A/HRC/21/31 system. Placing justice for children within that context allowed for both prevention and comprehensive responses, such as easy access to all services. 10. Ms. Bissel indicated that more than 1 million children were in detention, more than 2 million children in residential care, and 1.2 million children were trafficked yearly. Of the estimated 215 million international migrants in the world, it was estimated that some 33 million (15 per cent) were under the age of 20. Tens of thousands of children currently formed part of various armed forces and armed groups in at least 16 countries. She concluded by saying that one of the principal issues in the area of justice for children was to look at preventive and supportive responses for children who were at risk. 11. Jorge Cardona Llorens, a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and professor of public international law at the University of Valencia, said there were public perceptions of increased juvenile violence and delinquency which were not based on real data. Real data on juvenile delinquency would dismantle the myths and the fears that children were committing serious crimes. He mentioned the trend of criminalizing young people, including calls for increasing sanctions and lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility. He stressed the need for juvenile justice policies to be based on real data and not on sensational opinions that circulated through the media. He stated that situations and/or behaviours which were not violations of penal law should not be criminalized and that the principle of legality had to be applied with strict compliance. Children in irregular situations, in need of protection, and children working and/or living on the street should not be criminalized solely because of their situations. 12. According to Mr. Cardona Llorens, specialized justice systems for children should be based on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and should use new approaches and alternative measures; they should be adapted to young people. Judicial proceedings and incarceration should be used only in extreme cases, and instead States should resort to other measures, such as mediation between victims and offenders or community-based approaches, and provide appropriate training for professionals dealing with children. He stated that children must not be treated worse than adults in the juvenile justice system, but that unfortunately in many countries the juvenile justice system did not have the same procedural guarantees as adults. The main objective of the juvenile justice system should be to promote the child’s reintegration in society. 13. Julia Sloth-Nielsen, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape and member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, said that on the African continent the majority of children grew up under the umbrella of customary law systems, with justice administered by elders and chiefs. She indicated that important gains had been made in a number of countries regarding the special needs of child victims and witnesses, including hearing children’s voices; establishing child-friendly methods for giving testimony; and reinforcing the right to privacy of child victims and witnesses. In addition, the diversion of children away from formal justice processes and alternatives to custodial sentencing and detention as desired objectives had become internationally recognized, and domesticated in a large number of legal frameworks (including, in the African continent, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Lesotho). 14. Experience and research showed a prevailing insensitivity to the child’s right to dignity, privacy, prompt assistance, information in a language and format that the child understands, and conclusion of the matter in a time frame appropriate to the child’s age and maturity. Furthermore, despite evidence-based international guidance in relation to the treatment of children in conflict with the law, the situation on the ground remained dire: there was often a very large gap between the law and practice, with children being mixed with adults in the justice system, failing to secure due process guarantees such as prompt legal assistance, and being unnecessarily deprived of their liberty. She concluded by saying 5