Judges and Magistrates to look at Alternative Child Friendly Processes.
Child friendly court systems and diversion programmes could become a common practice in the Pacific as Judges and Magistrates learn to develop youth and child based approaches of responding to child offenders. UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Samoa hosted the South Pacific Council for Youth and Children’s Courts (SPCYCC) in Apia, Samoa, in July 2008 to explore youth and child centred based approaches to responding to youth and children who come into conflict or contact with the law as offenders, complainants and witnesses Judges and Magistrates from Samoa, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the Cook Islands were represented in the week long conference. They learnt better ways to deal with youth and child issues while sharing best practices. Judges and magistrates learnt of the constraints experienced by Pacific Island Countries due to lack of resources, training and information and suggested that SPCYCC be held in Pacific Island Countries to support back to back training for “Pillars of Justice” duty bearers with their input and contribution. UNICEF Child Protection Officer, Salote Kaimaucauta, a former magistrate, says when child and youth diversion become more common practice, there should be a domino effect. “More informed and better trained “duty bearers’ and service providers will create child friendly court processes. They will also create more informed and better trained welfare and communities that will encourage families to work towards preventative and innovative approaches in creating protective environments for children going into adolescents. If there are less young persons presenting before the courts then we can say that there is a decrease in exploitation and abuse of young people and children,” she says. Agreements were made between leaders to continue discussions on issues of best court practices for child witnesses, including arranging protection for child witnesses before, during and after court proceedings, ‘child friendly’ court procedures including: arrangements for child witnesses and support persons, the use of screens, directions to counsel to seek to prevent the traumatising of child witnesses and, generally, the examination of ways of minimising stress in court, and sentencing principles, policies and practice. UNICEF Pacific made an agreement for partnerships with Samoa and other focus countries to assist in capacity building and training towards developments for creative protective environments for children focusing on the Legislative Policy component, Services for Welfare and Social and Community Mobilisation and the Communication Plan component. The meeting ended on a positive note for the South Pacific. Members of SPCYCC unanimously agreed(where possible) to hold future meetings in the South Pacific with an aim to strengthening advocacy for children and build capacity for law reform, institutional strengthening in the justice sector to further protect children. Samoan Youth also show cased their programmes where facilities had been set up for Court Diversion Programs as opposed to imprisonment outcomes as a successful example of the diversion programme.
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