Submitted by crinadmin on
Hungary's Commissioner for Fundamental Rights is deeply concerned about a provision in the draft Hungarian Criminal Code decreasing in some cases the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 years, which may cause the deprivation of child's liberty in case of finding him/her guilty. While there is no common practice of determining unified lowest age of criminal responsibility at European level, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General Comments of CRC Committee embody a clear direction and spirit to build a child-friendly/centered justice system aiming to help, support, and reintegrate children in conflict with the law. In general, criminal statistics and nature of crimes committed by persons under 18, also does not support this amendment, and in this model deprivation of liberty can be used only as a last resort and for the shortest possible term. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, as Children’s Rights Ombudsman believes that problems of ‘deviant’ children can be solved primarily not with criminal sanctions, but with close and dialogue-based cooperation of child care professionals, as social workers, child care institutions, health care professionals, schools, etc. to support prevention, emphasizing on children’s best interests and by respecting their universal rights.