Background

Children do not belong behind bars. Children should go to school. They should be playing with their friends. They should be together with their families.

This is why the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) explicitly provides that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” (art. 37(b) CRC). This important international standard in the field of juvenile justice is also recognised in the 1985 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules), the 1990 United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, and the 1990 United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines).

Indeed, if there is one major issue on which consensus has been reached during the past fifty years of standard-setting by the UN in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, it is that children do not belong in prison.

The CRC has a total of 192 States parties. However, research has shown that, in most countries, the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child continue to be anything but “a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”, in total contradiction with CRC and other UN standards. Different studies have estimated that over one million girls and boys are behind bars world wide, too often in horrific, degrading, overcrowded and violent conditions.

The majority of children currently behind bars do not belong there. Many have committed only petty, or minor and non-violent crimes and are still awaiting trial. They have not actually been convicted of an offence but have simply been apprehended or are on pre-trial remand. Many will not even receive a custodial sentence when they finally appear in court. As regards those juveniles who are sentenced to deprivation of liberty, the high cost, overall ineffectiveness and counter-productive consequences of custodial sentences are now well documented.

Putting children behind bars and separating them from their families and communities seriously damages their physical, mental and social development. Many do not receive adequate food, health care or education. Children are exposed to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Detention leads to lifelong stigmatisation which hampers reintegration of children into communities.