The Children’s Rights Group at Doughty Street Chambers and the Youth Justice Legal Centre at Just for Kids Law are delighted to announce their formal collaboration on a series of legal guides on key youth justice issues.
The Children’s Rights Group at Doughty Street brings together barristers from across all practice teams to focus on innovative legal advocacy aimed at securing the rights set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Members have acted in many of the leading cases on children’s rights in the UK and the international courts, and many have been at the forefront of law and policy reform in children’s rights.
Just for Kids Law takes a holistic approach to the legal representation of children which aligns with Doughty Street’s extensive expertise across numerous child rights areas of law. Just for Kids Law exists to help children and young people overcome all the difficulties they face, from problems at school and issues with immigration status to trouble with the police.
The Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC) was set up by Just for Kids Law in 2015 to improve the quality of legal representation available to children in the criminal justice system. By providing knowledge and expertise on children’s rights in this context, YJLC supports lawyers working within the constraints of legal aid and fights for better outcomes for children.
Together we are publishing a series of legal guides on youth justice issues for practitioners. Each guide will be launched with a webinar led by a panel of experts. The first three topics in the series are:
- Intermediaries
- Modern Slavery
- Criminal Behaviour Orders
The first in the series of webinars, Intermediaries for child defendants, will take place at 15:30 on Thursday 08 October 2020. To sign up please click here.
Katya Moran and Laura Cooper, Co-Heads of YJLC, said:
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Doughty Street’s Children’s Rights Group. Doughty Street is one of the UK’s leading public law chambers. Their barristers’ breadth of knowledge and expertise at both domestic and international levels is unparalleled. With our joint series of legal guides and webinars we hope to provide accessible and much needed resources for youth justice lawyers. Our collaboration aims to support a high standard of representation for all children in the criminal justice system.”
Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, who (along with Professor Aoife Nolan) jointly leads the Doughty Street Chambers Children’s Rights Group, said:
“YJLC’s work is vital: it provides much-needed legally accurate information, guidance and training on so-called ‘youth justice law,’ an area which has long been neglected. The YJLC aims to ensure that, just as a child in hospital is treated by a specialist paediatrician, a child in the criminal justice system is represented by a specialist in children’s rights and youth justice. Our children’s rights group shares YJLC’s aims, and we are proud to work with the YJLC on these new legal guides, an important resource for lawyers representing children. To have child-friendly justice, we must have child-friendly lawyers, knowledgeable about these complex areas of law. This is precisely what these new guides aim to achieve.”
