Child First and Children’s Rights: An Opportunity to Advance Rights-Based Youth Justice

International children’s rights law provides a set of universal standards that aim to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of the child in conflict with the law. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children in conflict with the law have a right to treatment that is age appropriate, promotes their reintegration, meets their needs and enhances the support of family relationships. Principles of diversion and detention as a last resort seek to minimise children’s contact with the criminal justice system and adapted procedures and settings, specialisation and independent monitoring are required to ensure the highest standards are maintained. According to Case and Haines, the Child First approach prioritises the promotion of positive behaviours and outcomes for children, grounded in ‘child-friendly principles of universalism, diversion and normalisation’. The adoption of Child First as the strategic approach of the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales seeks to reframe the national youth justice agenda with a system-wide approach that is child-centred. Although children’s rights are one element of Child First, the latter approach is not explicitly rights based or at least not exclusively so. This is arguably a missed opportunity to leverage the strengths of the rights approach, with which Child First shares common values and principles. Considering the Child First approach from a children’s rights perspective helps to identify how a rights-basis would strengthen both the case for and the substance of a Child First approach, as a progressive path towards protecting the rights of all children in conflict with the law.