The Juvenile Justice System and The Right to Dignity of Juvenile Offenders in Pakistan

by Wajahat Ali Mailk

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This paper begins by identifying the minimum standard of protection the legal system of Pakistan must grant to juvenile offenders in order 10 respect their inviolable right to dignity. It further analyses the juvenile justice laws currently in force in Pakistan, especially the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018, to see whether they comply with the minimum requirements of human dignity. It will be shown that the whole system is, unfortunately, still largely ineffective. This leads to juvenile offenders being sentenced to death and suffering abuse and violence during both investigation and imprisonment, all egregious violations of dignity. The low minimum age of criminal responsibility in Pakistan is also a serious threat to the right to dignity of juveniles. The paper ends by recommending that one of the most urgent steps the Government of Pakistan needs to take is to reinstate the moratorium on the death penalty, since 10% of the current death row population consists of convicted juveniles. Moreover, the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018 must be given overriding effect over all other laws, including the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, so that cases of juvenile offenders cannot be tried in the anti-terrorism courts. Additionally, these measures must be taken to protect them from being awarded the death penalty or being imprisoned with adults, which, as data shows, inevitably leads to the abuse of minor inmates.