Procedural Rights Supporting Expeditious Trials for Juveniles

Abstract

Delays pending trials can negatively impact juveniles. Encouragingly, the right of juvenile defendants to be tried within a reasonable time has been enshrined in international and regional human rights instruments. To support and strengthen the realisation of this specific right, several additional procedural entitlements, to which existing scholarship has paid limited attention, are of importance. This article focuses on how the rights to an effective remedy and legal representation can support the fulfilment of expeditious trials for juveniles. Furthermore, it analyses to what extent these two identified rights have been incorporated into significant international human rights standards and, specifically, in the Cambodian, Philippine and Vietnamese legislative frameworks. It identifies lessons Cambodia can draw from the latter two countries.