Writing in the Gazette in 2022, I warned that without reform of child justice systems, a bleak situation would get bleaker still. The crises of that period have not disappeared. Instead, new and overlapping pressures have compounded them. The pandemic’s aftershocks, climate-driven displacement, widening inequality, armed conflicts and growing online exploitation have left children more exposed to violence and injustice than ever.
Children with neurodivergences or disabilities are entering justice systems that remain ill-equipped to respond to their needs. Migrant and refugee children, many fleeing conflict or environmental disaster, are met with punitive procedures.
Justice systems can take a different course: placing children at the centre, not as an afterthought but as a guiding principle. In the face of today’s converging crises, child-centred justice has become a necessity.
Despite decades of progress in international standards and children’s rights frameworks, violence against children persists worldwide. Children in contact with justice systems face both direct violence (physical, sexual, gender-based and emotional) and structural violence, such as prolonged pre-trial detention, inadequate legal representation, ineffective reintegration programmes, and punitive practices including strip searches, psychological abuse, restraints and violent punishments.
Exposure to such violence can have long-term consequences, including emotional, cognitive, behavioural and physical health problems, disabilities, lower educational attainment and reduced economic prospects. Prolonged exposure may also normalise violence, increasing the likelihood of children adopting aggressive behaviours and struggling to manage conflict verbally.
Justice institutions often lack trained staff, child-friendly procedures and effective monitoring, while detention conditions, social isolation and stigma increase vulnerability to abuse. Additionally, the absence of effective monitoring mechanisms and legal recourse often leaves children unprotected and without the means to report abuse.
Child-centred justice is grounded in principles such as the best interests of the child, participation and non-discrimination; it insists on dignity, inclusion and meaningful involvement in every phase of the process.
Such a system recognises children as rights-holders who are entitled to a range of judicial and non-judicial mechanisms. It entails transitioning from justice systems and services that merely involve or accommodate children, to those inherently designed with their rights, needs and evolving capacities as a core focus.
Child-centred justice must therefore also place the child at the centre of practice, ensuring that procedures and interactions truly reflect their rights and lived realities.
Implementing child-centred justice is instrumental to preventing and responding to violence against children in the administration of justice, ensuring that their special needs and rights are addressed while safeguarding their wellbeing and promoting their reintegration. This is outlined in the OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework, which builds upon the 2021 World Congress on Justice With Children.
In June, the 5th World Congress – which brought together in Madrid more than 900 experts in person and 6,000 online, and participants from around the globe through more than 60 national satellite events – culminated in the Global Declaration on Advancing Child-Centred Justice. The declaration reaffirmed longstanding international commitments while also charting a renewed course for action. It articulated three central pillars.
The first – prevention – emphasised early intervention, community support, non-custodial measures, and embedding anti-violence education within law-related settings to reduce unnecessary system contact.
The second was the creation of enabling environments, ensuring children experience justice processes in safe, child-centred spaces supported by trained professionals. Models such as Barnahus illustrate how multidisciplinary practice can protect children from repeat interviews and trauma by bringing investigative, medical, psychological and judicial actors together under one roof.
The third pillar was systemic reform – comprehensive legal and policy changes that enshrine children’s evolving capacities, establish specialised mechanisms across all justice sectors and ensure participation within plural legal systems.
These pillars not only build upon existing international standards but also represent innovative, action-oriented commitments that emerged uniquely from the congress.
Lawyers have a vital role. Their practice must be guided by a child-centred approach that asks whether standard procedures – detention, interrogation, courtroom testimony – serve the child or risk exposing them to further harm. A child-centred lawyer advocates for diversion, safeguards, accessible language, and the recognition of children’s rights at every stage.
Beyond the courtroom, practitioners are ideally placed to champion the three pillars: pressing for early interventions and community alternatives, contributing to the design of child-friendly professional environments, and supporting the legislative and policy reforms required to embed child-centred justice within legal systems.
For lawyers, judges and practitioners, this is a call to act. Challenge harmful procedures. Advocate for child-friendly reforms. Use your skills to ensure justice heals rather than harms. Always confront inequality and impunity, which continue to silence the most marginalised.
By Fiona Dyer, Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice
