Pledge on child rights and criminal justice

The Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Kyoto, Japan in March 2021, focuses on “Advancing crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda”. With the central promise of the Sustainable Development Agenda to ‘leave no one behind’, PRI and 18 other civil society organisations urge those present at the Congress to remember the rights and dignity of all children, and to commit to leave no child behind.

We call on States present at the Congress to make the following pledge in order to advance the rights of children within criminal justice systems and to further advance progress towards full realisation of the Sustainable Development Agenda:

“Acknowledging that our crime prevention activities and criminal justice systems impact on children, and recognising our duty to prevent harm caused in the name of crime prevention and criminal justice, in line with our commitment to the rights of the child, we pledge to ensure that children are seen, children are heard, children are fully able to participate, and children’s rights are upheld in our criminal justice policy and practice.”