Children’s rights and the justice system: Exploring the meaning and application of the right to identity

This chapter addresses children's right to identity in the context of the youth justice system and deprivation of liberty. The challenges and risks presented by detention, despite the special protections afforded under the UNCRC (Articles 7, 8, 37 and 40) are discussed. The right to identity is rarely considered in the youth justice system, yet there are remarkably consistent profiles of adversity, trauma, disadvantage, and vulnerability shared by children who come into conflict with the law. Being labelled and stigmatised as an ‘offender’ can strip back individual elements of personal identity. This can have an especially disproportionate impact on ethnic minority and LGBTIQI+ children, and children who have committed serious crimes. Detention can be a devastating low point, but it can also arrest the child's downward spiral and provide respite. Rehabilitative programmes allowing children to rediscover themselves and their identity, including through music, art, and creative writing, are reviewed.