Educational Measures and Sanctions for Juvenile Offenders to be Implemented in Soup Kitchens

Ministers of Justice and Administration and Labour, Social Policy, Displaced Persons and Refugees of Sarajevo Canton Mario Nenadić and Amela Dautbegović signed agreements today on the application of special educational measures and obligations for juvenile offenders with representatives of the Soup Kitchen "Stari Grad", the People's Kitchen "Jela na kotačima" of the Vrhbosna Archdiocese, and the Red Cross of Sarajevo Canton Zilhom Šeta, Katarinom Ivanko and Enaidom Višo.

The implementation of these agreements will enable the application of a special sanction from the Law on Protection and Treatment of Children and Juveniles in Criminal Proceedings, which aims to eliminate the harmful consequences of criminal offenses in criminal legislation for juveniles. According to this law, juvenile offenders of minor criminal offenses in Sarajevo Canton will soon be able to serve their sentences in one of the three mentioned public kitchens.

Minister Nenadić reminded after the signing that the aforementioned law includes three types of sanctions for juveniles: educational measures, security measures, and juvenile imprisonment, which can be imposed on older juveniles for specific criminal offenses.

- This special obligation is one of ten educational measures and is carried out in such a way that a judge can impose this measure for a duration of up to 120 hours maximum within a period of six months. Juveniles carry out this measure in humanitarian organizations that deal with social, local, and ecological activities. The juvenile judge imposes and supervises the execution of this measure - explained Minister Nenadić.

He added that these humanitarian organizations, i.e., kitchens, have committed to accepting up to two juvenile persons at a time, and that the agreements are signed for one year.

- The Ministry of Justice and Administration is responsible for ensuring and creating conditions for the execution of this educational measure, and depending on the needs, as well as the practice established by juvenile judges in Sarajevo Canton, it will be determined whether other humanitarian organizations need to be involved in this activity and monitor their execution - stated Minister Nenadić.

He emphasized that this measure can only be carried out in non-profit organizations and that it is implemented free of charge, meaning that neither juveniles can be engaged in for-profit organizations, nor can they be paid for this engagement.

- This is a useful measure through which the Ministry contributes to the legislation in the field of juvenile delinquency, which has not been regulated in Sarajevo Canton until now - assessed Minister Nenadić.

The Minister of Labour, Social Policy, Displaced Persons and Refugees of Sarajevo Canton Amela Dautbegović stated that these agreements stem from the established Action Plan for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and Work with Juveniles in Contact with the Justice System 2017-2019.

- By carrying out this type of measure, i.e., by sending our children from Sarajevo Canton to implement it, society is trying to offer them a helping hand and pull them away from their negative behavior, because the family has failed and has most often become the cause of all this. Sending children to implement this educational measure, which they carry out in humanitarian organizations, will have positive effects, and children will emerge better from it, as this sanction can achieve much better results than when children are placed in closed institutions - explained Minister Dautbegović.

As highlighted by Enaida Višo from the Red Cross, they expect that these three kitchens will successfully fulfill their part of the obligations from the agreement and do a good job, familiarizing the juveniles with everything they do and how they do it, and also guiding them onto the right path with the help of their young activists with whom they will distribute food at our 19 distribution points.

Katarina Ivanko from the People's Kitchen "Jelo na kotačima" said that their common goal is to help these children and guide them onto the right path.

- We have helped the hungry, the poor, and the sick, so why wouldn't we help these healthy children with a kind word, a coffee, peeling some potatoes, or sharing some bread. Those few hours a day will pass like that - stated Zilha Šeta, better known as Tetka Zilha.