Montreal, August 5th, 2025 – Children involved in criminal activities: the IBCR emphasises the importance of a non-stigmatising, child rights-based response.

In response to comments made by the leader of the Parti Québécois, reported by the Journal de Québec on July 30, proposing harsher penalties for young people involved in criminal activities, the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR) underlines the need to recognise that these children and young people are, above all, victims of a complex and growing reality to which UNICEF France has recently dedicated a report : child criminal exploitation. 

Rather than increasing sentences of adopting punitive approaches that are contrary to the best interests of the child, it is appropriate, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to prioritise non-punitive, restorative and adapted measures that provide individualised support through child-centred justice. The Convention, ratified by Canada, also obliges States to protect every child from exploitation by implementing appropriate and non-discriminatory measures.  

By associating the rise in youth involvement in criminal activities to ethnocultural factors or specific life experiences, the deputy’s statements contribute to stigmatising these young people, portraying them as a threat to public safety.

It is necessary to acknowledge that criminal exploitation is complex, multidimensional and changing in nature, requiring in-depth understanding of contextual and individual factors, without reducing them to the simplistic explanations. The unique experience of each child must be taken into account to better understand this still under-recognised phenomenon of the child criminal exploitation and to provide an adequate response.  

And only a response based on children rights will be effective.  

Founded in 1994, with its headquarters in Montreal (Canada) and currently active in some fifteen countries, the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR) is committed to a world in which children’s rights are a reality, focusing on children who face the most obstacles to achieving this. Its mission is to transform the place of these children in our societies and to strengthen child protection and justice systems.