Children as Victims and Witnesses. A Question of Law... and of Rights !

Generally speaking, justice, and included specialized Juvenile Justice, has for a long time and almost exclusively focused on the person of the crime’s or the deed’s perpetrator. It has engendered intervention models and systems designed as Welfare Model (objective: perpetrator care) or Justice Model (objective: retribution of the deed). However the victim, especially the child victim, has been conjured away; and little case has been made of the situation of the child being witness, in particular in criminal cases. The emblematic case id the child victim of sexual exploitation (Trafficking, prostitution, sex tourism…).

The promulgation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child and its famous article 12 (right of the child to express his/her opinion) and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (2000), have suddenly shed light on the specific needs of children exposed to justice.

However, numerous questions remain open, and practice has not yet integrated the new international standards.

The IDE 2008 Seminar Children as Victims and Witnesses. A Question of Law... and of Rights ! to be held in Sion, Switzerland from October 14^th to 18^th, 2008, intends to give a clear picture of the problems, and to underline best practices in the matter.

Outline and Programme : http://www.childsrights.org/html/site_en/index.php?c=for_sem

With kind regards

IDE Team

Alexandra Prince

Coordination

Institut international des Droits de l'Enfant (IDE)

C.P. 4176

1950 Sion - SUISSE/SWITZERLAND

Tél: +41(0)27/205 73 03

Fax: +41 (0)27/205 73 02

E-mail: ide@childsrights.org

Web: www.childsrights.org