The right to participation of children in conflict with law. An analysis of childhood in UNCRC and juvenile justice in India

Abstract

While childhood is not universally defined, but shaped by socio-cultural and legal contexts, the rights associated with it must be upheld consistently. This is especially important in the case of children in conflict with law, whose position highlights the tension within justice systems that are designed to simultaneously protect and punish them. To that end, this thesis examines how the concept of ‘childhood’ and the right to participation are constructed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and in the Indian Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The first part of the thesis offers a doctrinal legal analysis of how the UNCRC frames childhood as both a protected and participatory condition, further analysing how such constructions of childhood relate to children in conflict with law. The second part applies this conceptual framework to the Indian context, assessing how the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and the treatment of children in courts reflect or diverge from the UNCRC’s vision. The analysis reveals a gap between India’s formal commitments under the UNCRC and the lived legal reality for children in conflict with law. The thesis argues for a stronger legislative alignment with the UNCRC and a conceptual shift toward recognising children as social agents with the right to participate, within the protective ambit of the rights-based framework.