Justice for Children SDG16+
Impact 2022-23
The University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures is leading a global Justice for Children initiative, which aims to place children at the heart of justice in every nation of the world.
Justice systems affect children in many ways. Children are rights holders and can be human rights defenders, but also may be victims, witnesses, accused of an offence, or require intervention for their care and protection. In each of these contexts, children must have access to specialist and differentiated justice systems that are in line with their stage of development, and that recognise international law. By creating justice for children everywhere, and leaving no one behind, we are creating a fairer, safer world for us all to flourish.
The Justice for Children Initiative offers a new starting point to realise UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 for children - promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
The Working Group on SDG16+ Justice for Children
The Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures convenes the international, multi-agency Working Group on SDG16+ Justice for Children. The Working Group is a member of the Justice Action Coalition, a multi-stakeholder alliance of countries and organizations that is working to achieve measurable progress in justice outcomes for people and communities by the third SDG summit in 2027 and beyond, with support from the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Working Group includes many outstanding internationally recognised partners, including the Child Friendly Justice European Network, Defence for Children International, the Legal Empowerment Fund, Terre des hommes with the Global Initiative on Justice With Children, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, UNODC and UNICEF.
Events
Outputs
In 22/23, we published the Justice for Children, Justice for All: Agenda for Action, which outlines 4 Strategic Levers of Justice Reform needed to secure justice for children.
These four levers for change are core to achieving justice for children, an essential component of achieving justice for all, and informed a series of Policy Briefs aimed at governments, and those who support them, to offer concrete guidance and accelerate progress:
1. Building new types of partnerships, including intergenerational networks.
2. Developing strategies for smarter financing; building the case to shift investment to children’s inclusion and well-being, and the political support for prevention.
3. Using evidence and data to steer child-centred reforms, including disaggregated data, child friendly methodologies and child-centred views to drive change (published 2024).
4. Scaling up justice innovations, and applying imagination and safeguards for digital justice tools with children.
Watch the full HLPF 2023 event below!
Justice for Children Publications
More from the Justice for Children Initiative…
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In May 2023, the Institute hosted an Official Side Event to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna, Austria. The Official High-Level Side Event was Sponsored by the Federal Republic of Brazil, with co-Sponsors the Governments of Canada, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and Thailand. The Event was also supported by the Global Initiative on Justice With Children, led by Terre des Hommes, the UNODC, Baker McKenzie law firm, the Legal Empowerment Fund, and the OECD.
This UNODC High-Level Side Event aimed to inspire bold and ambitious leadership in children's justice to accelerate the development of child-friendly justice systems at the midpoint of Agenda 2030. It sought to join governments, share practices, and actively seek how best to innovate, implement and invest in child-centred policies for children who come into contact with the law and justice systems as victims, witnesses and offenders. These begin with people-centred approaches, reforms and initiatives designed specifically for children and young people’s distinct needs, rights and capacities.
This Official Side Event emphasised the challenges, risks and enormous opportunities of this increasingly digital age, and saw the launch of the Policy Brief: Digital Justice for Children: Digital Innovation, Risks and Advantages.
Speakers included Prof. Jennifer Davidson, Executive Director of the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures at the University of Strathclyde and Lead, Working Group on SG16 Justice for Children, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and representatives from the Secretary of Justice, Brazil, the Department of Justice, Canada, the National Counterterrorism Agency of Indonesia, the OECD, and the UNODC.
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In July 2023, the Institute hosted a Side Event at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2023 in New York, USA - entitled SDG16: Accelerating Progress to Achieve Justice for Children. The Event was Sponsored by the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, and the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations. It was organised by the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures and the Global Initiative on Justice With Children, supported by the UNODC, UNICEF, Baker McKenzie Law Firm, the NGO Panel on Children Deprived of Liberty, the Thailand Institute of Justice, and supported by the Working Group on SDG16+ Justice for Children’s Intergenerational Task Force, with child and youth advisors in attendance.
This event set out to act as a high-level ‘stepping stone’ to raise the bar for countries’ ambitions and grow momentum in anticipation of the SDG Summit in Sep 2023. It sought to:
Drive a strategic, collaborative approach across governments, multilateral organisations, CSOs and young people, to achieving justice for children in the Agenda 2030, fostering a collective sense of responsibility by making access to justice a matter for everyone; driving a transformative intergenerational and multidisciplinary gathering to accelerate progress towards securing justice for children and SDG16.3.
Shine a spotlight on national government leadership for action on children’s justice issues, profiling national government learning, commitments and ambitions for children’s justice; Exchange promising practices across regions and contexts, such as investment in non-custodial measures to ensure children's safe reintegration into families and communities; Include young people as stakeholders.
This Official Side Event emphasised the challenges, risks and enormous opportunities of the 4 Strategic Levers of Justice Reform, and saw the launch of the Policy Brief: Building new types of partnerships.
“Responding to children’s distinct needs, and realising their full range of rights and opportunities, is the basis to achieving peaceful, just and inclusive societies for all.”
Picture: ©Tdh/Joakim Löb