Health Legislation

This act has the aim to consolidate and reform the laws relating to the protection and welfare of children and to provide for incidental matters. The Act covers aspects such as the rights of a child and the responsibilities of its parents; the child in need of care and protection; the offences to health and welfare of children; the conditions to take a child into care and for adoption; trafficking of children; child rehabilitation and conflict with criminal law; police powers and duties regarding children and legislation regarding minor’s criminal law.

This Act provides for integrated and coordinated disaster management that focuses on prevention, preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery from, disasters or emergency situations, and the management of their effects, establishes a National Disaster Management Agency and Regional, District and Village Disaster Management Committees.

These guidelines provide the required standards on the establishment, registration, management and supervision of early childhood development (ECD) services. These are to ensure the effective implementation of ECD programmes.

This Act sets out the rights and responsibilities of children, consolidates the laws relating to children, provides for the care, protection and maintenance of children, establishes a Children’s Court, provides for a criminal justice system for children and other connected purposes.

This Act provides for a legal and institutional framework for sustainable management of the environment; outlines principles for management, impact and risk assessments, prevention and control of pollution, waste management, environmental quality standards, public participation, compliance and enforcement; provides for implementation of international instruments on environment; provides for implementation of the National Environment Policy; repeals the National Environment Management Act, 1983; provides for the National Environment Management Council and the National Environmental Trust Fund.

This Act provides for an integrated and co-ordinated disaster management policy that focuses on preventing or reducing the risk of disasters, mitigating the severity of disasters, emergency preparedness, rapid and effective response to disasters and post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation; regulates the establishment and functioning of national, provincial and municipal disaster management centres; regulates disaster management volunteers and matters incidental thereto.

The Children's Act of 1998 reforms and consolidates the law relating to children, provides for the rights of the child, maintenance and adoption, regulates child labour and apprenticeship, for ancillary matters concerning children generally and provides for related matters.

The Act is to establish the Disaster Management Authority; to regulate its powers and functions and to make provision with respect to emergencies arising out of disasters including prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery measures for the protection of life and property from the effects of disasters.

This Act makes provision for the co-ordination and implementation of measures to alleviate effects to disasters, the establishment of the office of Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness and Relief the establishment of a National Disaster Preparedness and Relief Committee of Malawi, and for matters incidental thereto or connected therewith.