Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Child Justice Act'

“No civilized society, regards children as accountable for their actions to the same extent as adults”.1 In the absence of a justice system applicable exclusively to children in conflict with the law in South Africa, children are subjected to the same rigours of the criminal law applicable to adults in South Africa. “States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society”.2 As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, South Africa has a duty to ensure that the children in conflict with the law are treated in a manner that gives effect to the protectionary ideals espoused in the Convention. In July 2000, the South African Law Commission [Project 106] released the Child Justice Bill3, together with its Report on Juvenile Justice. Because the child justice system at present is not governed by legislation, uncertainty and inconsistency are constant dangers. We need legislation to ensure that all children in conflict with the law are dealt with consistently, fairly and appropriately. The question that needs to be answered in this treatise, is whether the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, which comes into effect on 01 April 2010, is a legislative framework that incorporates due process rights together with the rights of children who is alleged to have committed an offence, to be protected and treated in a manner appropriate to their age.

The Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 has brought about some new elements in the South African Criminal Justice system in cases involving children in conflict with the law. The changes require that children in conflict with the law should be treated differently from adult accused persons. The Act is now regarded as a Criminal Procedure for children in conflict with the law. In other words the emphasis is on ensuring that children are diverted away from the formal Criminal Justice provided that children acknowledge responsibility. One of the elements that is introduced by the Act is the Preliminary Inquiry that is an informal, pre- trial procedure that must be held in respect of every child that is alleged to have committed an offence. The role of the Presiding Judicial Officer is very active during this stage because he is the one that takes charge of the proceedings and the role of the Prosecutor and the Legal Representative is very minimal. The purpose of the Preliminary Inquiry is in the main to determine whether a child in conflict with the law could be diverted if the provisions of section 52 (1) of the Act are complied with. Preliminary Inquiry if properly used will have possible benefits for the South African Criminal Justice system in that cases involving children will be timeously be finalised and the turn around time for criminal cases in general will possibly improve. Same will translate in the confidence of the citizens being improved in the Justice system. The second element that is introduced by the Act is formalised diversion into the Criminal Justice System. Diversion had for a number of years before the coming into operation of the Child Justice Act been used in South Africa but it was informal. The diversion that is envisaged by the Act is restorative in nature in that the Act seeks to involve the child offender, the victim, the community members to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations through accepting responsibility, making restitution, taking measures to prevent recurrence of the incident and promoting reconciliation. Restorative Justice is not a new invention in the South African legal system it is a return to traditional patterns of dealing with conflict and crime that had been present in different cultures throughout human history. Restorative Justice has been understood as Ubuntu in the African context. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission demonstrated the benefits of restorative justice in dealing with conflicts that had a potential of setting the country alight. Restorative Justice has evolved in South Africa throughout different historical epochs up to the current legal conjuncture. It has now been endorsed with success in precedent setting cases in the High Courts of the Republic and the Child Justice Act has now fully institutionalised it into the Criminal Justice system. One hopes that it will be extended beyond cases involving children in conflict with the law but to adult accused persons. Various pieces of legislation attempt to endorse the principles of restorative justice but are not as comprehensive as the Child Justice Act. There are 4 instances where a matter may be diverted in terms of the Act: (i) By a Prosecutor in terms of section 41; (ii) Diversion at Preliminary inquiry; (iii) Diversion before the closure of state case at trial; (iv) At any time during trial but before judgement. There are 2 diversion options that are provided by the Act that is level one diversion option in respect of schedule 1 offences and level 2 diversion options in respect of schedule 2 and 3 which are much more serious. The Act further entrenches Family Group Conference as well as Victim Offender Mediation which are restorative justice mechanisms. The legal consequences of diversion are that when the child has successfully complied is equivalent to an acquittal. The last element is the multi sectoral approach to crime fighting in that all role players should work together in dispensing justice to children in conflict with the law. The days of working in silos are now over because everybody has a role to play and there has to be collaboration at all levels. The Act entrenches the public private partnerships particularly in helping to rehabilitate and reintegrate children to society. The Act provides for the establishment of One Stop Child Justice Centres. The purpose is to promote cooperation between government departments, non governmental organisations and civil society to ensure integrated and holistic approach in the implementation of the Act. The Act further provides for the development of the National Policy Framework by the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development, Social Development, Correctional Services, South African Police Services, Education and Health within 2 months of the commencement of the Act. The purpose is to ensure uniform, coordinated and cooperative approach by all government departments, organs of state and institutions in dealing with matters of child justice and enhance service delivery. This study seeks to examine the innovations brought about by the Child Justice Act into the South African Criminal Justice System. The study further explores the possible benefits that may accrue to the Criminal Justice System because of Preliminary Inquiry, Restorative Justice and the Multi Sectoral Approach to crime.

