Grace Agcaoili is UNICEF’s Global Technical Lead on Justice for Children, based in the New York Headquarters. In this capacity, she provided technical advice to regions and countries on their legal reform and justice for children issues and led the development of global technical guidance on justice for children.

Grace previously worked as Chief of Child Protection and manager of Peacebuilding and multisectoral development programmes in UNICEF Colombia, Regional Child Protection Specialist on justice, child rights and ASEAN at the UNICEF Regional Office for East Asia and the Pacific where she led the development of the pioneering study on "Diversion not Detention" and provided technical support to 28 countries in the region, ASEAN and other regional fora.  She joined UNICEF Philippines in 2000 as Child Protection Officer on justice for children and from 2003 to 2013 worked on local governance, gender, emergencies, social protection and as area coordinator covering health, water and sanitation, education, child protection and social protection in two local governments, and as Chief of Social Policy and Advocacy.

Grace completed her PhD in Human Rights and Peace (Mahidol University, Thailand) with a dissertation on the interpretation of best interests of the child in juvenile justice. She finished a Juris Doctor and Bachelor’s Degrees in Legal Management and Hispanic Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University. She obtained a master’s in international cooperation for development from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Grace is a licensed lawyer and is a member of the Philippine bar association and the International Bar Association. Before joining UNICEF, she provided paralegal assistance to families living in extreme poverty in Metro Manila.

How does UNICEF monitor the state of children’s rights in different justice systems around the world?

UNICEF annually releases a State of the World's Children report. One of the data we annually collect is the rate of children in detention in the administration of justice. Data is drawn from the UNICEF global database, based primarily on administrative records from government ministries mandated to oversee justice systems. For some countries, such data is compiled from databases maintained by Eurostat and TransMonEE. There are four criteria to include this data in the report: it reflects children detained in police custody, pre-trial detention or custodial sentence; the reference year is known; it is produced by an official source; the source of the data is verifiable and supporting documentation is available.

During the recent World Congress on Justice with Children, we also launched “Children Deprived of Liberty in the Administration of Justice: Global and Regional Estimates and Trends”, an update from the 2021 global and regional estimates. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as not all countries are reporting regularly and data on other contexts of deprivation of liberty is not available.

Also, UNICEF country offices annually report the percentage of children diverted and provided non-custodial measures, the number of children victims of violence who are reached by justice services and the specialization of their justice system based on six indicators: minimum age of criminal responsibility at least 14 years old; legal aid exists in law and practice for children; specialized training for justice actors; child friendly investigation, prosecution and court procedures; a multidisciplinary approach; and special procedures for child victims and witnesses.

What are the most common shortcomings in relation to child-friendly justice that UNICEF detected in these different justice systems?

More than 100 countries reported, at least at the national level, having legal aid in law and practice, as well as specialized training, child-friendly procedures, a multidisciplinary approach and special procedures for child victims and witnesses. However, legal empowerment of children, at least by law, was reported in only 24 countries where we have programmes.  

We should highlight that many countries still have a minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) below 14, and several countries have a lower age for children committing serious crimes. Those below MACR could also be deprived of their liberty in institutions. We are seeing the continuing push back on child rights, including the lowering of MACR, detention of children for expressing their civil and political rights, labelling children as “terrorists” or “violent extremists”, and the list goes on. In addition, diversion and non-custodial measures are not widely used and often not properly understood, and the interpretation of best interests of the child has also been often misused by the actors of the justice system. We should also mention that gathering data on children in the justice system is a continuing challenge.

UNICEF accompanies law and policy reforms relating to implementing child-friendly justice in different countries. Could you provide some recent examples of this?

Aside from supporting governments to enact laws that follow international human rights standards, particularly on child rights, we accompany them in implementing these policies by advocating for accompanying budgets and strengthening institutional capacity.

UNICEF also generates evidence and promotes exchange of good practices among countries, such as the studies on diversion and non-custodial measures in East Asia and the Pacific, which won Best of UNICEF Research in 2018 and is one of the reasons why UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific was awarded by the IJJO,  and in Eastern and Southern Africa.

We have recently launched a Reimagine Justice for Children Technical Brief Series on 10 justice for children topics, which contain solutions from Global North and Global South countries to show others how they can concretely implement international standards and national laws to strengthen children’s access to justice. So far, UNICEF has released six of these briefs, covering the topics of children whose parents or primary caregivers are deprived of liberty, child-friendly legal aid, children and armed violence, the role of social service workforce in justice for children, mental health and psychosocial support in justice for children, and customary justice for children.  Soon we will publish the remaining four, covering access to justice for child victims, children in civil proceedings, child friendly courts, and legal empowerment and justice for children.

UNICEF supports initiatives to train various agents of the justice system, law enforcement, and child protection in the principles and proceedings of child-friendly justice. Could you tell us more about these initiatives and their role in advancing justice for children?

UNICEF supports the strengthening the capacity of formal (law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary, corrections) and customary justice systems, as well as other relevant systems, such as social welfare. It also promotes their collaboration with education, health and social protection systems, among others.

Social service workforce and mental health professionals have roles to play before, during and after children come into contact with the justice system, whether the child is a victim, witness, in conflict with the law or deprived of liberty, or takes part in a civil or administrative proceeding.  

Our strategy follows a systems building approach, where we ensure that institutions and not only individuals are strengthened, such as by integrating our capacity building in existing curriculum of these institutions, where we build capacity not only on international standards and child development, but also social behaviour change. We support developing benchmarks for both social service and justice workforce and systems, and help governments plan, budget, implement and monitor the strengthening of the systems to deliver results for children.  We also promote the use of innovations that follow human rights standards.

What actions does UNICEF carry out to ensure that children become legally empowered, aware of their rights, and active participants in the justice system?

UNICEF follows a four-pronged strategy on legal empowerment. First is education, where children are provided with effective access to education about the legal system, their rights and how to claim them. Second is expression, where children are enabled to express their view freely on issues that affect them and to advocate for their rights, both collectively and individually. Third is access to remedies, where children’s access to local, national and international judicial and quasi-judicial forums and legal processes is supported to access legal remedies. Finally, children’s safety must be ensured, not only by fostering a child-friendly and safe environment for children to use the law, legal systems and non-litigious strategies to obtain their rights, but also by mitigating any backlash that children may face from exercising their rights. Children with lived experiences should participate in the design, implementation and monitoring of laws and justice programmes and reform.

How is UNICEF encouraging justice systems to adopt appropriate interventions and approaches in relation to the needs of girls and LGBTI+ children?

At the heart of UNICEF’s roadmap on justice for children programming, known as Reimagine Justice for Children Agenda, is non-discrimination due to gender, disability, migration status, ethnicity, etc. A justice system cannot be child-friendly or child-centred if it is not gender-sensitive and inclusive.

The Reimagine Justice Agenda also calls on all of us to be more committed and intentional in addressing discrimination in all its forms and ensuring access to justice. Furthermore, it calls on us to pay greater attention to children who are over-represented in justice systems, including children with disabilities, indigenous and ethnic minority children, children discriminated against due to gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, and children on the move. Every component of the Reimagine Justice agenda should ensure that these children participate, are included, have their needs considered, and have access to justice.