Strategies For Integrating Effective Legal Interventions In Child Maltreatment with Child Protection Systems

This session will address the challenges, issues and problems facing legal practitioners, including judges, lawyers as well as other professionals encounter, in dealing with child maltreatment cases as well as different... [ view full abstract ]

This session will address the challenges, issues and problems facing legal practitioners, including judges, lawyers as well as other professionals encounter, in dealing with child maltreatment cases as well as different strategies for implementing more effective child protection systems by integrating existing laws along with international agreements and identifying how these might be integrated and implemented in a more effective manner. Using existing international agreements along with current country laws is an effective strategy to bring about more effective legislative reform.
Understanding the underlying legal principles that serve as a basis for legislative as well as practice changes are critical to implementing legal interventions which protect the rights of the accused but also protect the rights and the best interests of the child-victim.
The goal of this session should provide professionals both legal and non-legal, with additional skills and perspective to bring about change in both legislation and practice in their respective countries in child maltreatment and child protection cases.

Learning Objectives:

1) Summarize and overview of existing international conventions and treaties that serve as models for proposed or enacted legislation concentrating on the legal interventions for child maltreatment.

2) Identify alternative current legislation in the central and Southern Latin American regions that exist to protect children from maltreatment or allow intervention when child maltreatment occurs.

3) Provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of legal interventions and outcomes based upon current existing legislation.

(4) Delineate alternative innovative legal interventions including legislative reform through use of international conventions and treaty agreements in child maltreatment cases.