Over 15 years since the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the progress made in terms of Juvenile Justice around the world has been very uneven. 

On a global scale, it is estimated that over one million children are deprived of their liberty. Worldwide, children in conflict with the law are being held under arrest, in detention or imprisonment, frequently in conditions that constitute degrading and inhumane treatment.

Some of the key problems include violence, sexual abuse, economic and sexual exploitation, humiliation, and spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.  In many cases, the detention facilities are not segregated according to gender, age, or crime committed. 

In the great majority of countries, most children deprived of their liberty have not actually been convicted of an offence: they have simply been apprehended or are on pre-trial remand. It is during pre-trial detention that many of the worst human rights abuses occur.

In some countries, contrary to the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, capital punishment and life imprisonment without possibility of release can still be imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age. 

With growing concern, the global movement Defence for Children International has carried out studies reporting on the large number of children and teenagers in the world deprived of their liberty, the conditions of detention and imprisonment that reflect violations of human rights, repressive measures of a large number of Governments as a response to the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency, and the weak or inexistence of juvenile justice systems being implemented in the countries.