8 Oct 2012

UN / JUVENILE JUSTICE

A new report on violence against children in the juvenile justice system says at least one million young people under the age of 18 are locked up worldwide, and many of them end up in prison because child protection systems have failed. UNTV

Posted at: October 8, 2012 5:24 pm

Duration: 02:28

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / JUVENILE JUSTICE 
TRT: 2.28
SOURCE: UNTV / FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 8 OCTOBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

8 OCTOBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand, Chairperson of the
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice opening panel discussion
3. Wide shot, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children: 
"We need in each and every country a very strong and cohesive child protection system, a system that may avoid the penalization and criminalization of children who need care and attention rather than deprivation of liberty."
5. Wide shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children:  
"The risk of violence for these children is very present, when they are arrested, when they are interrogated, when they are placed in detention waiting for the trial or after they have been convicted. And if for a second you think about the girls who are in prison or children who are placed in detention centres with others of course you will agree that the risks will certainly be higher. For us what is very dramatic is this violence is a very hidden phenomenon. In the majority of the cases there is no complaint, no report, no investigation, and of course no conviction when violence is perpetrated."

FILE – UNICEF – 5-8 APRIL 2010, MAZAR-E-SHERIF, AFGHANISTAN
 
7. Close up, caretaker unlocking door
8. Various shots, girl prisoner walking out of locked compound

FILE – UNICEF – 27 APRIL 2010, TBLISI, GEORGIA
 
9. Various shots, boys outside penitentiary building

8 OCTOBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Charles Radcliffe, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
"Repressive systems are not appropriate for children. Under international law, the deprivation of liberty of children should only ever be used as a measure of absolute last resort, and even then for the shortest appropriate period of time. As the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has put it, in principle children should not be in prison. They do not belong there, they belong in schools and in safe home environments."

FILE – UNICEF – 26-28 JANUARY 2012, LAGOS, NIGERIA
 
11. Wide shot, slum
12. Med shot, child in slum
13. Wide shot, child in slum playing with cloth
14. Wide shot, boy sitting on sidewalk
15. Wide shot, boys on street
16. Med shot, boys exchanging money

FILE – UNICEF – JULY 2012, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

17. Various shots, girls digging dirt
18. Med shot, boys shining shoes
19. Various shots, boy begging on street

STORYLINE:

The report was launched today (8 October) at a high-level panel discussion at UN headquarters chaired by Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand.

Outlining the report's recommendations, the UN special envoy on violence against children, Marta Santos Pais said every country needed a "very strong and cohesive child protection system" so that children in need would receive care and attention rather than being deprived of their liberty.

Most children in detention, she said, were not there because of criminal behaviour, but because they were homeless, poor, or had mental or drug problems.

She warned that for at least one million children worldwide, especially girls, every step of the detention process held a high risk of violence. She added that this was a "very hidden phenomenon", with "no complaint, no report, no investigation, and of course no conviction" in the majority of cases.

The report calls for measures including the decriminalization of behaviours such as begging, raising the age for criminal responsibility which is as low as 12 in some countries, and ensuring children are registered at birth so they can later prove their age.

UN human rights official Charles Radcliffe said "repressive systems are not appropriate for children", and underlined that under international law, children should be detained only as "a measure of absolute last resort". Children "should not be in prison. They do not belong there, they belong in schools and in safe home environments".

The "Joint Report on prevention of and responses to violence against children within the juvenile justice system" was launched by the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, with the support of the governments of Thailand and Austria, in the framework of the Third Committee of the 67th session of the General Assembly.