YES - Alex Gask, legal officer, Liberty
I hope the ruling in the 'W' case will remind the Government that the crucial principle behind all this is that it needs to differentiate between those that have done something wrong and those that haven't. And it must recognise that labelling all young people as a threat to the rest of society is both unhelpful, in that it doesn't target those that are actually causing problems, and dangerous, in that it can further alienate those young people who don't feel part of society.
I'd like to think a victory along the lines that we've had in this case, where the court has acknowledged specifically the right of every young person to be treated as an individual, would indicate to the Government that it needs to adopt that approach in the rest of its antisocial behaviour agenda.
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