Social Justice for Children and Young People : International Perspectives

This volume offers a global, comprehensive view of social justice issues and interventions for young people. Readers will benefit from chapters that describe key social justice elements that have an impact on young people, discuss critical barriers to social justice for young people, use country case studies, and call for comprehensive reform.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the goal of a social justice approach for children is to ensure that children “are better served and protected by justice systems, including the security and social welfare sectors.” Despite this worthy goal, the UN documents how children are rarely viewed as stakeholders in justice rules of law; child justice issues are often dealt with separate from larger justice and security issues; and when justice issues for children are addressed, it is often through a siloed, rather than a comprehensive approach. This volume actively challenges the current youth social justice paradigm through terminology and new approaches that place children and young people front and center in the social justice conversation. Through international consideration, children and young people worldwide are incorporated into the social justice conversation.