For a long time children have been considered to be vulnerable persons, incapable of making rational decisions. As a result, decisions have been made for children by other people such as their parents or guardians. In most African societies, including Malawi, children remain largely voiceless and dependent on their parents who view their role mainly as being to protect children from their own actions and actions of other people. However, international law considers children as autonomous persons capable of making their own decisions. Thus, it requires states to recognise the autonomy a child although it also recognises that parents are free to raise children the way they want. Both the CRC and the African Children's Charter recognise children as bearers of rights and guarantee their right to take part in decisions that affect them. These treaties also recognise the principles of the best interests of the child, non-discrimination, and the child's right to life, survival and development. This thesis finds that while the best interests' principle has been domesticated under the Constitution, the other principles are not explicitly entrenched in the Constitution or under the Child Care, Protection and Justice Act. At best, they can be implied in other provisions of the Act. Overall, the Child Care, Protection and Justice Act leans towards enhancing the parental autonomy in child rearing and institutional protection of children rather than towards the emancipation of children in accordance with their evolving capacities.

This dissertation deals with the minimum age of criminal capacity (which is currently set at 10 years in terms of the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008). It deals in particular with the question of whether the minimum age of criminal capacity should be raised and if so, whether the presumption of doli incapax should be retained. A consideration of the relevant international instruments shows that the situation as it currently stands in South African law is not internationally acceptable. South Africa is failing to comply with the obligations which it incurred through the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and with the current international practice pertaining to the minimum age of criminal capacity. The current minimum age of criminal capacity is simply too low. The question of whether the presumption of doli incapax should be retained is also dealt with. The problems that are being experienced by its application in practice (inter alia the difficulties in the assessment of criminal capacity by mental health professionals and the possibility of an over reliance on prosecutorial discretion) leads to the conclusion that the “protective mantle” which the presumption was intended to provide no longer exists. Copyright
Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Private Law
unrestricted

South Africa’s first democratic elections in April 1994 led to the birth of a new political era which also brought constitutional guarantees for children in conflict with the law; one of the most important being section 28(1)(g) of the Constitution which provides that a child can only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Despite this provision, past sentencing practice has shown an over-reliance on the use of custodial sentences. This could largely be attributed to the tug-of-war between the legislature and the courts about the applicability of the minimum sentencing legislation on children between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. With the promulgation of the Child Justice Act, renewed emphasis has been placed on the desirability to keep children out of prison. To achieve this purpose, diversion of children is now a central feature of the child justice system. Should a matter however proceed to trial, the Act provides for a wide range of alternative sentencing options that can be imposed on children. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish to what extent the courts make use of these alternatives to imprisonment, especially in cases where children committed very serious offences such as murder and rape. This dissertation concludes that, although alternative sentences are appropriate sentences for serious offences, courts still impose custodial sentences for these types of offences, and that the seriousness of the offence is the most important aggravating factor tipping the scale in favour of the imposition of custodial sentences. The growing number of young people in already overcrowded South African prisons is a cause for concern, said the new Department of Correctional Services (DCS) Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Tuesday. Mapisa-Nqakula, accompanied by her deputy, Hlengiwe Mkhize, was visiting the Boksburg Correctional Centre on their fourth leg of their regional visits to listen and familiarize themselves with correctional services. She was shocked to find a number of young people, some aged 15, being held in the Boksburg prison for serious crimes. Boksburg houses 554 juveniles, most of them serious offenders serving long sentences, including life terms. Mapisa-Nqakula said she was becoming aware of the reality of a South African society that produced young people who commit serious crimes. […] Mapisa-Nqakula said the magnitude of the prisons problem was beyond correctional services. It required society to take responsibility for rehabilitation.
Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
gm2014
Procedural Law
unrestricted

Magister Legum - LLM
A person should at all times try to avoid the blemish of a previous conviction and a criminal record entered against his name. A criminal record entered against his name could have detrimental consequences for an individual. An accused is usually aware of this if he is involved in a trial and is thereafter convicted and sentenced. However, the same result could occur where a person paid an admission of guilt fine. Such a person could be aware that he has attained a record, but it could also be that a payee1 of a fine is very unaware that he has attained a criminal record that is entered against his name. This study focusses on the legal consequences of the payment of such an admission of guilt fine and will endeavour to investigate the remedies available to an uninformed payee of such fines.

