recognized in the CRC, to the maximum extent of resources available to them. 115 This is in order
to ensure that the minimum standards set out in the convention are being met. This involves an
assessment of the protection afforded to children by their domestic legal systems.
Trinidad and Tobago ratified the CRC on December 5 1991, and it entered in force domestically
on the January 4 1992.116 This creates an obligation to ensure that legislative policy and
administrative measures are put in place to ensure that children are fully protected in keeping
with Article 4 of the CRC. In keeping with its ratification of the CRC Trinidad and Tobago has
issued periodic reports in February 1996 and in June 2003, on the measures taken domestically to
protect and safeguard the rights of children guaranteed by the CRC.117 It falls to be determined,
upon an examination of the criminal justice system of Trinidad and Tobago, whether the
obligation to protect the rights enshrined in the CRC, is discharged with regards to juvenile
offenders.
A) Ages and Statutory Framework for ascribing criminal liability
Article 1 of the CRC defines a ‘child’ as a person below the age of eighteen unless the laws of a
particular country set the legal age for adulthood younger. This was done in order to maximize
the protection offered by the CRC and to ensure that the rights set forth therein would uniformly
apply to as large an age group as possible.118 It should be noted that by virtue of Article 1,
countries are allowed to set the legal age for adulthood lower than eighteen in their domestic
legislation.
This was done as it was felt that there was a need for flexibility, as the age of 18, was not
necessarily consonant with the age of majority in various countries. The application of the CRC
to persons who are not considered a minor under the domestic law would be incompatible with
115
Supra fn 1 at Article 4
'United Nations Treaty Collection' (Treaties.un 2013)
[accessed 13
March 2013]
117
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Office of the Attorney General ‘Trinidad and Tobago’s Second Periodic Report
under the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (db.natlaw.com 2003) <
http://db.natlaw.com/interam/tr/fl/sp/sptrfl00003.pdf> [accessed 13 March 2013]
116
118
S. Detrik, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1st, Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers, Netherlands 1999) 52,53
84