Local NGO Justice for Children (JC) recorded a total of 51 children who were arraigned in the Magistrates Court in Harare, Chitungwiza and Bulawayo. This is despite the Chief Justice Luke Malaba mentioning in a statement that 12 children were arraigned before the courts as at 30 January 2019. Most public violence cases were recorded in Bulawayo and Harare and the main courts that dealt with cases of public violence involving children were as follows: Ÿ Tredgold Magistrates Court, Bulawayo Ÿ Western Commonage Magistrates Court, Bulawayo Ÿ Rotten Row Magistrates Court, Harare Ÿ Mbare Magistrates Court, Harare and Ÿ Chitungwiza Magistrates Court, Harare 4.2 The Victim Friendly System There is in place a national Victim Friendly System which is composed of the Victim Friendly Unit within the ZRP, and the Victim Friendly Courts within the court system. The system is meant to provide victim-friendly services to those who seek justice through the court system, primarily in sexual offenses and domestic violence. However, this system protects complainants, which are designated as the victims or survivors, as opposed to accused persons, even when the accused are children. Children accused of criminal offences are therefore not beneficiaries of the Victim Friendly System. This is in spite of the fact that children who commit criminal offences are themselves victims of youthful influences, and victims of whatever circumstances that would have led them to commit the criminal offences. During the January 2019 protest trials, no child accused of public violence was taken through the Victim Friendly system, including at police stations, for the stated reasons. 4.3 PTD considered as an option. In Bulawayo one case involving a 9-year-old was channelled for diversion through the prosecutor and the Department of Social Welfare. Authority to Prosecute had not been obtained from the Prosecutor-General. On 26 January 2019, three children aged between 13 and 16 were diverted at Western Commonage Court after lawyers representing the children engaged the prosecutors. Although prosecutors were initially reluctant, they eventually relented. Due to the fast-tracked justice, PTD was probably seen as a non-viable system to achieve the objectives of the day. The programme was thus thrown into the periphery in the moment. For all intends and purposes, the public violence trials appeared to have been designed to achieve some goals which the government had set, such as punishing participants in the protests, and deterring future demonstrations and protests through sending a clear and audible message that the law would descend on any one who dares participate in violent demonstrations. 4.4 Legal Representation Although the government’s Legal Aid Directorate (LAD) has offices at all provincial centres in the country, including in Bulawayo and Harare where most children were prosecuted for public violence, LAD did not legally represent any child who was facing charges of public violence during the period under review. This might have been due to the fact that LAD is a government body and events of January 2019 were politicised. The Pre-Trial Diversion (PTD) programme The PTD programme found little application during the January 2019 arrests and trials. In Harare and Chitungwiza all children arrested during #ZimShutDown were either tried, or cases were removed from remand, with the State to proceed by way of summons should it decide to prosecute the children. None of the cases had 23 ‘Hear them Cry ’ – An Analysis of State Violence Against Children During the January 2019 Protests