Juvenile Justice

Juvenile justice is a children’s rights issue. This chapter sheds light on the international children’s rights framework for juvenile justice and elaborates on its implications for juvenile justice systems at the domestic level. It discusses the comprehensive nature of the international legal framework and addresses key implementation challenges in light of the complexity of and controversies inherently related to juvenile justice. In doing so, the chapter shows there are specific challenges that ought to be recognized in order to enhance the protection of children in conflict with the law and secure a fair and child-specific approach. At the same time, it points at the progress made since adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which justifies the conclusion that the future of children’s rights implementation in the context of juvenile justice is a hopeful one.