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Summary: At the request of the secretariat for the United
Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence
against Children, the NGO Advisory Panel for
the Study convened a group of eighteen
international experts on children in conflict
with the law for a two-day meeting in Geneva,
as one of several thematic meetings convened
specifically for the Study. The goals of the meeting were as follows:
1) To identify key issues and themes related to violence against children in
conflict with the law for the Secretary-General’s report;
2) To identify effective strategies and programs for prevention and
response;
3) To develop appropriate recommendations for action by international,
national and local actors for inclusion in the Secretary-General’s study.
NGO participants in the consultation came from Australia, Costa Rica, India,
Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, the Philippines, Switzerland, the United
Kingdom and the United States. Additional participants included Paulo
Sérgio Pinheiro, the independent expert for the study; Jaap Doek, the chair
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child; and representatives from
UNICEF, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime, and the study secretariat. (See full list of
participants in Annex I). The meeting was facilitated by Jo Becker (Human
Rights Watch) and Melanie Gow (World Vision), the co-chairs of the NGO
Advisory Panel for the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against
Children.
The scope of the consultation encompassed violence against children in
conflict with the law (including in the juvenile justice system), including:
1) Children who are in actual conflict with the law, perceived conflict
with the law, and/or children in need of care and protection who have
become involved in the criminal/juvenile justice system;
2) Violence against children in both the juvenile justice system as
well as the (adult) criminal justice (CJ) system. In this report, justice
system is used to refer to both the juvenile justice and/or criminal justice
system;
3) Violence taking place in at least two of the settings identified by
the Secretary-General’s study: in both the community (e.g. police violence
against street children) and institutions (e.g. violence in detention
facilities).
Owner: NGO Advisory Panel for the UN Study on Violence Against Children