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Summary: Save the Children is making six key recommendations in response to the UN Study on Violence against Children. This is recommendation 4 on children in conflict with the law.
Save the Children is making six key recommendations in response to the UN Study on Violence against Children. Recommendation 4 is on children in conflict with the law: States should: do their utmost to minimise the number of children coming into conflict with the law. They should establish comprehensive and child-friendly juvenile justice systems, complying with international standards, which aim to rehabilitate children and divert them away from criminalisation and detention. Children in conflict with the law suffer multiple and severe forms of violence both inside and outside the juvenile justice system. Violence includes: beatings, rape, humiliating and degrading treatment, torture, and extra-judicial killings. A range of law enforcement authorities, detention centre personnel, and other adults perpetrate this violence, as well as some children and young people themselves (e.g. members of organised gangs). Children often face harmful and inappropriate punishments. This includes detention in adult prisons, which is a direct violation of the child’s rights. Very often when a child comes into conflict with the law it represents a fundamental failure to fulfil that child’s rights to adequate care and protection at an earlier point in their lives. Such failures expose children to significant risks of violence and exploitation. Once having entered the justice system children are often held in detention for long periods awaiting trial. This makes them vulnerable to further violence and abuse. Furthermore, the vast majority of the one million children in prison today are there for petty offences and/or because of their efforts to survive in the absence of proper support for themselves and their families. This evidence suggests the need for community-based protection systems and juvenile justice systems that place children’s best interests at their core. This in turn means diverting children from the formal justice system (wherever possible) and reintegrating them back into their communities. Diversion options should be seen as the priority response to children coming into conflict with the law. Community-based rehabilitation schemes are the best ways to respond to children in conflict with the law. These options might involve: mentoring by community representatives; counselling; or a programme of constructive public service. Juvenile justice measures should be child-friendly, and operate within a broader national child protection system. For example, representatives from the police, judiciary, and welfare and education departments should work together to provide the most appropriate response to each child. They should operate in ways that are sensitive to children’s rights and that reflect international standards for administering juvenile justice. There should be a policy of zero tolerance with respect to violence towards children who come into conflict with the law. Further information