All about United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines)

The Author, Sankalpita Pal, is 2nd year, BBA.LLB student of Symbiosis Law School, Pune. She is currently interning with LatestLaws.com

Q1.  What is Juvenile Delinquency?

Ans: - In general it can be defined as habitual committing of such acts/offences by a young person who is under the age at which ordinary criminal prosecution is allowed by law. Few of the primary causes of juvenile delinquency are unstable parental relationship or broken families, abusive childhood, financial distress etc.

Q2. When were the Riyadh Guidelines adopted?

Ans: - The Riyadh Guidelines were proclaimed by the General Assembly on the advice of the 8^th UN Congress in its 68^th plenary meeting held on 14 December 1990. Thereafter General Assembly adopted the resolution 45/112.

Q3. What are these Guidelines and how does it get its name?

Ans: - These Guidelines are multidisciplinary and intra-disciplinary measures which were proposed to ensure that young people are not compelled to commit crimes or fall into the clutches of victimization and conflict with law.

These Guidelines were discussed elaborately in a meeting at the Arabic Centre for the Security Studies and Training in Riyadh, hence the name Riyadh Guidelines.

Q4. What is the main objective of this act?

Ans: - There are roughly 3 main objectives. They are as follows:

1. Preventive measures for juvenile delinquency.
2. Protective intervention when young people are at “social risk” i.e. they are either abandoned or neglected or are abused along with having a marginalized living status.
3. These guidelines aim to promote collective effort of various social organizations like family, educational institutions, media and community to help the troubled young people and restore their faith in life.

Q5. Who all follow these guidelines?

Ans: - All Member States of the UN Congress are expected to implement these guidelines as national laws however; these guidelines don’t have a binding impact on neither judiciary nor legislature of respective Member States. These guidelines only have persuasive value. There are 193 member states and India is one of them.

Q6. What are the Fundamental Principles under the guidelines?

Ans: - There are 6 Fundamental Principles. They are as follows-

1. The engagement of juvenile delinquents in lawful and socially useful Activities in order to change their outlook on life and leave behind their criminogenic attitudes.
2. It is the duty of the society as a whole to put in efforts to ensure the harmonious development of adolescents and also groom their personality from childhood itself.
3. Young people must be considered an active part of society
4. Focus on young person’s as a part of preventive programme for the implementation of the guidelines.
5. Progressive delinquency prevention policies must be recognized in order to avoid the penalization for petty and harmless damages.
6. Community based programmes shall be developed to prevent juvenile delinquency.

Q7. What is the scope of the guidelines?

Ans: - Article 7 lays down the scope of the Riyadh Guidelines. It is to be interpreted and implemented against the backdrop of various major resolutions and conventions such as:

1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
2. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966
3. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966
4. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
5. The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1959

Q8. What all measures are foreseen under these Guidelines?

Ans: - The Guidelines emphasize 3 main environments in the socialization process- family, educational institutions and community. Media, social policy and legislation for juvenile justice administration also have a moral responsibility of protective intervention. Article 9 consists of general prevention plans on all governmental levels.

Q9. What is the role of United Nations Secretariat under these guidelines?

Ans: - The United Nations Secretariat plays an active role in:

1. Cooperating with interested institutions and assist them in conducting research
2. Bringing about scientific collaboration for formulation of policy
3. The review & monitoring of the implementation of policies based on the Riyadh guidelines.
4. Serving as reliable source of information on effective modalities for prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Q10. What has been the effect of the Guidelines?

Ans: - The Guidelines are treated as “soft law” i.e. it doesn’t have any binding value on the member states’ national and local laws. However, Article 4 establishes a framework for international cooperation from Member States. The wide interpretation of these guidelines is discussed under Article 7. However, the impact of Article 7 is weakened due to Article 8 of the guidelines which serves as an excuse for Member States to not implement these guidelines at all. Few of the Member States have utilized the persuasive value of these guidelines and have drafted laws in accordance with these guidelines. However, it will take some time for these guidelines to have a binding impact.