WHEN TIME BECOMES HARM: CHILDREN FORCED TO RELIVE TRAUMA AS COURTS DELAY JUSTICE

Tshepho Thedi_ _LLM Multi-Disciplinary Human Rights_ _Senior Magistrate, Botswana Court_
23 hours ago
2 min read

A child cannot wait.’ Human rights expert warns that postponements and missing documents turn legal process into prolonged suffering for young victims

*A young girl covers her face in frustration, overwhelmed and seeking a moment to herself.*

She has already told her story once. Now she must wait to tell it again. And again. And again.

Each time, a child victim is asked to go back, to explain, to relive what she has already tried to survive. Not because the case is moving forward, but because it isn’t.

A postponement. A missing document. A witness who doesn’t appear. A medical report still waiting to be verified. An accused who fails to show up.

The reasons change. The result doesn’t: the child waits.

That’s the reality I lay bare in this reflection, “A Child Cannot Wait” — When Time Becomes Another Form of Harm.

“For a child, delay is not neutral,” I write. “Memory fades. Confidence weakens. Anxiety grows. The longer a child remains within the process, the heavier the experience becomes.”

Across South Africa’s justice system, children sit in limbo - waiting for cases to proceed, waiting to testify, waiting for closure that never seems to arrive.

The law says every person has the right to be heard within a reasonable time.

Both domestic and international human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, require that cases involving children be handled with particular care and urgency.

But in practice, fairness and care often get lost in process.

Time in children’s cases must be treated as urgent. That means minimizing unnecessary postponements, ensuring readiness before hearings, and strengthening coordination across the system.

“Justice is not only about outcomes. It is also about the process,” I argue. “A system can be fair in law but still heavy in experience. And for a child, that weight matters.”

She has already told her story. She should not have to carry it longer than necessary. Because a child cannot wait.