WITH THE VOICE OF CHILDREN DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY

Unfortunately, today in the world there are children deprived of freedom because they are in conflict with the law and their number is estimated to be around one million. Albania, the country that is at the heart of this report, has its share of the deprived children as a result of being in contact with the law. Observatory for Children’s Rights (Observatory) in partnership with UNICEF and in cooperation with the People’s Advocate carried out the report “Juvenile Justice”. This report focuses on children in conflict with the law.

The report informs us that imprisoned children who committed a criminal offense resulted in misdemeanors and violated laws. Meanwhile in Albania there are children who came from poor families and are also in conflict with the law and prisoners.

We are aware of the fact that the economic crisis and the difficulties that Albanian families are experiencing may result in less attention to this category of children. In the report we present data that speak with their voice and warn us that much more needs to be done to improve the situation in the Albanian penitentiary system and especially in dealing with juveniles in conflict with the law, while finding ways to address the underlying causes for the behavior of children in conflict with the law.

Monitoring of the institutions where children are deprived of their liberty has shown that more than one of the rights of children in conflict with the law have been violated, and that violations of their rights occurs repeatedly. Even though we talk about rehabilitation of these children, stigmatized by society, we are far from meeting the minimum standards for their treatment in institutions for deprivation of liberty, and not only there.

 

For more information about the Report, please check the link below : https://observator.org.al/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Monitoring_report_jj_13March2017.pdf