A/HRC/10/70 Page 5 destinations in the United States. More recently, a growing number of these nationals seek unauthorized employment in the Bahamas. 12. In noting that conditions at the immigration detention centre are austere but not punitive, the Bahamas considered that crowding has been a problem, particularly since the deliberate destruction by fire of a building by a number of detainees. All immigration detainees are provided with adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical attention and care if necessary. While detainees are not denied access to legal representation, the Bahamas does not have a statutory regime of legal aid, except for capital offences and/or where an accused person seeks assistance for the purpose of plea bargaining. The delegation noted that the Eugene Dupuch Law School of the Council of Legal Education operates a legal aid clinic, where detainees may seek assistance. 13. The Bahamas stated that “Bahamianization” refers to the policy of ensuring Bahamian citizens their right to benefit from economic opportunities. International persons whose gainful employment in the Bahamas is regulated under the provisions of the immigration act may only be granted work permits where a suitably qualified and competent Bahamian is not available. During 300 years of colonial rule, the black majority of the Bahamian population were employed as slave labour and, following emancipation, generally denied access to opportunities for education, training and economic advancement by successive colonial administrations. Free men of colour were enfranchised in colonial times but property and/or business ownership requirements denied many their eligibility to participate in elections. Company and property votes were not abolished until 1962, women were enfranchised in 1961, and majority government was finally achieved in 1967. 14. The delegation noted that one of the first decisions of the first majority Government was to improve the education and professional capacities of the Bahamian population, including through a large-scale expansion of the Government-operated secondary school system, technical and vocational training and Government scholarship schemes. This empowerment of Bahamian citizens has been gender- and race-blind since its inception, notwithstanding a colonial history of racial discrimination. The Bahamas stated that it does not intend to adjust its immigration policy to permit the unlimited engagement of non-Bahamians in the Bahamian economy to the disadvantage of its citizens. 15. In noting that the age of criminal responsibility in the Bahamas is 7 years, the delegation pointed out that it was a product of its colonial past, which established that, in English common law, a person under the age of 7 could not be held liable for a criminal offence. The Bahamas considered that there is no domestic lobby to raise the age of criminality. However, children below the age of 18 who are sentenced by a court serve their sentences in juvenile residential facilities administered and managed by the Department of Social Services, not by the Prison Department. The death penalty cannot be imposed on a person whose age at the time the offence was committed was below 18. The Bahamas acknowledged that the age of criminal responsibility in many Member States has been increased following recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and stated that consideration will be given to reviewing the age of criminality in the Bahamas as a part of ongoing legal reform. 16. In commenting on corporal punishment, the Bahamas noted that, with respect to children, Bahamian law permits parents to use corporal punishment to correct a child under the age of 16 for misconduct or disobedience of a lawful command; it is also permissible for a parent to delegate such power of correction to a schoolmaster. The Bahamas considered that corporal punishment of a minor allowable by law does not amount to the sanctioning of child abuse,