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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:22 pm
Time: 8:22 pm
Results for juvenile justice reforms
1 results foundAuthor: Novak, Adam Title: Multi-country evaluation of the impact of juvenile justice system reforms on children in conflict with the law (2006-2012) Summary: 2.1 Background The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States to promote the establishment of laws, policies, procedures institutions and services specifically applicable to children who are alleged as, accused of or recognised as having infringed the criminal law. More specifically, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child requires that States parties establish a juvenile justice system, whose principal aim is to reintegrate children into their communities and society. The juvenile justice systems in countries and territories of CEE/CIS, which shared a common legal background until independence at the beginning of the 90s, focused on punishment rather than reintegration, and on prosecution and detention rather than on diversion from judicial proceedings and the various community-based alternative to custody that can best support the reintegration of young people in conflict with the law. None of the countries or territories in the CEE/CIS region have a juvenile justice system that fully meets the standard set by the CRC and other UN international standards and norms. UNICEF country offices have gradually started working on juvenile justice in the CEE/CIS region in 2000, with most of them active in this area by 2006. In addition to specific country-based support to reforms, there have been two initiatives led by the UNICEF Regional Office. The first, the 'critical mass' exercise started in 2008, and aimed at encouraging a group of CEE/CIS states that had developed experience in juvenile justice to work with a common set of objectives and priorities, strengthen their approaches, and to document and share experience and lessons learnt for the benefit of other countries in the region. The second was a programme co-funded by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights' (EIDHR) on Consolidation of Juvenile Justice System Reforms against Torture and Other Forms of Ill-treatment of Children in Former Soviet Countries," covering 8 countries. 2.2 Objective, scope and methodology In 2012, UNICEF decided to commission an independent evaluation of its work on juvenile justice in the region as part of a series of thematic multi-country evaluations aimed at assessing and reinforcing the impact of UNICEF's work on the most vulnerable children. The present evaluation was carried out in partnership with the European Commission (EC) and constitute the final evaluation of the above-mentioned regional programme co-funded by EIDHR and UNICEF. This joint EC and UNICEF multi-country evaluation (MCE) assesses the extent to which juvenile justice system reforms in eleven countries and territories of the CEE/CIS region during the period 2006-2012 have contributed to (a) reducing deprivation of liberty for children in conflict with the law, (b) increasing the use of diversion from the judicial process and (c) reducing the average duration of pre-sentence detention. These three results are necessary in ensuring the child's reintegration into the community - i.e. the ultimate objective of juvenile justice reforms as stated above. They also correspond to interventions where UNICEF has been particularly active in the region. The evaluation reviews UNICEF's and the EIDHR support to system level changes and assesses the extent to which this support contributed to the three above-mentioned results. The MCE was conducted in 11 selected countries and territories which had reported significant results in terms of reductions of children in detention (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244), Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Tajikistan and Ukraine), with two overarching goals: - Demonstrate how reduction of equity gaps and impact results were made possible through changes in the national/regional/local systems and document UNICEF's contribution to such changes; - Identify key lessons in order to improve current and future action. The evaluation was carried out by a team of twelve independent consultants and took place between September 2013 and January 2015. The methodology was based on a reconstructed Theory of Change (TOC); this generated a series of hypotheses regarding the sequencing and causal links of changes in juvenile justice and UNICEF's engagement. Using 16 evaluation questions, findings from the region were used to assess the validity of the logic underpinning the TOC; the extent to which the sequencing of inputs, outputs, outcomes and Impacts corresponded to the TOC, and whether the assumptions that link one level of the TOC to the next hold true. This was followed by a combined desk and field phase, based on documentary review, interviews and focus groups, and questionnaires for UNICEF staff and for practitioners and NGOs. Fieldwork was carried out in six of the 11 countries and territories included within the scope of the evaluation, with local experts assisting in the data collection in the remaining countries and territories. The evaluation team’s analysis was shared with UNICEF stakeholders and an expert panel at various stages and the final draft report was discussed during a validation workshop and passed an external quality assurance review. Details: New York: UNICEF, 2015. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 12, 2018 at: https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/MCE2_Final_CEECIS_2015-005.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/MCE2_Final_CEECIS_2015-005.pdf Shelf Number: 152915 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionInterventionsJuvenile DelinquentsJuvenile Justice ReformsJuvenile Justice SystemsJuvenile Offenders |