Children are waiting too long and suffering unnecessarily in NZ's justice system and it needs to change AUT experts say.
The highest echelons of the justice and legal system in New Zealand have been moved to action by a report from AUT's Institute of Public Policy.
The report, Child witnesses in the New Zealand criminal courts: a review of practice and implications for policy, struck a nerve with the Children's Commissioner, the Minister of Justice, top lawyers and others.
The report looks at the ways children are questioned and treated throughout the court process and makes recommendations for improving the ways the court elicits evidence from children. It identifies successful alternative processes that could be adapted to New Zealand.
IPP senior researcher and co-author of the report, Dr Kirsten Hanna, says the research shows that child witnesses faced long delays while awaiting trial as well as inappropriate questioning in the courtroom.
"On average, children waited 15 months for their cases to come to trial," she says. "When you add the police investigation and sentencing, the wait stretches out to 20 months.
"That's a long time in the life of a child, in some cases nearly a quarter of their life."
Minister for Justice, the Hon Simon Power, commented earlier this year in a speech, "I'm very concerned about children having their evidence tested in an aggressive manner many months, or in some cases years, after an alleged offence occurred."
Children's Commissioner Dr John Angus says the research shows that New Zealand can do better in the way it treats child witnesses.
"We need to find ways of working that respect children and take account of their linguistic and communication competencies," he says.
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