of monitoring mechanism hinders the effort put forward by the stakeholders. Moreover, there is resistance from community and families to accept children who have ever been caught up in the juvenile justice system