Submission to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights implications of over-incarceration and overcrowding of prisons

Submitted by jhortolani on

CRIN has collected worrying evidence that a growing number of States in all regions, far from fulfilling their legal obligations to respect the rights of all children, are moving backwards in their approach to juvenile justice and criminalising more and younger children. Beyond contributing to over-incarceration and prison overcrowding, a system focused on punishment and retribution cannot fulfil for children the required aims of a juvenile justice system, which should focus exclusively on necessary rehabilitation and reintegration. The way forward is to separate the concept of responsibility from that of criminalisation – and stop criminalising children.

We ask the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to address the issue of States lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility in his report to the Human Rights Council on the causes and human rights implications of over-incaceration and overcrowding of prisons, as requested by the Human Rights Council in resolution 24/12.

Read the full submission for more information on the links between lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility and over-incarceration and overcrowding of prisons.

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Organisation: 
Child Rights International Network
Attachment: 
crin_submission_overincarceration.pdf

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