Every child deserves a second chance

“I am grateful for all your help. Without you, I don’t know what would happen to me, and I may not be home today,” Mr. Phou¹, Nonesoung deputy village chief, quoted Xay² who said this to him in tears.

Xay, the 14-year old boy from Houay village of Kaysone Phomviharn district in Savannakhet, came into contact with the law in October 2017 when he and his group of friends got into a fight with another boy, who sustained severe injuries. Xay and his friends were arrested. Upon learning Xay was 14 while his friends were 18, the village leaders – including Mr. Phou, wrote to the police.

“We explained to them that since Xay is below the minimum age of criminal liability [set at 15 in Laos PDR], he should not be in detention along with his adult friends,” Mr. Phou recalled. Back then, Mr. Phou had just received training in community-based diversion programmes from the Ministry of Justice.

Diversion re-integrates young offenders into their families and back into society, as an alternative to the formal justice procedure. This intervention is to ensure they are not exposed to further violence in adult prisons or traumatised, which adversely affects their overall development as children. As an age-appropriate approach, diversion allows for proper processing of the young offender’s case in a child-sensitive setting that ultimately re-integrates them back into society.

The community-based diversion training that Mr. Phou received is designed for community leaders and members to learn the rights of children in contact with the law as victims, witnesses and offenders, in the legal framework of Lao PDR. With support from UNICEF and the Australian Government, two villages in Vientiane and Savannakhet province were selected to pilot the project to assist children in conflict with the law.

As village deputy chief for more than four years now, Mr. Phou has seen not only the struggles but also the transformation of children from being offenders into responsible young adolescents after undergoing diversion.

Mr. Phou recalled how his training had impacted the community through Xay’s story. “We were happy the police listened to us and eventually released all five boys from detention. The conflict was turned over for the community to resolve through a mediation process. We followed our training on case management and invited both parties and their parents. All parties agreed to settle and were happy with the solution,” he said.

Mr. Phou is very proud that he could help Xay and give him a chance to stay with his family instead of being in prison at such a young age.

“I’m glad our village was selected for this project,” adding they learned a lot from the training and gained more knowledge on laws and regulations, and on how cases can be handled at their level. “If we did not have the training, we would not have been able to negotiate Xay’s case with the police. He could have been in prison now, along with hardened criminals,” he said.

After the mediation activities, the re-education sessions and values formation as part of the diversion programme, Xay now has a greater appreciation of the process he went through; and is back at home, ready to pick up his life again.

As for Mr. Phou, he said he would continue using the knowledge and skills he has gained from the training to help even more children in his community.