Practical guide for lawyers : How to defend a child in conflict with the law?

There is no field where the demand for justice is stronger than that of juvenile justice. Inadequate responses, inappropriate for children in conflict with the law, can harm their future, sometimes forever, and even further contribute to insecurity. Lost lives, shameful societies. The stakes are fundamental and the responsibility of the decision-makers is enormous. Yet, paradoxically, juvenile justice is often neglected, if not forgotten. Children in conflict with the law For years, a variety of international and European texts (hard law, soft law) have been insisting on the same issue: children in contact with the criminal justice system are in an increased vulnerable situation and have the right to be protected by the State. The violation of their human rights is not a myth, but a reality, as I have had the occasion to observe in the (too) many cases that have reached the European Court of Human Rights and that reveal unbearable and intolerable situations. Yes, there are children who take their own life in prison , who die in custody or who endure such ill treatments that these are sometimes qualified of torture . Even slaps given by a police officer to a child who is entirely under his or her control constitute a violation of human dignity and can give birth to feelings of arbitrariness, injustice and powerlessness4 .