Azerbaijan NGO Alliance for Children’s Rights, members of NGO Alliance’s Juvenile Justice Thematic Working group – Reliable Future Youth Organization, “El” Center for Development Programs and Azerbaijan Young Layers Union in cooperation with Prison Watch Public Union and Azerbaijan Parent Teacher Association and with the support of UNICEF and Government of Azerbaijan has started the implementation of innovative pilot project that will aimed at development of monitoring and referral mechanisms to prevent the juvenile delinquency.

This project will outline the development and introduction of psychosocial rehabilitation and conflict management model to support juveniles a risk to become in conflict with the law. The project will run in 11 districts of the Baku capital and will include the structures involved in prevention of juveniles to become in conflict with law, including police inspectors, schools, communities, distribution center and commission on minors’ affairs and protection of their rights.

The project will target the children and juveniles living in the communities and being at risk to become in conflict with the law. In current situation, the majority of children with disruptive behavior are those from poor families, families with only parent, families in risk of divorce, families exercising the child abuse and/or corporal punishment. According to the researches and surveys conducted it was revealed that there are some 10-20% children who are at risk to become in conflict with the law. However, the absence of special services, mentoring and referral mechanisms, these children are left out and majority of them become involved in conflict with law because of more severe cases of delinquency. Therefore it is important to create the effective monitoring and referral mechanisms as well as social rehabilitation programs in place, in communities, in schools with the involvement of all interested parties in order to prevent the deepening of child’s delinquency and implement necessary actions to bring child back from the wrong way.

Goals of the project

• To prevent the children at risk to become involved in conflict with law;
• To support the effective functioning of monitoring and referral mechanisms for children at risk;
• To create and assist the system of individual approach to children identified as at risk by involvement and cooperative work of all stakeholders and duty bearers at local level;
• To empower the communities and schools to become effective players in the prevention of child delinquency and children to become in conflict with law.

Target groups/beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries in 11 districts of Baku capital:

• Children registered at police offices by child inspectors;
• Children referred by commissions on minors’ affairs and protection of their rights;
• Children referred by commission on adoption and guardianship;
• Children referred by schools, whose names reflected at school notice boards, whose names recorded by teachers, psychologists, community members, PTAs, NGOs;
• Children from Umid Yeri Center;

Indirect beneficiaries:

• School leaderships, psychologists and teachers;
• Community active members;
• Child inspectors, other juvenile justice professionals;
• Members of commissions on minors’ affairs and protection of their rights and commissions on adoption and guardianship;
• PTAs; NGOs and CBOs;

The project will enable to provide the multi-agency and multi disciplinary approach and cooperative efforts to organize the work to prevent and rehabilitate the children at risk to become involved in conflict with the law. The monitoring and referral mechanism will be strengthened (based on the careful situational analyses conducted in 2005 by NGO Alliance and in 2005-2006 by UNICEF Azerbaijan) that will involve all duty bearers and stakeholders, including schools, commissions on minors’ affairs and protection of their rights, commissions on guardianship and adoption, PTAs, NGOs, CBOs, child inspectors, community members. These structures will play an important role in identification of the children at risk but also in counseling and rehabilitating of them as well as their families that will lead to creation of child friendly environment.