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justice personnel, educators, the mass media, practitioners
and scholars;
priate measures to ensure the implementation of the present
resolutions;
5. Requests the Secretary-General and invites Member States
to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the text of the
Guidelines in all official languages of the United Nations;
10. Invites the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human
Rights to consider this new international instrument with a
view to promoting the application of its provisions;
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6. Further requests the Secretary-General and invites all relevant United Nations offices and interested institutions, in
particular, the United Nations Children’s Fund, as well as individual experts, to make a concerted effort to promote the
application of the Guidelines;
7. Also requests the Secretary-General to intensify research on
particular situations of social risk and on the exploitation of
children, including the use of children as instruments of criminality, with a view to developing comprehensive countermeasures and to report thereon to the Ninth United Nations
Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of
Offenders;
8. Further requests the Secretary-General to issue a composite manual on juvenile justice standards, containing the
United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of
Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines), and the
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived
of their Liberty, and a set of full commentaries on their
provisions;
12. Also invites Member States to inform the SecretaryGeneral on theimplementation of the Guidelines and to report
regularly to the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control
on the results achieved;
13. Recommends that the Committee on Crime Prevention and
Control request the Ninth Congress to review the progress
made in the promotion and application of the Riyadh Guidelines and the recommendations contained in the present resolution, under separate agenda item on juvenile justice and
keep the matter under constant review.
9. Urges all relevant bodies within the United Nations system
to collaborate with the Secretary-General in taking appro-
I. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
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11. Invites Member States to support strongly the organization
of technical and scientific workshops, and pilot and demonstration projects on practical issues and policy matters relating
to the application of the provisions of the Guidelines and to
the establishment of concrete matters for community-based
services designed to respond to the special needs, problems
and concerns of young persons, and requests the SecretaryGeneral to co-ordinate efforts in this respect;
1. The prevention of juvenile delinquency is
an essential part of crime prevention in society. By engaging in lawful, socially useful
activities and adopting a humanistic orientation towards society and outlook on life,
young persons can develop non-criminogenic
attitudes.
2. The successful prevention of juvenile delinquency requires efforts on the part of the
entire society to ensure the harmonious development of adolescents, with respect for and
promotion of their personality from early
childhood.
3. For the purposes of the interpretation of
the present Guidelines, a child-centred orientation should be pursued. Young persons
should have an active role and partnership
within society and should not be considered as
mere objects of socialization or control.
4. In the implementation of the present Guidelines, in accordance with national legal
systems, the well-being of young persons from
their early childhood should be the focus of
any preventive programme.
5. The need for and importance of progressive
delinquency prevention policies and the
systematic study and the elaboration of
measures should be recognized. These should
avoid criminalizing and penalizing a child for
behaviour that does not cause serious damage
to the development of the child or harm to
others. Such policies and measures should
involve:
RIYADH GUIDELINES
(a) The provision of opportunities, in particular educational opportunities, to meet the
varying needs of young persons and to serve
as a supportive framework for safeguarding
the personal development of all young persons, particularly those who are demonstrably endangered or at social risk and are
in need of special care and protection;
(b) Specialized philosophies and approaches for delinquency prevention, on the basis
of laws, processes, institutions, facilities
and a service delivery network aimed at
reducing the motivation, need and opportunity for, or conditions giving rise to, the
commission of infractions;
(c) Official intervention to be pursued primarily in the overall interest of the young
person and guided by fairness and equity;
(d) Safeguarding the well-being, development, rights and interests of all young persons;
(e) Consideration that youthful behaviour
or conduct that does not conform to overall social norms and values is often part of
the maturation and growth process and
tends to disappear spontaneously in most
individuals with the transition to adulthood;
(f) Awareness that, in the predominant
opinion of experts, labelling a young person as “deviant’’, “delinquent“ or “predelinquent“ often contributes to the development of a consistent pattern of undesirable behaviour by young persons.
6. Community-based services and programmes
should be developed for the prevention of
juvenile delinquency, particularly where no
agencies have yet been established. Formal
agencies of social control should only be utilized as a means of last resort.
II. SCOPE OF THE GUIDELINES
7. The present Guidelines should be interpreted and implemented within the broad framework of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and
in the context of the United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules), as well as
other instruments and norms relating to the
rights, interests and well-being of all children
and young persons.
8. The present Guidelines should also be
implemented in the context of the economic,
social and cultural conditions prevailing in
each Member State.
III. GENERAL PREVENTION
9. Comprehensive prevention plans should be
instituted at every level of Government and
include the following:
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