JUVENILE JUSTICE – PROCEDURAL GUARANTEES FOR CHILD OFFENDERS

Abstract

Juvenile justice is the field of children’s rights extensively covered in international documents. It is obviously a very sensitive field where child rights violations are numerous, where violence in the course of proceedings and while in penitentiary institutions is amply proven, and where the response is not always child-friendly and does not always favor individual child development. It is moreover a domain where the State exerts force in response to child behavior contrary to the criminal law and where State’s interference also represses non-criminal behavior, such as actions which would not come under law if committed by an adult (status offences): running away from home, breaking disciplinary rules, breaking curfews or rude behavior. Juvenile justice accounts for violations of children’s rights at the arrest phase, in administrative detention, during the judicial proceedings, in the execution of judiciary sentences, but also in institutional care.