April 2008

At the 17th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in Vienna from 14-18 April 2008,  PRI joined with UNICEF, OHCHR, OMCT and several other members of the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice to present an oral statement to the Commission. The statement recalled ECOSOC resolution 2007/23, inviting Member States ‘to adopt comprehensive national action plans on crime prevention and juvenile justice reform, containing, in particular, specific targets with regard to reducing the pre-trial detention and imprisonment of children, including through the use of diversion, restorative justice and alternatives to imprisonment and ensuring that proper detention conditions prevail.’ It also called on Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with regard to, amongst others, the use of detention only as a last resort and the non-application of the death penalty on juveniles.

Mary Murphy, PRI’s Regional Director in the South Caucasus, together with representatives of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Defence for Children International (DCI) and the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), spoke at a side event to the Commission, organised by the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice. The event highlighted the need for strategies to address violence against children in conflict with the law.  

PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, also spoke at a side meeting on Prisoners with Special Needs.  The discussion was introduced by Tomris Attabay, author of the forthcoming UNODC Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs, outlining the challenges faced by particular groups of prisoners, and best practice to protect their human rights.  Alison Hannah described the problems facing prisoners with mental disabilities and the damaging impact of incarceration on prisoners’ mental health. ‘This is an important issue that is frequently ignored, due to difficulties in diagnosing prisoners with mental disabilities and the lack of resources available in many prisons to deal with them’, she commented.

Further information
PRI is currently running Juvenile Justice projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and in the South Caucasus.
For further information about projects in MENA please contact priamman@penalreform.org
Or for further information about projects in the South Caucasus, please contact pritbilisi@penalreform.org

To support the implementation of juvenile justice reform PRI has recently collaborated with UNICEF to produce a Juvenile Justice Training Manual (2007), available in English, French and Arabic. To order a CD-rom of the manual, please contact publications@penalreform.org