Final Declaration - National Conference on Juvenile Justice in Egypt - Cairo, 10 January 2010

With the participation, and under the patronage, of Her Excellency Minister of Social Solidarity and the patronage of His Excellency Minister of Family and Population, Penal Reform International in cooperation with the Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of Childhood Conditions, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, organized a national conference on “Juvenile Justice in Egypt” on 10 January 2010 in Cairo. The conference intended to revise the current situation of the juvenile justice system in Egypt and identify certain measures for its advancement and reform. The conference addressed the most recent developments relating to juvenile justice in Egypt, both at the legal and practical levels, the experience of the official bodies in dealing with children in conflict with the law, including the legislative and procedural aspects, starting from the investigation period at the police stations and prosecution as well as trial stages, conditions of the juvenile care institutions and, finally, the aftercare and social integration programmes. Speakers also discussed various experiences of a number of international organizations operating in Egypt and comparative cases of some Arab countries in this field and the work of the Egyptian civil society.

Participants at the conference referred to the positive developments taking place in Egypt in the juvenile justice system and the willingness of the authorities to develop this system in accordance with relevant international standards. In particular, the conference noted the significance of the adoption of the Child Law No. 126 of 2008 and its advanced provisions. Among these provision: raising the age of criminal responsibility, the adoption of a number of means of referral to outside the formal system, considering the incarceration of children as a last resort and for the shortest period possible, providing for segregation of children deprived from liberty from adults and criminalizing any official who holds children with adults, making judicial oversight over juvenile care institutions mandatory, allow a greater role than ever of civil society organizations in providing legal assistance and social and psychological support to children in conflict with the law, and the formation of a general child protection committee in each district of the country and sub-committees for the protection of children in each police station consist of representatives of the security forces besides social, psychological, medical, educational specialists and members of civil society institutions working on children.
 

In conclusion, the conference adopted the following recommendations:

1. Call upon international organizations, especially relevant United Nations institutions working on children or criminal justice or human rights and international non-governmental organizations and donor states and agencies, to increase their support to programmes involving children in conflict with the law in Egypt. 

2. Revise all relevant legislation relating to children in conflict with the law in accordance with new Child Law and relevant international standards.

3. Enact the bylaws of the Child Law as soon as possible in order to give effect to the provisions of this Law without derogating from the advanced rules acquired in that Law. 

4. Working on giving more effect the existing specialized juvenile police offices in all police stations and create legal basis for referring children in conflict with the law outside the official circles and to resolve criminal matters relating to children by the means of reconciliation, education and rehabilitation.

5. Setting up a specialized juvenile justice judiciary with judges working on full-time basis on cases involving children in conflict with the law and train these judges on the special social and psychological needs for the children side by side with the legal dimension. 

6. Strengthening the existing juvenile prosecution and train prosecutors on resolving cases of accused children in restorative means and referring them to educational and social alternatives. For the sake of sustainability of their work, specialized prosecutors should be enabled to continue serving in their positions for longer periods or permanently.

7. Attach a greater significance to the reports of social workers in criminal cases involving children and adopt guarantees to ensure that judges take these reports as a basis for their judgments. At the same time, train social workers on the technical methods for the preparation of the reports relating to children in conflict with the law. 

8. Give effect to Article 112 of the Child Law by immediately separating all children deprived of their liberty from adults and stop the use of handcuffs against children. 

9. Take practical measures to improve the situation of children in social care institutions which host children in conflict with the law.

10. Promote the principle of partnership between the official bodies and civil society institutions with regard to juvenile justice to serve the best interests of the child.