- The obligation of a social investigation of the child;
- mandatory separation of minors with adults in detention;
- the speedy processing of the minors' cases;
- During the judgment phase the hearing must take place in closed session;
- The creation of specialised juvenile sections in the High Courts and in the Courts of Appeal.
172. In addition, a National Strategy for legal aid with a focus on minors and its action plan has
been developed, including the setting up of a legal aid fund for vulnerable groups including minor
victims or minors offenders.
173. At institutional level, a National Unit for the Judicial Protection of the Child was established
by Ministerial Order No. 550/993 of 23 June 2010 within the Ministry of Justice. A "juvenile
justice" working group of different partners deals in depth with the issue of children in conflict with
the law.
174. In addition, two rehabilitation centres for minors in conflict with the law were established by
Ordinance No. 550/663 of 17 April 2015 and are functional in the South (Rumonge) and East
(Ruyigi) of the country.
175. The various initiatives to harmonise the system of administration of juvenile justice with
international standards have led, on the one hand, to reducing the number of juveniles in detention,
and to improving their conditions of detention. Indeed, while in 2010, there were over 400 detained
juveniles at national level and over 120 children living with their mothers in detention centres, by
the end of 2013, 226 were detained and 62 children were detained with their mothers in prison. This
is noted in the table below:
Table V: Prison situation of minors as of 23/12/2016
prisons
Service
capacit
y
Numbe Number of Number of
r
of prosecuted
sentenced
detaine
es
H
F
H
F
Mi
nor
s
pro
sec
ute
d
G
F
Minors
sentence
d
Infants
G
G
F
F
Bubanza
100
409
176
7
217
9
Bururi
250
272
167
7
88
10
2
1
Gitega
400
919
443
29
423
24
2
6
Mpimba
800
3578
2425 100
1008 44
9
10
Muramvy 100
a
Muyinga 300
620
292
12
304
12
504
191
12
290
11
Ngozi(F)
250
125
Ngozi
(H)
400
1455
25
553
89
902
40
4
1
3
6
5
16
11