Justice Project: Pro Bono Tool
Children and Young People

1. Commitment by state and territory governments to long-term, stable investment in specialist, joined-up legal services for children and young people, especially in RRR areas and jurisdictions where no specialist service exists.
2. Investment in better exit strategies, including wraparound supports, transition services, throughcare and appropriate, safe and affordable accommodation, to prevent youth homelessness and avoid contact with the criminal justice system for children and young people exiting government institutions, including the child protection systems and youth detention.
3. State and territory governments should support the expansion and evaluation of communication intermediary schemes across Australian jurisdictions, involving appropriately qualified, trained and remunerated communication intermediaries who provide impartial and independent advice to the judicial system regarding the communication needs of the child or young person.
4. Australian governments should increase the age of criminal responsibility to at least 12 years of age, subject to doli incapax being in place, and not detain children under 14 years of age, except in the most serious of cases.
5. Commonwealth, state and territory governments should (respectively, as appropriate) consider review of and reforms to improve the child protection systems.
6. Consideration should be given to the intersections between the child protection systems and the family violence protection systems and juvenile justice systems.
7. Particular regard should be had to measures that prioritise early intervention; adopt trauma-informed and culturally appropriate practice; and are developed in consultation with children and young people with lived experience of the child care and protection systems.
8. Priority should be given to reviewing and addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children in out-of-home care, including through:
   • a national review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection, and associated state and territory laws and practices, in line with the Australian Law Reform Commission’s recent recommendations;
   • development of a national target to eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care as part of the Closing the Gap Framework; and
   • addressing the barriers to the full implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

9. Commitment by state and territory governments, supported by the Commonwealth Government, to improving the juvenile detention systems through implementing evidence-based policy and practice, having particular regard to:
10. the recommendations made by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory relating to juvenile detention facilities, the child care and protection system, bail and bail support and accommodation services, and courts; and
11. the Australian Commissioners and Guardians’ Statement on Conditions and Treatment in Youth Justice Detention to ‘guide improvements in each jurisdiction and promote national consistency regarding the conditions and treatment in youth justice detention’.[1]
12. Governments should support the role of independent statutory officers who have a mandate to promote the best interests and uphold the rights of children and young people generally and in particular, children and young people in the care systems and in the youth justice systems.

[1] Australian Commissioners and Guardians, Statement on Conditions and Treatment, 7.

• Justice Project Report infographic