Untitled

saerTaSoriso samarTlis Jurnali, #1, 2008 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, N1, 2008
in ensuring the physical and mental wellbeing
of children. Government agencies should give
high priority to programmes for young persons
and provide sufficient resources for the effective
delivery of services, facilities and staff for
adequate medical and mental health care,
nutrition, housing and other relevant services,
including drug and alcohol abuse prevention
and treatment, ensuring that such resources
reach and actually benefit young persons.
The Beijing Rules clearly stresses the importance
of the rehabilitation/reintegration process.
Furthermore, the promotion of juvenile
welfare is viewed as only one of the objectives
of comprehensive social policy for juveniles
that shall, play a crucial role also in prevention
of juvenile delinquency.
The aim of the paper is to represent the
international legislation for the protection of
the children that deprived their liberty
Fundamental principles underlying
any approach to issues of juvenile justice
include: – The minimum age for criminal responsibility
should be the age of 15 or as close
as possible to that age; – presumption of innocence;
– due process guarantees; – immediate
notification of parents or guardians and
their right to be present upon the apprehension
of a juvenile; – avoiding detention before
trial if possible and ensuring that any pre-trial
detention is for the shortest possible period
and only as the last resort; – right to facilities
and services that meet all the requirements
of health and human dignity, and to adequate
medical care, both preventive and remedial;
– prohibition of all disciplinary measures constituting
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
including corporal punishment that may
compromise the physical or mental health of
the juveniles concerned; – right to fair and
humane treatment, including the right to visits,
to privacy, to communication with the outside
world and to time for daily exercise; – provision
of education (provided outside the detention
facility by qualified teachers) suited to
his her needs and designed to prepare him
her for return to society; – ensuring that children
are detained separately from adults unless
they are members of the same family; –
prohibition of death penalty
A proper approach to juvenile justice also
requires that efforts be made to prevent children
coming into conflict with the law in the
first place.
Juvenile justice is a broad topic covering
prevention of delinquency, the type of offences
with which children may be charged and
the way they are treated by the police, by the
courts and in facilities for juvenile offenders.
Therefore it is a multiple, inter-connected functional
systems with different players .
The functioning of a specific JJ system is
often judged by whether it is:
• effective; and
• fair and humane – It must respect human
dignity judged by references to international,
regional and domestic JJ and HR standards
and be considerate of the developmental
needs (well-being) of a juvenile
involved.
Therefore states have to balance interest
of the vulnerable juveniles from one hand and
protection of society from the other through
effective use of state resources.
The aim of Juvenile Jusice system is to
encourage a behavioral change of a juvenile
involved by helping him/her to feel accountable
and to understand the consequences of
his/her actions; avoid or minimize intervention
by the formal justice system; promote reintegration
as the main goal of treatment; employ
other than punitive responses (such as deprivation
of liberty).
In order to avoid or minimize the intervention
by the formal justice system, various alternative
programs were developed to reach
that aim. But the alternative programs are
designed and limited to the: 1. first-time offenders,
2. offenders accused of non-serious
acts 3. offenders who admit the offence:
Alternative programs include: 1. police
caution – the police decide not to press formal
charges but simply to warn the juvenile
and parents that any recurrence of that behavior
will result in a court appearance; 2.
French Rappel a la loi – formal meeting of
representatives of court, juvenile and parents
within which the juvenile is appraised of the
legal text relating to the offence as well as of
the potential sentences of the court; 3. Screening
process carried out by a social worker
before the court appearance and offer that if
the juvenile agrees to the offence and than
can satisfactorily complete a special course
the prosecution will drop the case.
In Scotland “children’s hearings” system
conditions of the hearing are less formal and
adversarial than in court setting; a panel of
166