There was an interesting story about juvenile trials in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba remaining public for now in last week Tuesday’s newspaper. While in the European Netherlands that’s only the case for legal adults once 18, on the so-called BES islands 16- and 17-year-olds can also be tried in public.
The latter reflects practices in the former Netherlands Antilles and also applies to autonomous countries in the kingdom Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten. It was apparently based on a 1979 recommendation of the – Dutch – Annevelt Committee, ironically never fully applied in the Netherlands.
While the need to protect vulnerable youngsters must obviously be considered, stated advantages of public hearings include transparency of the prosecution and judiciary. The Supreme Court in The Hague in 2008 found that the public trial of a 16-year-old suspect did not violate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Mind you, such legal proceedings can still be private at the request of defence attorneys or prosecutors, especially in cases involving defendants with intellectual disabilities.
A review of the broader juvenile justice system in the Caribbean Netherlands by Scientific Research and Documentation Centre WODC currently underway with results expected next year may lead to a different insight. The policy of this newspaper as the only local media to consistently cover penal court proceedings in Philipsburg is to – in any case – protect the identity of non-adults, even after convicted and sentenced.
The United Kingdom (UK) recently announced reducing the voting age to 16 and the current Canadian government wants to do the same. That’s also when people can serve or even be drafted into the military of many countries.
More importantly, it’s the local sexual consent age, which involves potentially life-changing decisions.
