AG: New rules will have profound impact

“They would have a profound impact on operationalising the new law, namely the measures relating to the Children and Family Division of the High Court,” Al Rawi told reporters outside of the Hall of Justice where he attended the opening of the Law Term. He said nineteen pieces of legislation were affected. “Those rules will come to assist in how we operationalise the Children’s Act, the foster-care arrangements, adoption, all of the court processes that are involved around children and who were previously referred to as juveniles.” Of his own role, the Attorney General said, “I am not a stranger to any of this. I am an active participant in all of these rules. Yes, the rules are ready. I will remind you that we have laid and have pushed the Criminal Proceedings Rules – which is a very significant development that will become operational in January 2017 – and the new rules have been sent for signature and we expect to push that out.

That is an exercise of significant amount of work among several stakeholders.” Al Rawi also said he hoped to table a bill on child marriage “in September” in a sign that the House of Representatives may be convened before the Budget (September 30).

“It is ready and it will come to the LRC for a final session this Monday and that’s a matter which I hope to bring to Parliament in September,” the Attorney General said. “We’ve canvassed the views of thousands of people. We’ve received submissions from many. And we’ve done that work across the board, be it in relation to the criminal justice side of the equation, the prison system, the children’s system.”