2nd National Conference on Orphans and Other ... - FHI 360

OTHER LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS
RELEVANT TO CHILDREN
I want to conclude by mentioning several other
legal developments of relevance to children.
The Maintenance Bill is now before
Parliament. This is a new law that would cover
child maintenance paid by parents or anyone
else legally liable to maintain another person.
This could extend to a number of family members,
but in practice our Maintenance Act is used
primarily for children. We have had an Act in
place for many years, but it is being overhauled.
The bill before Parliament is very exciting. For
example, it has a number of administrative
changes that will make the Act practically much
more workable for mothers and their children,
i.e. the people who will use it most. Also, it is
completely gender-neutral; a father can claim
maintenance from an absent mother if the father
has custody of the child. But again, in practice
in Namibia it is used almost 100% by mothers
caring for children and seeking maintenance
from absent fathers, or by grandmothers or
extended family members caring for children.
We have a Domestic Violence Bill, which
is expected to be introduced in Parliament
during the current session. This legislation looks
at all acts of domestic violence, but with a
specific eye on abused children. There are some
provisions meant to help children in particular.
For example, in the case of a child, civil and
criminal proceedings regarding domestic violence
can be brought by someone else acting on
behalf of the child, e.g. a parent, teacher, social
worker, or anyone having an interest in the wellbeing
of the child. There is also a provision that
says if you allow a child to witness violence and
you are the perpetrator of that violence, then
you have also committed domestic violence
against the child, simply by exposing the child
to violence. The bill recognises that even if you
have not lifted a finger against the child, a child
in a violent environment is suffering from the
violent atmosphere.
There is also a Vulnerable Witnesses Bill,
which would look at the position of children and
other vulnerable witnesses when they testify in
court. It is often an extremely traumatic experience
for children to testify; they are terrified by
the formality and strangeness of it. This Act
would provide for things like allowing the child
to testify by way of closed-circuit television or a
one-way screen, so that a child who has suffered
sexual abuse would not have to tell the story
with the perpetrator staring her/him in the face.
The Act would also require that questions be
put through the presiding judge or another
intermediary so that the lawyer defending the
accused could not badger the child or intentionally
try to confuse the child so she/he will
sound less credible. This bill seems to be stalled
somewhere in the Ministry of Justice, but it is an
extremely urgent matter because we have so
much sexual abuse against children. Anything
we can do to make life easier for children who
have been through such a trauma would certainly
be an important development.
Finally, we have a draft Divorce Act now
with a Law Reform and Development Commission
(LRDC) sub-committee which is about to
finalise recommendations for the consideration
of the full LRDC. Again, special attention is paid
to children in this bill. The sub-committee’s idea
is that there should be a Family Advocate who
looks at the child’s best interest – not in every
divorce case, but in cases where there seem to
be problematic circumstances, e.g. where one
party has alleged abuse against the other, or
where there is a proposal to split up siblings, or
in other such unusual circumstances that make
it difficult for a court to decide without extra input
on what would be in the child’s best interest.
I believe we have some very interesting and
exciting developments in support of vulnerable
children arising in a lot of different legal contexts,
and I hope this overview has given this forum a
sense of where children stand under our new
and forthcoming laws. Thank you.
Ms Katjiuongua thanked Ms Hubbard for a thorough update, adding that the issues raised are very
pertinent and time would have to be set aside during the course of the conference for some participants
to deliberate on them. She opened the floor for a few pertinent questions on burning issues raised in
the update.
14 <strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report