Luca Brocca
Head of Legal Research
You are seventeen. There was a fight near the bus station, and you were there, though you did not throw a punch. Now an officer slides a sheet of paper across the table. “Sign this,” he says, “and you can go home tonight.”
What happens next depends less on what the young person did than on whether anyone tells them that they have rights in that room. That question is at the heart of Just Access’s contribution to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) youth campaign, now selected for a UN exhibition in Vienna, and of a new interactive game launched alongside it.
A letter about a locked door
In July 2026, UNODC launched a global call for creative contributions under its Gamechangers campaign, asking young people how they understand violence and crime. Just Access’ Head of Legal Research, Luca Brocca, answered with an open letter arguing that access to justice is part of the structure of crime prevention. The letter is attached as a PDF at the end of this post.
The letter begins with a scene familiar from case files: a young person asked to make a decision that will shape the next decade of their life, without knowing that a right exists “which, in that room, at that hour, nobody is going to mention.” From there, it draws three conclusions.
Legal literacy is prevention infrastructure. Knowing what a lawyer does, or what a complaint mechanism is, gives a young person more than one option when they are wronged.
Institutional integrity is prevention. When public funds are diverted from schools and clinics, the harm often returns years later under the label of youth crime.
The security frame has costs that are paid by the young. Over-broad public-order and counter-terrorism powers sweep in exactly the age group that prevention policy claims to protect.
From a letter to Vienna
The letter has been selected for UNODC’s online youth publication and for the youth exhibition at the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, held in Vienna from the 19th to the 23rd of October 2026. Luca Brocca has also been invited to the exhibition’s opening.
The Conference is where States review how the Convention and its Protocols are implemented.
What happens next depends less on what the young person did than on whether anyone tells them that they have rights in that room.
The letter is now playable
To carry the argument beyond the exhibition hall, Just Access has turned the letter into Who Holds the Key?, a free choose-your-path game and the newest title in our Road to a Remedy series.
Players take the place of the seventeen-year-old at the police station and follow a branching story through three justice systems. Each choice shows what international law requires. A child has the right to legal or other appropriate assistance, and should be dealt with away from formal proceedings wherever appropriate. Detention is to be used only “as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”.
The game is available in English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic, with a glossary of key terms and a larger-text option.
Ask them, then give them the key
Prevention debates often divide into two camps: more policing and harsher sentences, or youth clubs, mentoring, and sport. Both talk about young people, and both usually talk without them. The letter argues that community programmes hold only when they rest on something enforceable.
The game follows the same logic. It hands the player the decision, and shows them that a key exists.
Play, share, teach
Play Who Holds the Key? and share it with a young person, a teacher, or a youth worker. Schools, universities, and organisations are welcome to use it in classes and trainings. To discuss how, write to us at contact@just-access.de.
Unlocking access to justice starts with knowing that the key exists. Everyone can be a human rights defender.
Read the full open letter by Luca Brocca, “Who Holds the Key? Access to Justice as Youth Crime Prevention” (PDF).
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