International experiences with children in conflict with the law

Call for participants – Research, practitioner & policy workshop

In person only: Paterson’s Land G.21, Moray House, Edinburgh University

Co-hosted by CISRUL, Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures (IICF), Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), Scottish Council on Global Affairs (SCGA), Change for Change UK, and Edinburgh University’s Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group (CYS)

Please register to participate on EventBrite. Registration is free. Lunch will be provided. Travel reimbursement is available if required.

Workshop aims

Scotland has a long experience of research and policy debates around children in conflict with the law. The debates have sometimes referred to the experiences of other countries, often other European countries and Australia. This workshop aims to broaden this knowledge exchange by including the experiences of Scotland’s international development partners, among them Malawi, and other global South countries, including Mexico. In the process, we will pave the way for more productive knowledge exchange between researchers, practitioners and policy makers concerned with children in conflict with the law, whether in Scotland or elsewhere in the world.

UNICEF and other bodies have recognized all countries face challenges around when and how to use criminal justice to respond to problematic conduct by young people. In the case of Scotland, the Kilbrandon Report of 1964 remains a reference point for national and international policy, yet UNICEF’s 2020 report “A rights-based analysis of youth justice in the United Kingdom” identified several shortcomings in Scotland’s approach, along with that of other UK nations. Some shortcomings have been addressed in recent legislation, and the 2024 decision to move under 18s out of prison has been lauded by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. Challenges remain, though. Beyond Scotland, challenges in Scotland’s international development partners Malawi and Zambia are discussed in another recent UNICEF report “Diversion of Children in Conflict with the Law in Eastern and Southern Africa: Best Practices, Opportunities and Challenges” (2023). Workshop organiser Trevor Stack has identified several challenges in the case of Mexico.

The workshop will bring together researchers, practitioners and policy makers with expertise on youth justice in Scotland and abroad, especially in Scotland’s international development partners and other global South countries. The twin objectives are:

• To debate issues of common concern across diverse international contexts: notably, how to balance realising children’s human rights and reducing their exposure to criminal justice, with other priorities, and if, when and how to restrict children’s liberty in the light of international guidelines calling for the deprivation of children’s liberty only as a “last resort”.
• To gauge the appetite for further knowledge exchange about children in conflict with the law across Scotland and other countries, including the global South, and to consider how to ensure that exchange is equitable and productive.

Workshop programme

10.00   Welcome, introductions and background to the workshop

10.30   Roundtable 1: Reducing children’s contact with criminal justice alongside restorative and preventative approaches

• What can we learn from international experiences of reducing children’s contact with criminal justice institutions?
• How has this been reconciled with holding children responsible for their actions, including through restorative justice approaches?
• In what contexts have institutions beyond criminal justice stepped up to tackle problematic conduct, including through preventative approaches?

12.15   Lunch provided for participants

1.00     Roundtable 2: When, how and to what end to restrict children’s liberty

• When, how and to what end have different countries opted to restrict young persons’ liberty – for example, by holding them in what in Scotland are known as Secure Care Facilities?
• What alternatives have been tried in different countries, such as referral to community or Third Sector services?

2.45     Break

3.00     Reflective session

• What points of consensus and difference emerged in the Roundtables?
• What outputs might we consider after the workshop, such as blogs or podcasts?
• What appetite is there for further knowledge exchange about international experiences of children in conflict with the law? Who would be involved, with what foci, in what format, and to what ends?
• How to ensure that young people participate in the knowledge exchange?
• How to achieve more productive knowledge exchange between countries, including global South countries?

4.00     End

Registration

Registration is free. Please register to participate on EventBrite.

Alternatively, please email Trevor Stack t.stack@abdn.ac.uk with the following information:

• Name
• Email
• Organisation or institution
• Any dietary preferences
• Any access requirements
• If required, estimate of travel costs

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the following:

• International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) ODA Project Grants 2023/24 held by the University of Aberdeen
• Connection Award from the Scottish Council on Global Affairs to the University of Aberdeen
• ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant awarded to the University of Edinburgh (grant reference ES/X00466X/1)