5.2 International Legal Framework

5.2.1 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 The magna carta (Nepal an early ratifier — 1990): Article 1 (the below-18 child); Article 3 (best interests); Article 12 (the child's voice); Article 37 — the custody-and-punishment floor: no torture; no capital punishment and no life imprisonment without release for children; arrest-and-detention as last resort and for the shortest appropriate time; the child's contact with family; separation from adults; the legal-assistance-and-challenge rights; Article 40 — the juvenile-justice administration: the presumption of innocence, prompt notice in understood language, counsel, the speedy determination, no compelled confession, the witness-and- cross protections, privacy — and the menu: diversion, guidance, supervision, probation, custody's alternatives; plus the two Optional Protocols (children-in-armed-conflict; sexual exploitation) and the Committee's General Comments (the modern minimum-age-and-justice guidance). 5.2.2 UN Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, 1985 (the Beijing Rules) The system's technical bible: the rule-of-law frame (the rights-and-fairness floor); the age of criminal responsibility's rational lower bound; diversion's preference at every stage; the detention-last-resort-and-shortest-time command; the investigation's safeguards (notification of parents, counsel, the child-friendly questioning); the adjudication-and-disposition menu (the care-and-guidance orders, the probation-and-supervision faces); the records' confidentiality- and-destruction; and the non-discrimination rule (Rule 1.6). 5.2.3 UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, 1990 (the Riyadh Guidelines) The prevention's map (the up-stream document): the family's support-first policy; the…