Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence Against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Urges Member States to pay particular attention to the issue of child rights and the best interests of the child in the administration of justice, in accordance with applicable United Nations standards and norms for all children who come into contact with the criminal justice system as victims, witnesses or alleged offenders, in particular children deprived of liberty, taking into account the age, gender, social circumstances and development needs of such children;

Also urges Member States to take all necessary and effective measures, including legal reform, where appropriate, to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children in contact with the criminal justice system as victims or witnesses or as children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law;

Encourages Member States to promote, inter alia, the use of alternative measures, such as diversion and restorative justice, to comply with the principle that deprivation of liberty of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and to avoid, wherever possible, the use of pretrial detention for children;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue providing advisory services and technical assistance to Member States, upon request, to support the implementation of United Nations standards and norms relating to crime prevention and to child rights in the administration of criminal justice, with a view to promoting and protecting the rights of children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law, as well as of child victims and witnesses of crime;

Invites the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Human Rights Council, as well as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Office of the High Commissioner and the United Nations Children’s Fund, to closely coordinate their activities relating to child rights in the administration of justice and the prevention of and responses to violence against children in the criminal justice system, in cooperation with the Committee on the Rights of the Child;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to convene a meeting of an open-ended intergovernmental expert group, in collaboration with all relevant United Nations entities, in particular the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner and the Special Representative on Violence against Children, to develop a draft set of model strategies and practical measures on the elimination of violence against children in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, to be considered by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its session following the meeting of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group, and welcomes the offer of the Government of Thailand to act as host to that meeting in 2013;

Invites the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to include in their work programmes the issue of violence against children, develop training materials and offer training and other capacity-building opportunities, in particular for practitioners working in the areas of crime prevention and criminal justice and providers of support services for the victims of violence against children and for child witnesses within the criminal justice system, and to make available and disseminate information on successful intervention models, preventive programmes and other practices;

Invites Member States and other donors to provide extrabudgetary resources for the purposes described above, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the United Nations;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, at its session following the meeting of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group, on the outcome of that meeting, as well as to the General Assembly, as appropriate.