ARTICLE - JUVENILE DELINQUENCY MEASURES

PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF PORT-AU-PRINCE ANNOUNCES MEASURES TO CURB JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The Prosecutor's Office of Port-au-Prince, the Brigade of Civil Protection, the Ouest Departmental Directorate of Education, and several other institutions are coming together to curb juvenile delinquency in the capital.

In the wake of this process, a working meeting was held on January 11 at the Department of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince.

At the initiative of the Department of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, and following various complaints to the Prosecutor, a working meeting was held on January 11 on the problem of juvenile delinquency; amplified recently in the capital,.... including the phenomenon of "after school" where students are often surprised at the hours of courses in dance clubs, and engaging in lewd practices.

Taking part at this meeting, were the Brigade for the protection of minors of the Central Directorate of judicial police, social welfare and Research Institute, the town halls of Port - au Prince, Delmas and Carrefour, the departmental Directorate of education, as well as Unicef and Minustah partners.

"Recognizing that the current practices in some obscene sound clubs, hotels, motels, and sometimes in broad daylight do evil to childhood and adolescence, and undermine morality", participants at the meeting, signed a joint statement in which formal instructions are passed to the brigade for the protection of minors to investigate, apprehend and bring in for state prosecution any individual who is an author, co-author or accomplice of debauchery and corruption of young people under 18.

The communiqué urges owners of nightclubs, hotels and motels to respect the obligation to ensure the civil majority as 18 years of age in Haiti.

School principals and parents, were invited to observe and apply the provisions of the decree of 8 December 1968 on minors.

Note that at the end of November 2011, a decent police officer in a Dance Club of a neighbourhood in the centre of Port -au-Prince arrested 20 schoolchildren in uniform. The owner of the Club was arrested and there was a provisional closure of this place of sexual debauchery.