Thesis ( LLM.) --University of Limpopo, 2019
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 provides that a child’s best interests should be of primary consideration in any matter concerning him or her. Contrary to this value, and thereby excluding protection of child victims, section 154(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 simply focusses on anonymity protection of child offenders and witness involved in criminal proceedings. It currently expressly prohibits the publication of the identities of child offenders and witnesses when the media makes publications on the relevant criminal proceedings. However, this protection terminates once such child offenders and witnesses attain majority, therefore arbitrarily stripping them of the identity protection. As a result, media houses are not only at liberty to publish on criminal proceedings identifying child victims, but also to expose the identities of child offenders and witnesses upon attaining majority. Such publications have proved to impede on children’s rights, as well as to contribute to the psychological challenges faced by the children whenever they are exposed to the criminal justice system. In this study the constitutional validity of section 154(3) is investigated and it is argued that it is unconstitutional in all respects. The section contradicts the specific right afforded to all children in the Bill of Rights, as well as other ancillary rights, which ought to ensure the progressive realisation of the protection afforded in terms of section 154(3). It is recommended, firstly, that section 154(3) be declared unconstitutional, and be amended to include child victims within the ambit of its protection. Secondly, the protection should extend beyond the age of 18, in respect of all children involved in criminal proceedings.
National Research Foundation

Children belong to one of the most vulnerable population groups to crime. Child victims of crime have to overcome the difficulties emerging from their victimization as well as those resulting from their participation in the adversarial criminal justice process. Child victims are typically treated by legal systems as either mere witnesses -- prosecutorial instruments -- or as objects of protection. Children's human rights and their needs beyond immediate protection are typically ignored. ¶ This thesis combines an examination of children's human rights (articulated largely in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) with a review of psycho-social literature on children's needs. It integrates the two disciplines thus creating a `needs-rights' model regarding child victims. This model is then used to evaluate the criminal justice process and its successes (and failures) in meeting the needs and rights of child victims. Such an integrated needs-rights evaluation identifies not only the difficulties associated with testifying in court and being interviewed multiple times. It goes beyond these topical issues, and uncovers other shortcomings of the current legal system such as the lack of true participation of child victims in the decision-making process, the neglect of rehabilitative and developmental interests of victimized children, and the inherent inability of the adversarial process to seek proactively the best interests of child victims. ¶ The thesis further explores an alternative to the criminal justice process -- that of restorative justice -- and examines its applicability to child victims. Unlike the criminal justice paradigm, restorative justice fosters the equal participation of the stakeholders (in particular victims, offenders and their communities), and focuses on their emotional and social rehabilitation while respecting their human rights. To explore the suitability of restorative justice for child victims, five restorative justice schemes from New Zealand, Australia and Canada and their evaluation studies are reviewed. Each of these schemes has included child victims, and most of them have dealt with either sexual assaults of children or family violence and abuse. Yet each of the evaluated schemes illuminates different concerns and proposes varying strategies for meeting the needs-rights of child victims. ¶ While these schemes demonstrate the significant potential of restorative justice to better address the full scope of the needs and rights of child victims, they uncover emerging concerns as well. Therefore, in the last part of the thesis, the needs-rights model is used once again to derive subsidiary principles for action, to maximize the benefits of restorative justice for child victims and minimize the related risks. A complex set of needs and rights is managed by a method of grouping them into needs-rights clusters and deriving from them simple heuristics for practitioners to follow. This clustering method of needs-rights-heuristics is a methodological contribution of the research to the psychology of law.

