Europe IPJJ Newsletter, January 2010

31 Jan 2010

Extracts: The Secretariat of the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ) (…) encourages State parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to develop a comprehensive policy for juvenile justice reform as advised by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in General Comment No.10 on “Children’s rights in juvenile justice” (2007). Such a policy should address the following core elements identified by the Committee: prevention of children coming into conflict with the law; interventions without resorting to judicial proceedings (i.e. diversion) and interventions in the context of judicial proceedings (i.e. alternatives to deprivation of liberty); the minimum age of criminal responsibility and the upper age-limits for juvenile justice; the guarantees for a fair trial; and conditions of deprivation of liberty as a last resort, both pre-trial and post-trial.

Panel members encourage State parties to adopt such a comprehensive approach to juvenile justice reform in a manner that upholds the rights of the child in contact with the justice system, whether the child is in conflict with the law, a victim or a witness of a crime. Below are some recent capacity-building tools and resources that can assist in reform processes.