Promoting Child Rights Protection
The Republic Act 9344 known as the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act of 2006 celebrated 10 years of its existence. This law recognizes the right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty and exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development. It further defines a child at risk and a child in conflict with the law. This law also points to the minimum age of criminal liability: A child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of the commission of the offense shall be exempt from criminal liability. Children are often used in drug trafficking nowadays because of this exemption. Hence, some call for a lowering of this minimum age so that children committing heinous crimes can be put behind bars. Child rights advocates insist that in these instances, children are victims too. The Philippines signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights o...