14. February 07
The Ministry of Justice will send to other ministries for approval a draft act, which prohibits persons convicted of sexual crimes against children from working with children and gives the parents information about the conviction of a person of such crimes in the case of a justified interest.
According to Marju Agarmaa, the Adviser of the Criminal Policy Department of the Ministry of Justice, the purpose of the draft act is to ensure that the persons convicted of a sexual crime against children or a crime relating to minor prostitution or child pornography could not obtain a position where they have direct contact with children.
“Such positions are, for instance, those of a teacher, nursery school teacher, children’s camp counsellor and registered providers of child care services,” said Agarmaa.
According to the draft act, the respective employers are obligated to check the judicial records of the person concerning the said crimes before hiring them. Employers will receive no information about other crimes.
Justice Minister Rein Lang emphasised that limitation of the right to work with children is important from the point of view of prevention of new crimes. “The draft act places the primary responsibility of checking the background of the person on the employer, yet gives the parents, in the case of a justified interest, the right to check whether the person supervising their child has not been convicted of sexual crimes against children,” explained Lang.
There is a justified interest if a child is under the supervision of another person without the presence of a legal representative, e.g. hobby schools, unregistered babysitters, etc.
“This way the parents can check and estimate themselves whether the consumption of the services of the private hobby school, kindergarten, school, babysitter, etc., in the given case is safe or not,” said the Minister.
According to Marju Agarmaa’s explanation, a written inquiry must be made to the Judicial Record in order to obtain the information, explaining the existence of a public interest and clarifying the person about whom information is sought. “The reply will contain only the answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’: whether the person has been punished for a sexual crime against children or not," added Agarmaa.
An employer who hires a person who is prohibited from working with children according to law may be fined.
