MATRIX ON THE MINUMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPOSIBILITY (MACR)

IN THE ASEAN, JAPAN AND CHINA

COUNTRY MACR BASIS
BRUNEI 7 No one can be held criminally responsible for an offence
DARUSSALAM committed while under the age of 7. (Penal Code, Section 82).

Children older than 7 but younger than 12 can only be held

criminally responsible where they have sufficient maturity of
understanding to judge the nature and consequences of their
actions at the time of the offence (Penal Code, Section 83).
CAMBODIA 14 Children as young as 14 can be convicted of a criminal offence
“if the circumstances of the offence or the personality of the
minor justify doing so.”

However; children younger than 14 can be subjected to

measures of “surveillance, education, protection and
assistance”. (Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia,
Article 39)
INDONSESIA 8 People can be held criminally responsible for their actions
from the age of 8 [See Third and fourth periodic reports of
Indonesia to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,
CRC/C/IND/3-4, 31 October 2012, para. 165]. As of 2012, a bill
that would raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility
was under consideration, but at the time of writing, it had not
been enacted. [See Inter Press Service, “Commission seeks
rehabilitation, not detention”, 10 February 2012]
LAOS 15 No one can be held criminally responsible for an action carried
out while under the age of 15. (Penal Law, Articles 7 and 17)
MALAYSIA 10 Malaysia Malaysia has a dual system of secular and Islamic
law, which has resulted in a number of different minimum
ages of responsibility depending on which branch of the law is
applicable.

* Under the Penal Code, a person can be held criminally

responsible from the age of 10. [Penal Code, Article 82. See
also Child Act Article 2]

* Under the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act

1997, Muslim children can be held criminally responsible from
the onset of puberty. [Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal
Territories) Act 1997, Articles 2 and 51]
 * Offences under the Internal Security Act can be prosecuted
regardless of age. [Essential (Security Cases) Regulations 1975,
Article 3]
MYANMAR 7 No person can be held criminally responsible for an offence
carried out while under the age of seven. Children aged seven
to 12 may only be held criminally responsible where they have
“attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the
nature and consequences” of their conduct. [Child Law,
Section 28(a) and (b)
PHILIPPINES 15 No one can be held criminally responsible for an act carried
out while under the age of 15. Children aged older than 15 but
younger than 18 can only be held criminally responsible where
they have “acted with discernment”. [Republic Act No. 10630,
Section 6]
SINGAPORE 7 Children can be held criminally responsible for offences
committed from the age of seven. Children aged older than
seven but younger than 12 cannot be held criminally
responsible unless they have “attained sufficient maturity of
understanding to judge the nature and consequence of [their]
conduct on that occasion.” [Penal Code, Sections 82 and 83]
THAILAND 7 No person can be held criminally responsible for an offence
committed while under the age of seven. A child older than
seven but younger than 14 cannot be “punished”, but can be
subjected a number of sentences including detention in a
school or place of training and instruction. [Penal Code,
Sections 73 and 74(1)-(5)]
VIETNAM 14 A child aged 14 or older can be held criminally responsible for
“very serious crimes intentionally committed or particularly
serious crimes”. A child aged 16 or older can be held criminally
responsible for any offence. Children aged 14 to 18 are
classified as “juvenile offenders” if they are convicted of a
criminal offence. [Criminal Code, Articles 12 and 68]
JAPAN 14 The Penal Code asserts that no one can be punished under the
criminal law for any act carried out while under the age of 14
[Penal Code, Article 40]. However, amendments made to the
Juvenile Act in 2007 permitted the Family Courts to commit
children as young as 11 to Juvenile Training Schools under the
administration of the Ministry of Justice Correction Bureau.
[See Cipriani, D. (2009), Children’s Rights and the Minimum
Age of Criminal Responsibility: A Global Perspective, Farnham:
Ashgate Publishing Limited, p.201 for further reading]
CHINA 16 Generally, people can be held criminally responsible from the
age of 16, but children can be held criminally responsible for
intentional homicide, intentionally hurting another person so
as to cause serious injury of death, rape, robbery, drug-
trafficking, arson, explosion or poisoning from the age of 14.
[Criminal Law of the People's republic of China, Article 17]