While several Australian and international studies have explored the family lawyer-client interaction, these studies have been limited to investigations of discrete areas of the lawyerclient relationship and have been necessarily limited in their methodologies. The present study employed a quantitative empirical methodology in an Australian wide field study of 230 family lawyers and 94 clients that investigated the family lawyer-client interaction from a procedural justice framework. Using multivariate analyses, the study establishes that the Tyler and Blader two-component model of procedural justice applies in the lawyer-client dyad and is influenced by the approach of the lawyer, the emotional response of the client, and the level of co-party conflict that the client is experiencing. Further, the study gives meaning to the terms 'conciliatory and constructive' and 'adversarial' as they apply to family law dispute resolution. The study establishes a construct to measure the conciliatory and adversarial approach of family lawyers and identifies that lawyers tend to incorporate a mixture of the two into their work. The results also identify four distinct behavioural factors that characterise the two approaches: the client-centred and interest-based factors characterise the conciliatory approach; and the lawyer-directed and court-focused factors characterise the adversarial. The study found that in terms of perceptions of fairness, and feelings of satisfaction, the clients preferred the lawyers who took a client-centred and interest-based approach, but in circumstances where the clients were experiencing high-levels of conflict, or fear for the safety of their children, they also appreciated the lawyer who was lawyer-directed and court-focused. Overall, the study shows that in order to create a fair and satisfying dispute resolution service for their clients, family lawyers need to maintain a fine balance of family lawyering behaviour. On a general level, the study provides a profile of Australian family lawyers in terms of their approach to dispute resolution, their attitude towards ADR processes and their favoured negotiation styles. It also profiles family law clients in terms of their emotional adjustment to the divorce and their perceptions of the family lawyers assisting them to resolve their disputes. The study substantially expands the procedural justice theory base and has significant implications for practical family law education, government policy, family lawyering, and the ADR and collaborative law movements. The study indicates where future research could benefit these communities.

Este estudo tem como objetivo central identificar e problematizar os impactos e dilemas do ECA junto à Justiça do Trabalho TRT 12, durante a década de 1990, na cidade de Florianópolis, tendo em vista ser esse o período de implementação do Estatuto. A partir da análise de um corpus documental de 300 ações processuais trabalhistas, obtidas no Arquivo do Serviço de Digitalização e Guarda, buscamos perceber como e se os operadores/as do Direito do Trabalho remetiam-se ao ECA na formulação dos documentos que compunham os autos do Judiciário Trabalhista. Nessas ações, dentre as quais, 299 foram aJuizadas por trabalhadores e trabalhadoras com idade inferior a dezoito anos e uma pelo Ministério Público do Trabalho, nos foi possível verificar como se constituíam as relações de trabalho entre empregadores/as de diferentes setores e empregados/as infantojuvenis, em uma Florianópolis que passava por profundas transformações urbanas com um quadro de aumento demográfico resultante de um significativo processo migratório. A década de 1990, no Brasil, foi marcada por uma aplicação de políticas neoliberais, que teve como consequência o aumento das taxas de trabalho informal, de dessalariamento e de desemprego, provocando uma situação socioeconômica de maior vulnerabilidade, sobretudo, no que tange às famílias pobres. Como decorrência dessa situação, acentuaram-se as taxas de trabalho infantil ilegal e juvenil ilegal e/ou irregular em todo o país, e em especial na cidade de Florianópolis, onde nos foi possível mapear o lugar ocupado pelos contingentes infantojuvenis protagonistas desta história. Os dilemas do ECA quanto ao trabalho infantojuvenil estão relacionados à necessidade que famílias empobrecidas têm de se utilizarem dessa mão de obra para a própria subsistência. Os impactos relativos a esse Estatuto na sociedade brasileira são muitos, como é o caso da Ação Civil Pública, que contando com a atuação conjunta do Ministério Público do Trabalho, da Delegacia Regional do Trabalho, do Conselho Tutelar da Criança e do Adolescente de Florianópolis e do TRT 12 levou à erradicação das atividades de jornaleiro/a e encartadores de jornais, formas de trabalho infantojuvenil que perduraram por muitas décadas na cidade de Florianópolis. Verificamos, por fim, que para a erradicação do trabalho infantil e para a regularização do trabalho juvenil faz-se necessária a efetivação de um conjunto de políticas públicas voltadas à melhoria de renda dessas famílias, para que não dependam dessa força de trabalho, assim como dos demais direitos, educação, saúde, cultura, lazer e etc., reconhecidos à infância e à adolescência.
The present thesis has as its goal to identify and discuss the impacts and dilemmas raised by the Brazilian Child and Adolescent Rights Act (ECA) in the sphere of action of the Labor Courts (TRT 12) in the city of Florianopolis (Brazil), during the 1990s, in which context that legislation was introduced. From the analysis of 300 labor lawsuits located in the official Digital Archives of that institution, I seek to understand the means by which the labor law operators made use of and referred to the ECA in order to formulate the documents that based the judiciary processes. In the set of those lawsuits, 299 were filed by workers of under eighteen years old and one by the Labor Public Ministry. By the analysis of the documents is possible to identify how were formed working relationships between employers and young workers in different economic sectors of a town that was passing by deep urban transformations linked to the migration process and the population growth. The 1990s in Brazil was marked by the introduction of neoliberal policies, which led to an increase in informal employment rates, cheap labor and unemployment, causing a social and economic situation of greater vulnerability, especially among poor families. As a result of it occurred the increasing of illegal or irregular child and juvenile labor rates in Florianopolis. This study shows the place occupied by those young workers protagonists of this narrative in the recent social and economic processes of that city. The dilemmas that have been raised since the introduction of ECA are related to the needs ofpoor families, which depend on children and youngslabor fortheir livelihood. There are many impacts of ECA in the Brazilian society, such as the Public Civil Action, which involves joint efforts of the Ministry of Labor, the Regional Labor Office, the Council of Guardianship of Children and Adolescent and the Labor Court (TRT 12), which led to the eradication of the paperboys activities, a form of work that lasted for many decades in Florianopolis. Finally, this thesis demonstrates thatthe eradicationof child labor andthe regularizationof youth work should be a part of a broad set ofpublic policies aimed atimproving the incomeof poor families,so that they do notdepend onthislabor force, as well as children and adolescents must be recognized as holders of rights in terms of education, health, culture, recreation and so on.

