Oral Statement on behalf of members of the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ)
The Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ) of which PRI is a member, will deliver this oral statement at the 12th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice that will take place in Salvador, Brazil from 12-19 April 2010.
Madame/Mister President,
Distinguished representatives of State parties present at the 12th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,
Thank you for giving me the floor on behalf of the following members of the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Defence for Children International (DCI), International Association of
Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (IAYFJM), International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), Penal Reform International (PRI), Terre des Hommes International Federation (TDHIF) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).
1. The Panel was established following Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC resolution 1997/30 calling for the creation of a “coordination panel on technical advice and assistance in juvenile justice.”
2. The Panel is currently composed of fourteen members, including United Nations bodies and non-governmental organisations, active in juvenile justice reform and its work is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular articles 37 and 40 thereof, and other relevant United Nations standards and norms.1
3. We seize this opportunity to encourage Member States to pay particular attention to juvenile justice and consider United Nations standards and norms applicable to the treatment of children in contact with justice systems, particularly children deprived of their liberty and child victims or witness of crimes, including their gender, social circumstances and
development needs;
4. We wish to reiterate the invitation to Member States and their relevant institutions, expressed in ECOSOC resolutions 2007/232 and 2009/263, to adopt a comprehensive approach to juvenile justice reform in accordance with the guidance provided by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in General Comment No. 10 on “Children’s rights in
juvenile justice” through: legal and policy reform; data collection and information management systems; capacity building of all actors involved, including social workers and legal aid providers; strengthening of institutional capacity, awareness raising and monitoring; and child-friendly procedures.
5. A comprehensive approach should also address the following core elements identified by the Committee: prevention of children coming into conflict with the law; diversion and restorative justice approaches; the fulfilment of guarantees for a fair trial; the use of socioeducational
measures and other alternatives to deprivation of liberty; the setting of a minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years of age at least and to continue to raise it to a higher age level; the use of deprivation of liberty as a last resort, both pre-trial and post-trial and the prohibition of the death penalty and life without parole.
6. We further encourage Member States to adopt comprehensive national action plans on crime prevention and juvenile justice reform containing, in particular, specific targets for reducing the recourse to deprivation of liberty of children, especially at the pre-trial stages through the use of diversion, restorative justice and alternatives, prevention of child involvement in crime, rehabilitation and social reintegration of children in their communities and child-friendly procedures for all children in contact with the justice system, whether they are offenders, victims or witnesses.
7. Furthermore, we invite Member States to make use of the technical assistance tools developed by Panel members and to seek technical advice and assistance from Panel members, in order to design, implement and evaluate comprehensive justice for children policies and legislation.
Thank you