Child justice in South Africa

This monograph provides details about the new Child Justice Bill.

Getting the principles, procedures and practices of child justice right is essential to preventing crime in South Africa. In this monograph the authors chart the history of child justice in South Africa, and internationally. They describe recent developments in child justice in South Africa, and contextualise the South African approach by reflecting on international standards. This monograph provides details about the new Child Justice Bill. The Child Justice Bill provides an enlightened approach to dealing with young offenders and offers a chance to break the cycle of crime. Included in the new Bill are provisions for diverting child offenders out of the criminal justice system through the possibility of community-based sentencing. The Bill also provides a firm legal basis for restorative justice that attends to the needs both of victims and perpetrators.

About the authors

Ann Skelton obtained her BA LLB degree from the University of Natal in 1985 and was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 1988. Her LLD was obtained from the University of Pretoria in 2005. She was employed by Lawyers for Human Rights for 11 years, where she specialised in Children’s Rights. Ann has played a leading role in child law reform in South Africa, and has published widely on the issue of children’s rights. She has undertaken training on children and justice for UNICEF in many countries and was the co-ordinator of the UN Child Justice Project in South Africa for four years. She is currently the Director of the Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria, which undertakes test litigation in the field of child law.

Boyane Tshehla was Head of the Crime and Justice Programme of the ISS from October 2005 to December 2007. He holds an LLM degree (Criminal Justice) from the University of Cape Town. Before joining the ISS he worked as a researcher with the Institute of Criminology as well as lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law, UCT. His research activities included subjects such as youth, policing and non-state justice. Boyane’s main area of interest while at UCT was the role played by non-state agencies in the provision of justice, especially in the townships as well as the interaction between these non-state agencies and the state justice system. In 2001 he was granted fellowship by the Social Sciences Research Council (US) and the National Research Foundation (SA) to conduct research on the involvement of urban youth in non-state ordering in South Africa.