EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Although Zimbabwe has no child justice framework contained within a single Child Justice Act, the Constitution and legislation such as the Children’s Act [Chapter 5:06] and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07] provide for special protection for children in conflict with the law. 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. This is augmented by the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules). The Beijing rules outline how children who interface with the criminal justice system should be treated. Among such protections are special procedures in 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 exists in the form of the PreTrial Diversion programme. At least 51 children were arrested and processed through the court system facing public violence charges in the crackdown that followed the nationwide protests of 14-16 January 2019. This figure is significantly larger than the officially reported figure of 12, as at the 30th of January 2019. While arrests for public violence were made across the country, known cases of children who were arrested were in Harare, Chitungwiza, Macheke and Bulawayo, mostly in dragnet arrests. As access to information was restricted due to restricted movement and internet shutdown during part of the period, it was difficult to ascertain in real time what was transpiring in all the parts of the country. There could have been more children arrested in the more remote areas of the country, whose arrests were not captured. Torture and assault were recorded at the point of arrest, and on arrest, children were placed in police cells, bundled with adults. In some cases, children were over-detained, beyond the constitutionally stipulated 48 hours. Pre-trial detention was the standard for all children arrested, with one spending 10 days at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, in contravention of national laws that prohibit pre-trial detention except under specified circumstances and only as a measure of last resort. 14 children were detained at Khami Prison in Bulawayo after their initial appearance in court, but were later released after their birth certificates were produced in court. 1 Children appeared at Rotten Row and Mbare Courts in Harare, Chitungwiza Magistrates Court in Chitungwiza, and Tredgold and Western Commonage Courts in Bulawayo. Trials truncated due process, and trials were fast-tracked at the instance of prosecutors and Magistrates, in the process violating protections accorded to children in terms of the law. Probation Officers' reports were not furnished in many trials, and children and their lawyers were not accorded adequate time to prepare their defences. Despite mostly circumstantial evidence, a number of children were convicted, and sentences were far from consistent, ranging from suspension of sentencing, wholly suspended sentences, corporal punishment and community service. No children were sentenced to effective imprisonment. At least 4 children in Bulawayo were diverted from the courts through the Pre -Trial Diversion programme. Several trials are yet to commence as at the time of this report, as the State was yet to issue summons calling on the children that were removed from remand to attend trial. In spite of children being victims of the economic and political decay that caught them in the cross-fire of protests in one way or another, children’s treatment in the criminal justice system violated international and domestic standards and norms, signalling a spectacular retrogression in the advancement of the rights of children in conflict with the law. ‘Hear them Cry ’ – An Analysis of State Violence Against Children During the January 2019 Protests