Legal Aid SA proctects children's rights

11 March 2010 - 14:54
By Lusanda Doko

Legal Aid SA says its lawyers are putting their heads together in a bid to strengthen the organisation's legal mechanisms needed to protect children's rights.

The body made the comments during its two day conference of the Child Law Colloquium, which started in Jo'burg yesterday.

The discussion aims to develop guidelines for its lawyers handling children's civil cases.

The organisation's Patrick Hundermark says the organisation is doing everything they can to secure the best interests of children but he says children are becoming more vulnerable in South Africa in spite of their rights being strengthened in the Constitution.

"This colloquium is about looking at how do you represent children of two years or three years of age, and what your role is there and how you play that role.

"And then there could be children that are 11, 12, 13 [or] older that you can take instructions from like you could from an adult and then act on their instructions and then to look at the guidelines as to how you should deal with children in those circumstances. Specifically where there is conflict between them and maybe their parents."

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