5th World Congress on Justice with Children

In early June 2025, TdH NL staff travelled to Madrid to present at this prestigious conference, on advancing child-centred justice and on meaningful participation of children in research, programmes and advocacy.

Advancing Child-Centred Justice

Building an inclusive knowledge and evidence base for preventing and responding to child sexual violence

This joint presentation with Safe Futures Hub and Kenya’s National Council on Administration of Justice comprised four sessions:

• Evidence Review: Nicolas Makharashvili (Safe Futures Hub) presented findings from a study on Building Safe Futures.
• PbK Guidance Framework: Arti Mohan (Safe Futures Hub) introduced a Practice-Based Knowledge framework supporting frontline organisations to share practitioner knowledge on preventing and responding to Child Sexual Violence.
• Kenya Formative Assessment: Dennis Ratemo (Programme Manager Kenya, TdH NL) and Dr. Zosa Gruber (Head of SEC Programme, TdH NL) shared findings from an Assessment of OCSEA case responses across Kenya’s justice system.
• Evidence in Practice: Dr Moses Marang’a (National Council on Administration of Justice) shared evidence and practical milestones in advancing child-centred justice in Kenya through Practice-Based Knowledge.

Dr Zosa Gruber and Dennis Ratemo focused on sharing a formative assessment co-conducted in April 2024, to establish gaps in reporting, investigation, prosecution and adjudication in relation to effective response to Online Child Sexual Exploitation (OCSE).

The key findings from the assessment revealed a wide knowledge gap among station level police officers, impeding their ability to identify and investigate OCSE cases. It further depicted that police officers consider the investigation of online offences to be the purview of the directorate of criminal investigation.

The assessment revealed that very few OCSE cases were in court compared to the volumes of tip-offs reported to the Anti-Human Trafficking Child Protection Unit. Additionally, the officers interviewed had not received adequate training on OCSE at the Police Training School. Moreover, officers were depicted as not fully conversant with identifying, collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence in court.

There was a strong focus on prosecuting offline sexual offences, which are easier to investigate, and stations lacked the infrastructure to investigate OCSE. And lastly, there were identified gaps in trauma-informed and child-friendly approaches to justice.

To foster effective response to OCSEA and advance Child-Centred Justice, the assessment recommended the following:

• Capacity Building: Equip justice system officers with knowledge and skills in OCSEA detection, investigation, prosecution and adjudication, including trauma-informed care, digital forensics, and child protection laws. This should be mainstreamed in Agencies’ training curricula.
• System Reform: Shift intentionally from adult-centred or merely child-friendly approaches to fully child-centred justice systems designed around the realities and rights of children.
• Inter-Agency Collaboration: Strengthen coordination among police, DCI, ODPP, judiciary, and child protection agencies to improve case management and victim support.
• Mental Health Investment: Support the mental health and well-being of justice system personnel who are regularly exposed to child sexual abuse material and who are at risk of secondary related trauma.
• Lived Experience as Evidence: Engage child survivors to gather insights from their lived experiences and use these perspectives to guide reform and policy development.
• Adequate Resourcing: Invest in modern equipment, software, and staffing to enable early identification, proper handling, and thorough investigation of OCSEA cases.

Meaningful child participation in research, programmes and advocacy

Isabella Lanza Turner (Technical Adviser, Research, Expertise and Influencing) gave a joint workshop with Global Survivors Fund on how to involve children meaningfully and ethically in programmes, research and advocacy.