child’s rehabilitation.347 With respect to any child who may be prosecuted for crimes committed while part of an armed group, during the course of any trial, consideration should be given to the coercive environment under which the child was living or forced to act. Individuals must never be subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole for acts they may have committed while a child.348 Juvenile justice systems should prevent further exposure to violence. 174. Being charged with terrorism-related offences or offences against national security shall not constitute cause to rebut the conclusive presumption that a child below the minimum age of criminal responsibility, as defined by domestic legal systems, cannot commit a criminal offence. Equally, it shall not constitute cause to prosecute and try a child—or a person who was below 18 at the time of the alleged offence—as an adult. Domestic legislation shall not define different (lower) ages of criminal responsibility solely for terrorism related offences or for offences against national security. Procedural safeguards 175. If children over the minimum age of criminality are tried, hearings and trials must be before independent and impartial judicial bodies. They must be afforded all due process guarantees under international standards, including nonretroactive juvenile justice, presumption of innocence, right to counsel, right to be heard, right to effective participation in the proceeding, includ- ing through interpreters, and prompt and direct information of the charges.349 176. Regardless of the type of alleged crime committed by a child, States should also apply the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules), which provide basic procedural safeguards for children, many of which are restated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.350 The Beijing Rules state that the juvenile justice system shall emphasize: • • • • • the well-being of the child, and ensure proportional responses to offenders351; the presumption of innocence as well as rights to notification charges, to counsel and representation, to presence of guardian/ parent, to confront witnesses, and to appeal352; judgement without delay, with contemplation of release from detention353; contemplation of diversion at any decisionmaking point354 with community-based diversion recommended355; detention for as short a time period as is possible, as a last resort, and placement to alternatives to detention when 349 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), art. 14; Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), art. 40. 350 The Beijing Rules (1985). Standards for children in contact with the law also are enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and General Assembly resolution 70/175 (2015), the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules). 347 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), arts. 37, 40; Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 24 (2019), para. 75. 351 The Beijing Rules (1985), rule 5(1). 348 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), art. 6, para. 5; Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), art. 37, para (a); Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 24 (2019), para. 75. 353 Ibid., rule 10(2). 352 Ibid., rule 7(1); 15(1). 354 Ibid., rule 11(2). 355 Ibid., rule 11(3). 79.