KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — The government is finalising the draft Children (Amendment) Bill 2026 for submission to the Cabinet for consideration, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M Kulasegaran.
He said the amendments aimed to improve Section 97 of the Child Act 2001 (Act 611) following the abolition of mandatory death sentences and life imprisonment in 2023 and seek to establish a more proportionate sentencing approach and eliminate indefinite imprisonment of juvenile offenders without a specified detention period.
Kulasegaran said that under the existing Subsection 97(2) of Act 611, the court must order a child offender to be detained in prison at the pleasure of the King or the State Ruler, as applicable under the relevant laws, without specifying a maximum detention period.