 

Whilst policy formulation has been extensively studied and theorised in the literature, far less attention has been paid until fairly recently to the issue of policy implementation. For a long time it was more or less assumed that once policy was formulated, implementation was a relatively straightforward administrative matter. In the past twenty or thirty years, however, public administration scholars (such as Pressman and Wildavsky and, in the South African context, Brynard and de Coning) have devoted more attention to unravelling the complexities of policy implementation. The current study intends to apply these more theoretical approaches to an analysis of the implementation of the 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare with particular respect to children in conflict with the law, focusing specifically on the One Stop Child Justice Centre in Mangaung, Bloemfontein. Welfare Service in South Africa before 1994 had a racial bias with services mostly unavailable to the majority of the citizens of the country. The 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare, based on a developmental approach to social welfare, was designed to take the country in a new and inclusive direction. In line with South Africa&rsquo
s 1996 ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other international instruments, Section 4 of Chapter 8 of the White Paper focuses on crime prevention through development and restorative justice, and recommends diversion wherever possible in the case of juveniles. With respect to Juvenile justice, this section of the White Paper makes provision for the establishment of One Stop Child Justice Centres, where a variety of services, from Social Development, the Department of Justice, the South African Police Services, Correctional Services, and the NPA, would be available to clients under one roof. All of these role players, it was envisaged, would operate as a multi-disciplinary team to achieve the objectives of the White Paper with respect to developmental and restorative forms of justice. The Centre at Mangaung is one of only a few centres to have been established as yet in South Africa. Although focusing in particular on the implementation of the 1997 White Paper, the study is also informed by other policy and legislative measures with respect to juvenile justice, in particular the Child Justice Bill of 2002 (now the Child Justice Act of 2008) and the Probation Services Amendment Act of 2002. It is generally accepted by the Government and its critics alike that the policy scene in South Africa in the period since 1994 has been characterized by good policies but poor execution. This is, however, a relatively untested hypothesis and needs further investigation. In the light of this, it is anticipated, that the present study will make a contribution to the literature on policy implementation in South Africa, as well as providing useful insights and lessons that can inform general government policy in this regard, and policy with respect to juvenile justice in particular. Within the general context of the 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare and the Department of Social Development&rsquo
s Integrated Service Delivery Model, and the specific context of the Mangaung One Stop Child Justice Centre, the overall purpose of the study is to scrutinize the apparent discontinuity between policy design on the one hand and policy implementation on the other. More specifically, though, the objectives of the study are: (i) to examine the content of the 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare in general and more specifically the section on children in conflict with the law, (ii) to provide a historical overview of the delivery of services to youth in conflict with the law prior to the first democratic elections (1994) in South Africa, (iii) to examine what the concept of &lsquo
integrated service delivery&rsquo
means to the different role-players at the One Stop Child Justice Centre, (iv) to examine the existing resources (human, financial and other) for successful implementation of the policy,(v) to examine whether there are procedures in place to encourage co-operation among stakeholders at the One Stop Child Justice Centre, (vi) to examine the successes, challenges and opportunities presented by the implementation of this policy at the One Stop Child Justice Centre and, (vii) to identify gaps between policy and implementation and make recommendations towards more successful implementation. Detailed semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Centre Manager and senior representatives of all the services involved (Social Development, the SAPS, Magistrates, the Probation Service, and Prosecutors). The interview questions focus mainly on implementation issues and challenges, but also gather information on the knowledge of the interviewees on the content of the policy. In addition, in order to validate and compare the data collected from these respondents, semi-structured interviews were held with six parents/guardians of children in conflict with the law who had been serviced by the centre. Official documents of the centre, such as annual reports, were also consulted for purposes of triangulation. Detailed transcripts will be made of all the interviews. In analysing the data, use was made in particular of the 5C Protocol advocated by Brynard and De Coning (2006) in their study of policy implementation in South Africa. The five C&rsquo
s include the Content of the policy, the Context in which the policy is implemented, Commitment from those implementing the policy, the role of Clients and Coalitions, and the Capacity of those tasked with implementing the policy. In addition other C&rsquo
s which have an impact on policy implementation (such as communication, co-ordination, and change management) will also be considered. Confidentiality of data gathered and anonymity of respondents were ensured by not requiring any personal details from the survey instruments. The sole purpose of using the data gathered for research was communicated to the respondents on the front page of the survey instruments. The choice of also not answering questions raised was respected.

