A/62/221 attention to article 40, paragraph 4, of the Convention, which specifically refers to alternatives to detention for children: “A variety of dispositions, such as care, guidance and supervision orders; counselling; probation; foster care; education and vocational training programmes and other alternatives to institutional care shall be available to ensure that children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their well-being and proportionate both to their circumstances and the offence.” 15 63. The Special Rapporteur welcomes several recent publications of UNODC, which deal with alternatives to detention: Handbook of Basic Principles and Promising Practices on Alternatives to Imprisonment, 16 Handbook on Restorative Justice Programmes, 17 and Alternatives to Incarceration. 18 These set out the alternatives to detention which are available at the various stages of the criminal process and provide guidance and information on best practices with regard to many of the related recommendations of the Special Rapporteur contained in his country visit reports. 64. In the wider context of criminal law reform the Special Rapporteur is pleased to refer to recent efforts by UNODC to produce a “Criminal Justice Assessment Toolkit”, 19 which aims at accompanying the reform process by pointing to relevant standards and providing examples of best practices in areas such as policing, access to justice, and custodial and non-custodial measures; several cross-cutting issues (juvenile justice, victims and witnesses, international cooperation) are also addressed. 65. The Special Rapporteur also draws attention to the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice, which coordinates activities of relevant United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations active in the area of juvenile justice and __________________ 15 16 17 18 19 14 See Guidelines for Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System, ibid., para. 15: A review of existing procedures should be undertaken and, where possible, diversion or other alternative initiatives to the classical criminal justice systems should be developed to avoid recourse to the criminal justice systems for young persons accused of an offence. Appropriate steps should be taken to make available throughout the State a broad range of alternative and educative measures at the pre-arrest, pretrial, trial and post-trial stages, in order to prevent recidivism and promote the social rehabilitation of child offenders. Whenever appropriate, mechanisms for the informal resolution of disputes in cases involving a child offender should be utilized, including mediation and restorative justice practices, particularly processes involving victims. In the various measures to be adopted, the family should be involved, to the extent that it operates in favour of the good of the child offender ... See also paragraph 25 of general comment No. 10 (2007) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, concerning children’s rights in juvenile justice, para. 25: “... the obligation of States parties to promote measures for dealing with children in conflict with the law without resorting to judicial proceedings applies, but is certainly not limited to children who commit minor offences, such as shoplifting or other property offences with limited damage, and first-time child offenders ... In addition to avoiding stigmatization, this approach has good results for children and is in the interests of public safety and has proven to be more cost-effective”. In HRI/GEN/Rev.8/Add.1. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.07.XI.2. The UNODC publications cited in the present report are available on its website (www.unodc.org). United Nations publication, Sales No. E.06.IV.15. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Custodial and Non-Custodial Measures No. 3, United Nations, New York, 2006 Available at: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/criminal_justice_assessment_toolkit.html. 07-45686