13th Amendment: Power Play or Public Protection?

Minister Musa broke it down like this: the proposed Thirteenth Amendment is all about clearing up confusion around the current state of emergency laws in the Constitution. To do that, the government is leaning on parts of the existing Crime Control and Criminal Justice Act, specifically the section that talks about creating what they call ‘special areas.’ But here’s the key part, Minister Musa says the amendment also adds an extra layer of oversight. That means stricter checks and balances before any area can be declared ‘special’ under a state of emergency.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We are fleshing out the state of emergency into the constitution but in a way we are saying specifically, because the state of emergency is only for public safety. It is very vague. Now you think of natural disasters and the looting that happens and you may say well maybe that is what the framers of the constitution wanted, for us to have legislation that address that. We are saying in 2025, as was recognized in 1993 that we need to flesh it out more to say that this is a crime fighting, life saving tool that we want to keep in our tool box as a measure of last resort, not something to be used everyday but something  to say listen this is getting our of control, the public is not giving statements, we need to hit the pause button. Its not just the minister, it’s not just the prime minister, it is not just the police that gets to decide anymore under this law. It is an entire security council made up of the military, the coast guard, foreign affairs, all of these parties must now listen to the report from the police and say whether it is justifiable tat we now call an area a special area for one month, similar to the provision for state of emergency now with greater oversight.”