CHAPTER 2 CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW: INTERNATIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK “Children deserve less punishment because they may have less capacity to control their conduct and think in long-range terms than adults. Moreover, juvenile crime, as such, is not exclusively the offender’s fault. Offences by juveniles also present a failure by family, school and the social system, which share responsibility for the development of the youth. Actions of a child are less likely to be evidence of irretrievable depravity.” Chief Justice Luke Malaba, S v Chokuramba CCZ 10-19 Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Zimbabwe, as a signatory to global and regional instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), has adopted a legal regime that offers special protection to children who interface with the criminal justice system. While Zimbabwe has no child justice framework contained within a single Child Justice Act, the Constitution and legislation such as Children’s Act and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act provide special protections for children in conflict with the law. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules) augment the national child justice system. The Beijing rules outline how children who interface with the criminal justice system should be treated. Among such protections are special procedures in the trial of children, and a regime of reformative and rehabilitative sentencing as opposed to retributive and punitive sentencing. A mechanism to divert children’s cases from the criminal justice system exist in Zimbabwe in the form of the Pre-Trial Diversion programme. 8 ‘Hear them Cry ’ – An Analysis of State Violence Against Children During the January 2019 Protests