IJJO Interviews

In this interview, Mr. Antonio Duarte Fonseca, Adjunct Director of the Centre for Judicial Studies at Lisbon (Portugal) examines the juvenile justice system in Portugal. Mr. Duarte tells us about the development and the changes in the legislation and analyses the current situation of the minor in this new legislative context.

The International Juvenile Justice Observatory has the pleasure to inform you about the publication of the third IJJO interview. Wansley Walters, Director of The Miami-Dade Juvenile Service Department, United States, has answered our questions about the 'Martin Lee Anderson Act’ from Florida. In this interview, Ms. Wansley Walters, Director of The Miami-Dade Juvenile Service Department,United States, analyzes the important changes implemented by the new 'Martin Lee Anderson Act' concerning the intervention of the state of Florida with youth offenders who have committed a serious crime. The programmes STAR ' Sheriff's Training and Respect ' are characterized for being more therapeutic and for providing more intensive mental health and psicosocial services, avoiding the physical restriction emphasized in the former ' boot camps’.

The IJJO has the pleasure to inform you about the publication of the second IJJO interview. Paulina Fernández Fawaz, Former National Director of the National Service for Minors (SENAME) in Chile, has answered our questions about the ‘Law No. 20.084 criminal responsibility of juveniles.’ This law emphasizes the special principles and guarantees of the attention towards the minor in the process of growing, the need of immediacy in the proceedings and the respect the major interest of the minor. The age of criminal responsibility is set at 14 years, for adolescents older than 14 years and younger than 18 years. It also includes factors to obtain an efficient social reinsertion and a major responsabilisation of their acts. In this interview, Mrs. Fernández, informs us about the fundamental changes which will affect minors in conflict with the law and reasserts the importance of a greater respect of the minor’s rights and emphasizes as a fundamental principle, the maximum consideration of the superior interest of the adolescent.

One of the ambition of the IJJO is to offer you day after day an updated and personalized information. That is why we have created a new service which is called 'IJJO Interviews'. In this first edition, the IJJO has asked Mr. Alberto Muyot, UNICEF (Philippines), to answer our questions about the new law that has been approved in the Philippines: ‘The Juvenile Justice Welfare Act 2006'. This law forbids the imprisonment of minors, increases the criminal liability age from 9 to 15 years old, and introduces the concept of restorative justice instead of criminal justice.This law also permits the creation of rehabilitation programmes and alternatives for imprisonment, as well as rehabilitation services and accompaniment of the minor. In this interview, Mr. Muyot, member of UNICEF Philippines, tells about the progress of the situation of minors in conflict with the law and a better protection of the minor’s rights.

We´d like to express our sympathy and our condolences to the family, friends and all members of Penal Reform International, for the sudden death of his Chairperson Ahmed Othmani in a terrible accident while he was promoting human rights in Rabat, Morocco.