Diversion and alternative sanctions in the juvenile justice system in Bangladesh: a child rights perspective

This paper analyzes the need to develop alternative sanctions and diversionary programs in the juvenile justice system of Bangladesh. The analysis focuses on a child rights-based juvenile justice system, framed on the basic principles of UN Convention on the Rights of Child 1989. As a state party to the UNCRC, Bangladesh is obliged to comply with its provisions. Non-judicial interventions, such as alternative sanctions and juvenile diversions, are very much in line with the UNCRC approach of juvenile justice, but still hardly applied in Bangladesh. The study presents relevant primary and secondary data to examine the present law and practice relevant to a child in conflict with the law in Bangladesh. It investigates the existing informal mechanism for handling criminal matters outside the criminal justice system. Since Bangladesh underscores on the overuse of imprisonment as means of correction of children, the practice in the ground is not very compatible with international law. Children encounter ill-treatment during arrest, even in police custody and they are devoid of basic opportunities of lives in child correction centre. Lastly, recommendations have been made in this study to effectively introduce different forms of alternative responses and diversionary programs in the juvenile justice system of Bangladesh to make the juvenile justice system more rights-based.