Afghanistan Juvenile Justice Today

This paper provides an overview of Afghanistan children justice system and its challenges. It states that Afghanistan's justice system shows some limits. These are due to the fact that justice system is still in the early stages of its development; the government has limited power over the country; the population has suffered from decades of civil war; security is precarious; institutions are weak. Consequently, the legal framework and the justice system is fragmentary, contradictory or unimplemented. This paper also highlights that Afghanistan’s legislation provides for protection and rehabilitation for children in conflict with the law, but in practice, limited capacity and insufficient attention from the Afghanistan government lead to poor implementation of these laws. Indeed, it is stressed that child protection lacks a real commitment from the Afghanistan government, which dedicates very limited resources to this issue. As a result, the juvenile justice system in Afghanistan has many shortcomings such as absence of medical services and widespread child rights violations.