The World Assembly finds as follows:
It is unnecessarily cruel for member nations to sentence children to life imprisonment without parole.
- Children have undeveloped brains which are not yet capable of adequately comprehending the long term effects of their actions, they cannot internalise the extremely long-term impacts of crime.
- Children are capable of reforming with the right support, a fact which life imprisonment without parole implicitly denies.
- It is broadly unjust to imprison people who have genuinely repented for their crimes and are extremely unlikely to commit them again.
The option of parole ought to be open to child offenders which meet such criteria.
The provision in section 4 of GA 299 "Legal Competence" which allows member nations to "set reasonable thresholds of maturity [or] mental capability for people to hold any other rights or responsibilities within their jurisdictions" does not contradict this proposal. It is not a right or responsibility to be subject to life imprisonment without parole; it would be the opposite of a right and, because being so subject would be a thing done to a person rather than something that person must do, not a responsibility.
Now, therefore, be it enacted as follows:
- In this resolution, the term "life sentence" refers both to prison sentences issued for the period of a person's life as well as prison sentences issued, in total or otherwise, for a period equal to or exceeding the expected natural life of that person.
- No member nation may sentence a person to a life sentence without parole for crimes committed while that person is under the age of majority.
- All sentences contravening this resolution, including those given prior to this resolution's enactment that would have been prohibited had this resolution been in force, must be commuted forthwith under procedures not inconsistent with World Assembly law.
