INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE

CleridesLegal sponsored the International Conference on "Juvenile Justice, Issues, Concerns and Future Directions: A Comparative Perspective"  with guest speakers from the United Kindgom, Greece and Europe. The conference took place at the University of Cyprus. Dr. Christos Clerides was one of the speakers and presented a caselaw analysis of Juvenile Justice in Cyprus.

"The first reported case involving a Juvenile in Cyprus is in 1909. In accordance with the latest official statistics on young offenders age 14-16 in the last three years, 2016-2018, an average of 150 per year offences are reported to have been committed. If one adds an average of 35 offences committed by juveniles age, 7-13, the total is around 185 per year in Cyprus. There has been during this period a small increase in the numbers of serious offences reaching 75 in the year of 2018 compared with 69 in 2017 and 71 in the year of 2016. All the above taken with a note of caution as to the accuracy of reporting juvenile offences. The numbers may be different but the statistics give us an indication. It is expected that the numbers will rise unless other measures involving society in general and the family are taken to curb the trend.
 
I should say at the outset that Cyprus was found “guilty” by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the case of Panovits v. Cyprus, application no. 2268/04, Judgment 11.12.2008. The case concerned a child, just over 17  charged with manslaughter and robbery. The ECHR found violations of Articles 6 (1) and 6 (3) of the ECHR on account of the failure to inform the child of his right to consult a lawyer prior to the first police questioning. It was also found that there had been a violation of Article 6(1) due to the use in trial of the child’s confession, obtained in circumstances which breached his right to due process.  
 
The ECHR also found a violation of Article 6(1) of the Convention due to the sentence of the child’s lawyer for contempt of Court3 which undermined his defence3 . The lawyer had remained the same for all the trial notwithstanding his request to withdraw from the proceedings on account of the fact that he felt unable to continue defending the child in an effective matter.

A judgment of this kind obviously paints a very bleak picture of the Cyprus legal system and its treatment of child offenders." - Dr. Christos Clerides, Professor of Law, Head of the Department of Law, Frederick University Cyprus.

You can download his full speech here: