Children's Rights Behind Bars
Children’s Rights Behind Bars | www.childrensrightsbehindbars.eu/
Children’s Rights Behind Bars is a collaboration between 16 European and International organisations that work for children’s rights, led by Defence for Children International (DCI). The goal of the project is to increase the respect of human rights of children deprived of liberty and improve the implementation of international juvenile justice standards to protect the rights and needs of incarcerated children.
The project is financed by the European Commission within the framework of the Criminal Justice Programme.

RTÉ Prime Time: Young people who offend
In the RTÉ Prime Time segment titled "How the Lucky Dip gang is fuelling a car theft crisis," on 8 April 2025, Saoirse Brady, Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), discusses the broader implications of children in the criminal justice system and the solutions.

The Detail: Care home shortages force scores of children to stay in juvenile detention
In an article about child detention in Northern Ireland, which mentions other jurisdictions such as Scotland, Irish Penal Reform Trust Executive Director, Saoirse Brady, spoke to The Detail about child detention in the Republic of Ireland.
Passage of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2024
This legislation will address an issue of unconstitutionality recently identified by the High Court in which the Court ruled that a child who commits murder but turns 18 years old before sentencing should not be subject to the mandatory life sentence for murder.
IPRT welcomes progress in Oberstown but highlights continuing concerns about staffing and use of restrictive practices
MEDIA RELEASE: Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the publication of Health Information and Quality Authority’s (HIQA) most recent inspection report on Oberstown Children’s Detention Campus published today (9 October 2024) but highlights concerns noted in the report.
HIQA Inspection Report on Oberstown Children Detention Campus (2024)
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today, 9 October 2024, published an inspection report on Oberstown Children Detention Campus.
Publication of Oberstown Annual Report 2016/2017
Oberstown Children Detention Campus has published its Annual Report for 2016/2017.
IPRT welcomes passing of Children (Amendment) Bill 2015
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the passage today of the Children (Amendment) Bill 2015 as another important step towards ending the detention of children in adult prisons in Ireland.
HIQA inspection report of Oberstown children detention school campus
IPRT welcomes the publication by HIQA of its reports on two inspections of the Oberstown children detention school campus, which took place 28-30 October and 4 November 2014. The inspection reports were published alongside an Action Plan, which includes details on actions already taken to address issues of concern.
Roundup: Children's Rights Behind Bars
IPRT launched a new report on monitoring mechanisms in places where children are detained on 11th December 2014. This formed part of an EC-funded project.

Children's Rights Behind Bars: Report
Children’s Rights Behind Bars is a collaboration between 16 European and International organisations. Its goal is to increase the respect of human rights of children deprived of liberty and improve the implementation of international juvenile justice standards to protect the rights and needs of incarcerated children.