The responsiveness of the South African juvenile justice system in protecting stateless children against sexual violence

Abstract

South Africa is party to regional and international children’s rights instruments that obligate the country to ensure the safety, protection and justice for all children who live within its boundaries. These laws give expression to the constitutional rights to equality, human dignity, life and freedom, and security of children. However, stateless children living in South Africa are still disproportionately affected. To attain its objective, the study employs a qualitative legal research method, utilising the children’s rights-based approach to address childhood statelessness guided by the principle of the best interest of the child. The statelessness in childhood is based on children’s vulnerabilities and South Africa’s obligation(s) in protecting stateless children under international, regional and domestic, South African child law. Though important, the study does not comprehensively analyse the vulnerability of stateless children, nor does it study the merits of the effects of childhood statelessness and the impact it has on children intimately. However, it provides an in-depth analysis of the extent of responsiveness of the South African juvenile justice system in protecting stateless and undocumented children against sexual violence. Put succinctly, this study therefore, highlights the responsibilities of the State in safeguarding and promoting holistic child protection at the domestic level, as an essential element of protecting the rights of stateless children. It then interrogates the sufficiency of South Africa’s domestic child laws and critiques the responsiveness of the juvenile justice system in ensuring access to justice services and child protection mechanisms to prevent, mitigate and eliminate childhood statelessness.