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saerTaSoriso samarTlis Jurnali, #1, 2008 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, N1, 2008
The system for the rehabilitation of juvenile
offenders should ensure the following:
1. availability of Non-residential programmes,
including guidance and supervision, probation,
community service, compensation and
restitution to the victim and group counselling;
2.Residential facilities should be small enough
to facilitate individual treatment, and be decentralized
so as to permit juveniles to receive
treatment near their community; 3. availability
of residential rehabilitation programmes involving
education, counselling, vocational
training and recreation, adapted to the needs
of the different types of offenders, in cooperation
with community-based services and programmes
when possible; 4. isolation from the
community should be no greater than necessary,
and contact between the residents and
their families should be encouraged and facilitated,
unless it would be contrary to the interests
of the child; 5. Effective, independent
mechanisms established to investigate complaints
against law enforcement agencies or
officials alleging violations of the rights of the
child.
INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
Involvement with juvenile justice systems
is a reality for a great number of children and
adolescents. Addressing this growing concern,
the United Nations has adopted a number of
international instruments directly dealing with
children’s rights and juvenile delinquency.
The most important instrument for juvenile
justice is the UNCRC ( specifically articles
37, 39, 40) supported by the UN Minimum Standards
and Norms in Juvenile Justice. The minimum
standards are made up of the United
Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration
of Juvenile Justice (the ‘Beijing
Rules’), the United Nations Guidelines on the
Prevention of Delinquency (the ‘Riyadh Guidelines’)
and the United Nations Rules on the
Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Liberty.
The UN Minimum Rules for the protection of
Juveniles deprived of their Liberty (Havana
Rules) and the more recent Vienna Guidelines
for action on Children in Criminal Justice System.
The UN minimum standards and Norms
supplement expand and support the provisions
in the UNCRC. Although guidelines are
not binding for Georgia directly, “together they
constitute a comprehensive set of universal
standards and set out desirable practices to
be pursued by the world community.
The UNCRC makes it clear that the inherent
special needs and vulnerability of children
must be taken into account in the implementation
and development of laws on juvenile justice.
The primary goal of a juvenile justice system
should not be that of punishment for the
crime, but rehabilitation and reintegration of the
juvenile.
International instruments setting out standards
and containing guidelines for administration
of juvenile justice have existed for several
decades. However the rights, norms and
principles involved are regularly ignored, extensively
disregarded and sometimes also
seriously violated. Despite the fact, that all
state parties to the UNCRC (even with transitional
or week economies) are obliged to “allocate
the maximum extent of its available resources
for the implementation of the Convention
and priority give to children.” 2 The challenge
nowadays is to transform the universal
acceptance of children’s rights into universal
observance of these rights.
I. Un Convention on the Rights of the
Child: The UNCRC (1989) – The Convention
on the Rights of the Child is the first international
instrument to adopt a coherent child rights
approach to the international legal regulation
of the deprivation of liberty of children. The
most specific articles of the CRC in relation to
juvenile justice are Art. 37 & 40. Article 37(1)
of the Convention on the rights of the Child
specifically protects children deprived of their
liberty from violations of their due process and
personal integrity rights. It:
• prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading
treatment or punishment, capital punishment
and life imprisonment, arbitrary or
illegal arrest, detention or imprisonment;
• stipulates that arrest and detention shall
only be used as a last resort and for the
shortest appropriate period of time; and
• describes the right of children deprived of
their liberty to be treated with humanity,
respect and dignity in a manner that takes
into account their age, to be separated from
adults, to maintain family contact, to have
prompt access to legal and other assistance,
to challenge the legality of their
detention and to expect a prompt decision
in relation to any resulting action.
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