In June the 10th Annual Meeting of the Inter-institutional Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ) took place in Sion (Switzerland). This is a coordination panel on technical counselling that was established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in its centred resolution 1997/30. During this meeting, the members highlighted the importance of developing a common approach on the development of justice adapted to minors in conflict with the law, victims and crime witnesses.

Mr. Lappi-Seppala, analyses the juvenile justice system in Finland as well as the situation of minors deprived of liberty in the same country. Throughout an exhausting presentation of the reform process for the minor criminal situation in Finland, Tapio gave a clear explanation of the evolution and development of the structure and context of the minor wellbeing, together with the progresses on the institutional level in Finland.

Within the Framework of the 2nd year of the Childhood without Bars Project, the Delegation for the Latin American BICE organised the Seminar 'Building restorative juvenile justice process in Latin America' in June.

The International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), through its continental department the Latin American Juvenile Justice Observatory (LJJO), had the pleasure to share socio-professional integration and family participation practices and programmes aimed at the minor offender’s socio-professional reintegration.

On the occasion of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, the Committee of the Regions has organized, on the 8th of June 2010, the “Forum on local and regional responses to poverty and social exclusion”, where more than 200 organizations have taken part, including the International Juvenile Justice Observatory. The aim of the Forum was to promote the implementation of measures at local and regional levels to ensure the integration of socially, economically and culturally excluded people.

The International Juvenile Justice Observatory has kindly asked the Secretariat of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) to make a presentation of the activities undertaken by the Committee as well as a compilation of documents and publications concerning minors deprived of their liberty. The IJJO thanks the Secretariat of the CPT for its collaboration in the elaboration of this dossier and it is pleased to share this useful information with our users and collaborators.

Ms. Stando-Kawecka presents the current situation of juvenile justice, the legal frame and the measures and strategies that foster a positive insertion of the child in Poland. Barbara highlights the importance and the need to prevent juvenile delinquency in a preventive and integrating approach of the child in Poland and she examines current trends in regard to juvenile delinquency in Poland.

The International Seminar on Human Rights and Probation organized by the General Directorate of Social Reinsertion from the Ministry of Justice of Portugal took place in Torres Novas (Portugal) on the 21st and 22nd of April 2010. An important number of experts in the field of human rights, justice and criminology came together to share their experience on how to respect Human Rights in the penitentiary systems in Europe and at the international level.

The IJJO was invited to take part at this Seminar and raised this opportunity to highlight the importance of implementing articles 37 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Besides, the IJJO presented its International Campaign "Two decades of Juvenile Justice: improvements since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child".

On the 9th and 10th November,the fourth IJJO international conference will take place in Rome (Italy), titled as "Building integrative juvenile justice systems: Approaches and methodologies regarding mental disorders and drugs misuse". The deadline for submission of papers expired on May 28th, the IJJO received more than 80 papers to present at the Conference, from many countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States of America.

This International Conference will develop the two following central themes:
1. Mental disorders and drugs misuse: Analysis of the situation of minors in conflict with the law.
2. Juvenile justice and health systems: A necessary multidisciplinary and integrative collaboration.

We also inform you that the registration period to attend the international event has now been opened.

Last May 11th 2010, the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO) attended the European Council meeting on Education, Youth and Culture, personally gathering together all the Ministers of Education of the European Union (EU).

This meeting was chaired by the representative of the Spanish EU Presidency and the Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo, together with Mrs Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilinguism and Youth. Between the different themes to deal with, there was the reduction of school drops out by 10%, which nowadays has an average around 15%, and also the improvement of higher education bringing the access up to 40% of the European Population. These goals were set in the “Europe 2020 Program”, European strategy to increase employment, productivity and social cohesion, together with education promotion and European Universities modernization.

Mrs. Pitsela, associate professor of Criminology at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the School of Law, analyses and presents the juvenile justice system in Greece, and its situation in relation to the consequences of the current socioeconomic crisis in this country. Regarding the reform of juvenile criminal legislation in Greece, Angelika explains some of the changes that have been brought in by this law, among others, an increase in non-custodial educational measures.