Restorative Justice through a Children's Rights Lens

Restorative justice is an alternative to the formal criminal justice system which focuses on repairing the harm caused to the victim of the off ence, eff ecting reconciliation between victim and off ender, and the re-integration of the off ender. Its use is widespread in national youth justice systems. Th is article will analyse the use of restorative justice in connection with off ending by children. It will be argued that despite evidence of endorsement by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the fundamental concepts of restorative justice are at odds with a children's rights model of youth justice as required by international standards. Not only do similar concerns about due process rights exist for children as for the adult system, it is diffi cult to reconcile the best interests of the child standard with the victim focused approach of restorative justice, and there are doubts as to whether children have suffi cient maturity for remorse and reintegration.