Reconstructing the Legal Status and the Procedural Right to Rehabilitation of Children involved In Narcotics Abuse in Light of Indonesia's New Criminal Procedure Code

Purpose:This study examines the legal status of children involved in narcotics abuse and proposes the recognition of rehabilitation as an enforceable procedural right under Indonesia’s new Code of Criminal Procedure.Methodology:This normative legal study employs statutory, conceptual, philosophical, and limited comparative approaches. Primary legislation, legal scholarship, and international child-rights instruments are assessed through qualitative legal interpretation.Findings:The analysis identifies fragmented regulation of children’s legal status and their access to rehabilitation. Consequently, rehabilitation remains vulnerable to discretionary application rather than operating as an inherent procedural guarantee.Implications:Harmonizing criminal procedure, narcotics law, and juvenile justice could strengthen legal certainty, child protection, restorative justice, and social reintegration by establishing rehabilitation as a procedural entitlement.