6th IJJO International Conference
Depriving children of their liberty may lead to a long-term and costly psychological and physical damage, since overcrowding, violence and poor detention conditions threaten their development, health and well-being.
This is why the IJJO advocates the design of legislation, public policies and programmes focused on the best interest of the minor that respond to their needs and violence risk factors. Moreover, these policies should be designed based on empirical and scientific evidence, using theoretical models whose impact has been assessed and shown to work in terms of social integration and reduced recidivism.
It is in this context that the International Juvenile Justice Observatory organizes its 6th International Conference: "Making Deprivation of Children’s Liberty a Last Resort: Towards evidence-based policies on alternatives", which will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on December 3 and 4, 2014.
Belgium has become the new host country for the conference due to the unstable political situation in Thailand, the original venue.
Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the implementation of international and regional initiatives in this field led by the UN, the European institutions and civil society, the Conference will address the need to improve the effectiveness of the policies and programmes aimed at breaking cycles of violence in its different stages, with the priority given to alternatives to detention, mediation and conflict resolution in a social, family and community environment.
The Call for Papers is still open. In the coming days, as in previous editions, we will keep you constantly informed of the registration and participation procedures, as well as of the other details of the IJJO 6th International Conference’s agenda.
Send us any question related to the Conference at [email protected]
Children, Adolescents and Young People Deprived of Liberty
Despite the number of UN Standards and Regional Recommendations, many children, adolescents and young people are still held for significant periods of time in police custody, pre-trial detention or are deprived of their liberty as a sanction.
The excessive use of liberty deprivation may be due to several factors, such as an absence of national legislation on alternative measures, punitive and repressive approaches that respond to perceptions of insecurity, and the criminalisation of adolescents and young people in risk situations who are caught up in cycles of violence.
As stated in the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, “Promoting Restorative Justice For Children”, alternatives outside court such as mediation, community intervention and restorative justice have proved to be very efficient ways of dealing with adolescents and young people in conflict with the law. They offer a quicker, less formal, and cost-efficient response to offending behaviour, thus allowing the juveniles to better understand the consequences of their actions, to take responsibility for their deeds and to accept the reparation owed to victims.
Main Objectives
The 6th IJJO International Conference will provide the opportunity to look further at how to prioritize alternatives to the deprivation of liberty and to implement better restorative juvenile justice approaches. Consequently law reform aspects will be addressed, as will the need to orientate interventions towards the best interest of the minor and to the specific needs of each young person or adolescent, through the use of empirical evidence-based models.
Issues to be discussed include:
- Promoting law reforms that avoid repressive approaches and guarantee a diversification of measures.
- Reducing the number of minors deprived of liberty and improving the conditions and evaluation of international standards.
- Promoting the design of public policies and programs focused on the best interest of the minor, their needs and risk factors.
- Promoting out-of-court responses and restorative practices by reinforcing the role of the community and others such as school, family etc.
- Implementing mechanisms and instruments that enable the impact and effectiveness of juvenile justice policies to be monitored and assessed.
For more information please see the section on the conference’s Topics.