Towards child-centred justice

Comillas was the setting for the 5th World Congress on Justice for Children, a global event that brought together more than 750 participants in person, thousands more online from around the world and more than 60 satellite events held simultaneously around the world over the course of three days. Under the theme "Moving towards Child-Centred Justice: Preventing and Responding to Violence against Children in Justice Systems", the conference put at the centre of the debate the main challenges and urgent transformations needed to achieve accessible, inclusive and child rights-friendly justice systems.

Throughout all the presentations and working sessions, speakers addressed issues such as the prevention of institutional violence in detention contexts; the integration of lived experiences and testimonies of young people in the design of public policies, or climate and digital justice, disability, mental health and justice in contexts of armed conflict. Issues such as the rights of minors in relation to AI, sexual violence, and the protection of child victims and witnesses of violence were also addressed.

The final result was the presentation of the Madrid Global Declaration, which includes strategic recommendations to advance towards SDG 16 of the 2030 Agenda, promoting fair, inclusive and effective institutions focused on the needs and rights of children.

For Myriam Cabrera, Director of the Chair in Children's Rights at Comillas, "the congress provided an unparalleled framework to make us aware of the challenges that have yet to be adequately addressed and to generate and reinforce synergies without which this will not be possible". Moreover, "the timing was particularly opportune, bearing in mind that the next General Comment 27 to be adopted by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will be precisely on the Right of Children to Access to Justice and to an Effective Remedy".

Likewise, the Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and General Secretariat, Dolores Carrillo, insisted on the duty to "recognise children and adolescents as subjects of rights, with their own voice, whose dignity must be protected by all available means, with their active participation". He also praised the work of the Chair of Children's Rights at Comillas, "which has consolidated itself as a point of reference in the interdisciplinary study and defence of children's rights, from a legal, social and ethical perspective".

The event was inaugurated by the Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, and had the notable participation of the Secretary of State for Justice, Manuel Olmedo; the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, and the member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Philip D. Jaffé.