From Law to Reality: Examining the Challenge of Lack of Rehabilitation Facilities in Puntland’s Juvenile Justice System

Abstract

The identified gap between the Puntland juvenile justice law and the practice that will be explored in this paper is the lack of rehabilitation facilities as stipulated by the Puntland Juvenile Justice Act (Law No. 8 of 2016). Despite the fact that the Act is based on international standards, the practice of juvenile justice in Puntland is still mainly punitive and not rehabilitative. Most juveniles are often held in adult jails, where they get involved in abuse and suffer psychological damage. The study will employ a qualitative method, which will be based on semi-structured interviews with 40 justice-sector stakeholders, such as judges, prosecutors, police officers, prison administrators, and human rights officials. The results show that there are systematic institutional-procedural breakdowns, professional competency voids, and dysfunctional socio-cultural ideologies, which perceive justice as punishment. The article claims that the lack of effectiveness of the rehabilitative provisions is a failure of governance and coordination, but not a lack of the necessary legal framework, and the paper suggests immediate multisectoral reforms to implement a rights-based system of juvenile justice in weak settings.