Guidelines on Children in contact with the justice system

Guidelines on child focussed justice before, during and after judicial proceedings, developed by the Council of the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (IAYFJM). Children are likely to come into contact with the justice system for various reasons, including for example separation of parents, custody, protection, adoption, children in conflict with the law, child victims of physical or psychological violence, sexual abuse or other crimes, health care, social security, unaccompanied children, displaced children, asylum-seeking and refugee children and so forth. They may appear before various types of courts, be they civil, criminal or administrative – including, in some countries, traditional or religious courts. They may appear as a party or as a witness. Whatever the setting, children’s rights must be respected and the Guidelines should apply to all matters where children are in contact with the justice system. The main basis on which the Guidelines are built is children’s rights. Children are acknowledged as bearing rights of their own. They are not seen as objects whose rights are secondary to the views of adults. The Guidelines are structured in six parts: - Part 1 contains some Definitions. - Part 2 enunciates Fundamental principles, which have in common their general relevance to all situations and the fact that they set orientations for the various elements that are presented in other parts of the Guidelines. - Part 3 presents General elements of a child focussed justice – which are qualified as general in the sense that they are relevant to all stages of proceedings, be it before, during or after judicial proceedings. - Part 4 presents the elements of child focussed justice that are relevant to interventions before and during judicial proceedings. - Part 5 presents the elements of child focussed justice that are relevant to interventions that follow judicial proceedings, in the course of the implementation of decisions. - Part 6 raises briefly issues about Implementation, monitoring, assessment and amendment of the Guidelines. On each topic, the text presents first the Guidelines themselves, followed by a section of Explanations and comments whenever needed.