JUSTICE > AZERBAIJAN
Giving troubled teenagers a second chance Research conducted in 2006 showed around 600 to 700 www.enpi-info.eu adolescents in Azerbaijan were being taken to court each year for committing crimes. Many of them were convicted of minor offences and served their sentence in a closed ‘colony’ for juvenile offenders. Funded by the EU and supported by UNICEF, a Juvenile Justice Initiative has introduced alternative education and rehabilitation systems for youths in trouble with the law. They call it ‘family therapy’, because everybody needs to join in: teenagers, their parents, their schools, as well as experts. An EU Neighbourhood Info Centre journalist visited the Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation and Legal Support in Juvenile Cases and sends this report. Text by Shain Hadjiev Pictures by AFP © EU Neighbourhood INFO CENTRE
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BAKU – Should a 13-year-old be sent to a penal colony if he breaks the law? Chances are that if that happens, he might become a real criminal by the age of 20. Today, in Azerbaijan, the view that alternative education and rehabilitation can be much more effective for teenagers than criminal punishment is proving a popular one. Supported by UNICEF and funded by the EU, work on implementing a Juvenile Justice Initiative has been underway in Azerbaijan since 2007. One of the organisations engaged in this task is the NGO ‘Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation and Legal Support in Juvenile Cases’. According to the head of the NGO, Kyamalya Ashumova, , the idea of EU Neighbourhood Info Centre establishing the Centre was based on a desire to help teenagers who Feature no. 114 had once gone wrong, as well as rehabilitating them while offering an This is a series of features on alternative to custodial sentences, served in closed juvenile corrective projects funded by the EU Regional Programme, prepared by journalists facilities, or ‘colonies’. and photographers on the ground “Based on our research in 2006, around 600-700 adolescents were be- or the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre. ing taken to court for committing crimes every year. Many of them were © 2014 EU Neighbourhood Info Centre convicted of minor offences” she says. “This meant that in the colonies,