IDENTIFYING CHILD PROTECTION STANDARDS IN THE INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL PROCEDURE

Crimes against children are of a significant importance for the international community and hence, many of the studies in the field of international criminal law during the past two decades have focused on this issue. The question that pops up in this context is that how can one evaluate child protection standards in the international judicial procedure. The findings of the present study indicate that crimes against children have not been paid much attention to by international courts. Several protective regulations for children have been laid, but no efficient practical measures have been taken towards punishing the committers of crimes against children. In fact, in spite of perfection of the international criminal laws of child protection, there are still faults and imperfections in practice; as an instance it can be referred to the international criminal court's procedure in dealing with sexual crimes against the children of Congo. In the former case the judges of the court did not pay any attention to any of the statements of the prosecutor, the reasons pointed to by the legal representatives of the victims, and the testimonies of the witnesses. No new accusations regarding sexual crimes were added to the list of the accusations of Lubango and the final verdict of the court was no more than a little influenced by sexual violence. It is worthy of mentioning that the present study is a descriptive research.