The Youth Courts

1. Youth courts are specialist magistrates' courts. They handle all but the most serious charges against people aged at least ten (the age of criminal responsibility) and under 18.

2. Young offenders can also be tried in an adult magistrates’ court or in a Crown Court, depending on the type of offence they have committed. Only Justices of the Peace who have been specially trained for the job can sit in youth courts. Proceedings are held in private.

3. The main custodial sentence for 12- to 17-year olds is the detention and training order. This is a two-part sentence that combines a period of custody with a period under supervision in the community.

4. There are a range of non-custodial penalties for young offenders. Those aged 16 or 17 may also be subject to most of the adult community sentences.

5. A new sentence, the referral order, was introduced in 2002 for young offenders convicted in court for the first time and pleading guilty. The court refers the young person to a youth offender panel, led by members of the local community, who agree a contract with the young person to repair the harm done and to prevent further offending.

6. Complementing non-custodial penalties for young offenders are:

-parenting orders, which may require a parent or guardian to attend, for example, counselling and guidance sessions;

7. -child safety orders, which place a child under ten who is at risk of becoming involved in crime or is behaving in an anti-social manner under the supervision of a specified, responsible officer.

$AM 0856, 18, 1, 1,0,0

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

#1. These Articles are the most important in the document, since they give every human being the right to life, to liberty etc. (…)

#2. The title of the Declaration testifies that this document contains a set of rights for all people of the world. (…)

#3. One of the Articles obliges the whole international community to promote the full realisation of human rights. (…)

#4. All members of the world community shall enjoy inherent dignity and equal, inalienable rights. (…)

#5. Articles of the Declaration are devoted to economic and social rights as well as civil and political rights. (…)

The Most Important Document on Human Rights

1. The Commission turned to formulating the declaration - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The very name emphasises the UDHR was to set a standard of rights for all people everywhere.

2. In the words of the first preamble to the UDHR, it was to reflect "recognition of the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family "... and through that recognition provide "the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".

3. Articles 3 and 27 are probably the core of the substantive provisions in the Declaration. They give every human being the rights to life, to liberty, to security of person (Art 3) and to an adequate standard of living (Art 27). The first three are core civil and political rights, the last economic and social rights.

4. The right to an adequate standard of living is interesting in that it specifies as part of it the right to health and well-being not only of a person but of his or her family, and also the right to necessary food, clothing, housing and medical care, and the right to social security (Art 22).

5. There are 30 Articles in the Declaration, of which 17 could be regarded as relating to civil and political rights and 8 to economic and social rights.

6. Article 28 emphasises the responsibility of the whole international community for seeking and putting into place arrangements of both a civil and political and an economic and social kind that promote the full realisation of human rights.

$AM 0857, 18, 1, 1,0,0

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

#1. No state voted against, but some countries abstained. (…)

#2. The draft of the Declaration wasn’t changed in the Economic and Social Council. (…)

#3. The initiator of this document and her advisers promoted a favourable atmosphere during the meeting. (…)

#4. The document was voted for by 12 members of its 15 members thanks to the enormous work done by the secretariat. (…)

#5. Famous politicians as well as outstanding people made drafts of the Declaration. (…)