Australia ratified The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (The Convention) in December 1990. In ratifying The Convention, Australian Governments undertook to implement each of the Articles of The Convention by examining current legal statutes and changing those statutes which the government considered were not in the interests of children. The process of implementation is further complicated by the fact that despite having certain rights, some children also breach the law and consequently come under the legal jurisdiction of juvenile justice. The main focus of the present study is the interface between children's rights and the implementation of the juvenile justice process.

In order to examine the interface between children's rights and juvenile justice, a policy analysis was undertaken which was specifically pertinent to the Queensland system and which compared the government's responsibilities under The Convention together with the proposed changes to the Juvenile Justice Act in Queensland. These proposed changes were analyzed for the implications which they had for the children themselves, the children's parents and the children's education.

The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the Western Cape Province's non-governmental child diversion programme compliance with the Minimum Programme Outcomes Standards developed by the Department of Social Development for programme accreditation. The Minimum Standards focus on optimal diversion outcomes for children in conflict with the law and were designed to ensure good diversion practice. The juvenile justice system has determined child diversion as a rehabilitative and cost-effective alternative justice option, positively contributing towards the curbing of re-offending among child offenders. The research process was guided by a mixed method approach and utilised a structured questionnaire as well as comments and information stated by the respondents during the interview process. The questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of non-governmental diversion programme facilitators of the various diversion programme types to determine the level of programme compliance and to evaluate the implications that the results might hold for programme participants, service providers, as well as for the accreditation process. The results of the study revealed a high level of Minimum Programme Outcomes Standards compliance, with an average of 83%. These results indicate that, in general, the programmes provided by non-governmental diversion service providers are complying with the Minimum Standards and are thereby ensuring good diversion practice. This should positively influence their eligibility for programme accreditation by the Department of Social Development. At the same time. the results of the study have pointed towards other challenges. which were evaluated and discussed.
Criminology
Criminology and Security Science
M.A. (Criminology)

