The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended Scotland includes this age group in the hearings system back in a report that was issued in 2002.
Now, Scotland's children's commissioner Kathleen Marshall has spoken out ahead of the country's next United Nations inspection, to be held this year.
Marshall said the country was falling behind because once children reached the age of 16 they were "hit hard" by the criminal justice system.
"We have to work better with 16- to 18-year-olds if we are to be compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child," she added.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill recently announced plans to scrap laws allowing children to be held in prison without having committed an offence, and a consultation to look at ending the imprisonment of under-16s.
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