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Summary: Statement delivered by OB Sandy from Sierra Leone YMCA at the 10th session of the Human Rights Council. The statement was delivered on behalf of a group of young people from the Youth Justice in Action Campaign who are in Geneva to advocate on juvenile justice issues. They have all been in conflict with the law themselves.
10th session of the Human Rights Council Thank you Mr. Chairman, First of all, we thank the Human Rights Council for convening this Annual Meeting on the Rights of the Child. It is our hope that this meeting and Council will achieve greater results for children and young people all over the world. We are a group of young people who are here to advocate on juvenile justice based not just on reports and statistics but on our own personal experience. We speak as children and young people who have been prisoners and who have been in conflict with the law. We believe that one of the main challenges to the implementation of the Convention is States’ failure to address the issue of juvenile justice comprehensively as well as in a manner that respects our dignity. We know from our experience and through our own research and advocacy that in a number of countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America the Convention is simply not being implemented. Detention is not being used as a last resort, meaning, our prisons are still full of children and young people who are jailed for petty crimes and are then not being rehabilitated and reintegrated into society because comprehensive strategies are not in place. For example when my colleague Thandanani was sent to prison as a 16-year-old for 2 years, he was offered no rehabilitation or education, neither in prison nor on his release, an experience I also suffered. We believe that one way that this obstacle can be addressed is through States developing a comprehensive national strategy, not based on public perceptions of young people as violent, rebellious or up to no good, but on what the Convention stipulates. Mr. Chairman, From our collective experience, we have identified that one major obstacle to the implementation of juvenile justice standards is stigma and discrimination of young offenders. This is a serious problem that must be addressed as it is preventing us from enjoying our rights to education, employment, health and most of all, our dignity. We therefore would like to call on States parties to go a step further than the Convention and tackle the stigma and discrimination against young offenders, which is a major obstacle to ensuring social inclusion and their genuine reintegration into society. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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