Training Workshop on Juvenile Justice for Legal Practitioners – 26th February to 5th March 2021

The Child Rights Unit at Dastak recently conducted training workshops for legal practitioners under its current project, titled: Juvenile Justice – Reformative Education and Monitoring of Prisons (Punjab). 24 advocates engaged in the criminal legal system, hailing from Punjab’s districts of Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur were trained on the rights of the juveniles under international and domestic laws in Lahore, on the 26 th of February and 5 th of March, 2021.

The purpose of these training workshops was to equip fresh and ambitious lawyers with the requisite legal tools to defend children in prisons, and offer a refresher training to the more experienced ones. The challenges and implications of the juvenile justice system in Pakistan and specifically in Punjab were discussed at length through involvement of relevant departments such as police, prosecution, probation and prisons. Furthermore, these lawyers have also been engaged as part of Dastak’s ‘Children in Prisons Defenders Network’. This volunteer referral network shall be referred cases of juveniles who require legal assistance, as well as engage with the judicial system to undertake legal initiatives to improve the administration of justice for children in conflict with the law.