It is common knowledge that owing to their particular vulnerability children worldwide falls prey to physical and/or sexual violence in the home and/or community or witness criminal acts. Consequently children are called upon to testify in a court of law to cruelties or acts of violence. As a result of their developmental shortcomings and immaturity, children find the criminal justice system extremely intimidating and challenging. The importance of realising a justice system that not only affords an accused person the right to a fair trial but also protects and safeguards the rights of the child victims of and witnesses to the crime is thus indisputable. The purpose of this research was therefore to assist the South African criminal justice system in its on-going challenge to find a balance between the right of the accused person to a fair trial and the protection and safeguarding of the rights of child victims and child witnesses. The protection and safeguarding of the rights of child victims and child witnesses in terms of the South African Constitution, applicable domestic law and international instruments relating thereto were extensively discussed and shortcomings identified. Possible solutions to ensure that child witnesses and child victims are adequately protected and supported during the trial stage of the criminal process were advanced. Particular emphasis was placed on the role of an intermediary in assisting child victims and child witnesses during the court process. Comparative research on the protection of child victims and child witnesses in the criminal justice systems of New Zealand and Namibia were also conducted. Conclusions drawn from comparative studies were used to recommend appropriate changes to the current system. It is submitted that the adequate protection and safeguarding of the rights of child victims and child witnesses are dependent not only on sound legal principles but also on governmental and other involved stakeholders’ commitment toward the realisation of these rights. In order to give proper effect to the protection and safeguarding of child victims’ and child witnesses’ rights, it is proposed that the recommendations made throughout this study should be adopted and implemented. In this regard the role of an intermediary is crucial and the use of intermediaries should be promoted.
Private Law
LL.D.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Direito apresentada à Faculdade de Direito
Todos os dias, os maus-tratos, a negligência e o abandono, entre outras situações de perigo, comprometem o bem-estar e o desenvolvimento integral de muitas crianças que, amedrontadas para contar a sua história e pedir ajuda, sofrem em silêncio. Na maior parte dos casos, as crianças não sabem que têm o direito a ser protegidas, mas mesmo quando conhecem os seus direitos, desconhecem onde poderão dirigir-se, que processo se irá seguir, que medidas poderão ser decididas a seu favor e quem estará ao seu lado para garantir a sua recuperação e incentivá-las a ter confiança e esperança. Para as crianças que encontram coragem suficiente para falar sobre os incidentes de que foram vítimas, a percepção que têm é a de que não são ouvidas ou levadas a sério.O presente estudo centra-se, assim, na protecção de crianças e jovens em perigo e constitui uma reflexão sobre a adequação do sistema de promoção e protecção de crianças e jovens em perigo à Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos da Criança. Começa-se, então, por conhecer a Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos da Criança e o sistema de promoção e protecção de crianças e jovens em perigo, em particular, a Lei de Protecção de Crianças e Jovens em Perigo, com a intenção de procurar compreender os problemas que o sistema de protecção enfrenta na implementação dos princípios e das normas da Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos da Criança.Tendo em conta os problemas identificados, as recomendações do Comité dos Direitos da Criança e as boas práticas e políticas adoptadas pelos sistemas de protecção de crianças de outros ordenamentos jurídicos, propõem-se algumas medidas relacionadas com a prevenção das situações de perigo, a protecção das crianças contra a violência e a vitimização secundária decorrente dos processos de promoção e protecção, o incremento da participação das crianças e a criação de estruturas que lhes dêem voz, bem como a prestação dos apoios necessários às crianças e às famílias, no quadro de uma justiça amiga das crianças.
Every day, abuse, neglect and abandonment, among other dangerous situations, compromise the well-being and integral development of many children who, afraid to tell their stories and ask for help, suffer in silence. In most cases, children don’t know they have the right to be protected, but even when they know their rights, they don’t know where to go, what process will follow, which measures can be decided on their behalf and who will stand by their side to ensure their recovery and encourage them to have confidence and hope. For children who find enough courage to talk about the incidents that victimized them, their perception is that they are not listened to or taken seriously.The present study focuses on the protection of children and young people in danger and constitutes a reflection about the adequacy of the system for the promotion and protection of children and young people in danger to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.In the first place, it gets to know the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the promotion and protection of children and young people in danger and, in particular, Children and Young people in Danger Act, in order to try to understand the problems faced by the protection system in the implementation of the principles and norms of the United Conventions on the Rights of the Child.Taken into account the identified problems, the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the good practices and policies adopted by the child protection systems of other legal systems, some measures are proposed related to the prevention of dangerous situations, the protection of children against violence and secondary victimization from promotion and protection processes, the increase of children’s participation and the creation of structures to give them a voice, as well as the provision of the necessary support to children and families, within the framework of a child-friendly justice.

This study aimed to explore and describe the role perceptions of social workers working with children who have been sentenced to compulsory residence due to being in conflict with the law. Exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research designs were applied in using a qualitative research approach. The researcher collected the data using semi-structured interviews with all the social workers working with children sentenced to compulsory residence at Bosasa Child & Youth Care Centres. The data analysis was done using the eight steps identified by Tesch (in Creswell, 2014:198). The data verification was accomplished using Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1990:214-220). The research study provided valuable conclusions and recommendations to different role-players who have an interest in the role of social workers working with children sentenced to compulsory residence. The findings indicated the importance of regular training for social workers who work with children sentenced to compulsory residence to help children to deal with risk factors that may increase the probability of offences occurring.
Social Work
M.A. (Social Science, Social Work)

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English
Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made.
Private Law
LL. M. (Law)