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Contents:

1. Editorial
2. New resources
3. Future events
4. Links

1. Editorial:

The Secretariat of the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ) would like to begin by wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2010 and thanking Panel members for their continued collaboration and commitment to the rights of the child.

We would also like to take this opportunity to encourage State parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to develop a comprehensive policy for juvenile justice reform as advised by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in General Comment No.10 on “Children’s rights in juvenile justice” (2007).

Such a policy should address the following core elements identified by the Committee: prevention of children coming into conflict with the law; interventions without resorting to judicial proceedings (i.e. diversion) and interventions in the context of judicial proceedings (i.e. alternatives to deprivation of liberty); the minimum age of criminal responsibility and the upper age-limits for juvenile justice; the guarantees for a fair trial; and conditions of deprivation of liberty as a last resort, both pre-trial and post-trial.

Panel members encourage State parties to adopt such a comprehensive approach to juvenile justice reform in a manner that upholds the rights of the child in contact with the justice system, whether the child is in conflict with the law, a victim or a witness of a crime. Below are some recent capacity-building tools and resources that can assist in reform processes.

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2. Selected new resources on the Panel website:

Capacity-building tools:

(i) Children in conflict with the law:

Memorandum for the 1st Session of Juvenile Justice Training in Mauritania
(Mémorandum général du 1er cycle de formation en justice juvénile en Mauritanie)
Me François M. Diassi/ Foundation Terre des hommes in Mauritania
2009 (FR)

Memorandum for the Training of Lawyers in Burundi
(Mémorandum de la formation des avocats)
Me François M. Diassi/ Foundation Terre des hommes in Burundi
April 2009 (FR)

(ii) Child victims and witnesses of crimes:

Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crimes: Model law and Related Commentary
UNODC/ UNICEF
2009 (FR now available, EN and SPA already available)

General resources of relevance to juvenile justice reform:

(i) Children in conflict with the law:

Reform of the jurisdiction of the courts in dealing with interventions without resorting to judicial proceedings – Full report and synthesis
(Réforme du champ d’action des sections jeunesse des Parquets sous l’angle de la déjudiciarisation – Rapport intégral de recherche et synthèse)
J.-V. Couck – H. Tracqui/ Centre Interdisciplinaire des Droits de l’Enfant (CIDE)
December 2009 (FR)

Final Declaration of the National Conference on Juvenile Justice in Egypt
Penal Reform International (PRI)/ Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of Childhood Conditions
January 2010 (EN)

Children Without Bars, Biannual Newsletter, Nr. 2
(Niñez sin Rejas, Boletín Bianual, No. 2)
The International Catholic Child Bureau (BICE)
December 2009 (SP)

Children and Young People in Custody 2008-2009
Deborah Tye/ HM Inspectorate of Prisons/ Youth Justice Board, UK
2009 (EN)

(ii) Access to justice for children:

No Rights Without Accountability: Promoting Access to Justice for Children
Anne Grandjean/ International Development Law Organization (IDLO)
2009 (EN)

(iii) Child protection:

“If I return, I’ll kill myself!” Spain, Children in Child Protection Therapeutic Centres
(“Si vuelvo, ¡me mato!” España, Menores en centros de protección terapéuticos)
Amnesty International Spain
December 2009 (SP)

Action for the Rights of Children (ARC) Resource Pack – A capacity building tool for child protection in and after emergencies
Action for the Rights of Children (ARC)
2009
http://www.arc-online.org

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3. Forthcoming Panel member events:

To view the Calendar of events: www.juvenilejusticepanel.org/events/

Workshop on juvenile justice information systems
UNODC/ UNICEF
Casablanca, Morocco
1 – 4 March 2010

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4. New links from our website:

Action for the Rights of Children (ARC)
http://www.arc-online.org

National Network for the Defense of Adolescents in Conflict with the Law, Brazil
(Rede Nacional de Defesa do Adolescente em Conflito Com a Lei, Brazil)
http://www.renade.org.br

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Thank you in advance for sending us your feed-back on the newsletter, including: your input on the information included; its relevance to your work; what types of amendments you would suggest; and any technical problems that you may have encountered in reading the newsletter or accessing our website.


Yours sincerely,

The Newsletter Team.

About the Newsletter:
English edition: Davinia Ovett Bondi, Secretariat Coordinator, IPJJ
French edition: Joëlle Saugy, Communications Assistant, IPJJ
Spanish translation: Vera Winkelried
Please send us your comments to: newsletter@juvenilejusticepanel.org

Address:
Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice, Secretariat, 1, rue de Varembé, P.O. Box 88, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland, Tel: +41 (0) 22 734 05 58, Fax: +41 (0) 22 740 11 45
http://www.juvenilejusticepanel.org