Abstract
Child-friendly justice has its focus on on the effective participation of children in justice systems. During the past decade the concept, grounded in international children’s rights, has become meaningful for justice systems in Europe and beyond. Despite its flaws and gaps, it has the potential of making justice systems more accessible for children, including the (juvenile) criminal justice system with its particular complexity. However, in order to understand its true potential more research is needed. This article elaborates on the concept of child-friendly justice and sheds light on a research agenda around its core elements.
Highlights
With the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) thirty years ago, juvenile justice was confirmed to be an issue of children’s rights
Children’s rights have become part of law and institutional reform in many of the 196 countries that have embraced the CRC, which has had a significant influence on domestic criminal justice systems and the treatment of children within these systems
It starts with some reflections on juvenile justice and children’s rights, followed by background information on the concept of child-friendly justice and its development, and the way that child-friendly justice has been included in international standards, agendas, jurisprudence and research, in Europe
Summary
With the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) thirty years ago, juvenile justice was confirmed to be an issue of children’s rights. As a result of this, juvenile justice matters have profited from the emerging attention to the rights of children throughout the past thirty years. This article elaborates on the concept of child-friendly justice and aims to shed light on a research agenda around its core elements. It starts with some reflections on juvenile justice and children’s rights (section 2), followed by background information on the concept of child-friendly justice and its development (section 3), and the way that child-friendly justice has been included in international standards, agendas, jurisprudence and research, in Europe (section 4). The article will conclude with some observations on the importance of developing an international, comparative research agenda that bears relevance for both academia and (legal) practice (section 5)
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