CFJ-DCSCP – Child–Friendly Justice: Developing the concept of social court practises
Programme: Rights Equality and Citizenship (REC): Capacity building: rights of the child and childfriendly justice
Reference: REC/878552
Start: 01/07/2020
End: 30/06/2022
Main aim is to improve criminal justice systems by making them more child-friendly to child victims and children suspected or accused of committing a crime, particularly for those who are in vulnerable situations. There is a lack of understanding on how children should be assessed by criminal justice professionals to identify their social, educational, protection and/or restoration/reintegration needs within criminal justice processes.
This project will focus on improving individual assessments of children in vulnerable situations in Bulgaria, Italy and Romania. In particular, it will focus on improving the situation for children with disabilities, children deprived of parental care and unaccompanied minors. The project will develop a set of specialist tools which will contribute to ensuring access to justice, a child-centred approach and ensuring that appropriate measures are taken to enhance their participation and to protect them from harm throughout the criminal justice process.
- To research promising practices in each jurisdiction (outputs: 3 analytical reports – BG, IT, RO);
- To develop models on promoting child-friendly justice and individual assessments focused on children with disabilities, unaccompanied minors and children deprived of parental care;
- To enhance the capacities of multidisciplinary teams of judges, lawyers, social workers and allied professionals;
- To cascade impact for children through cross-border collaboration and international dissemination.
- Research and data collection on existing promising practices in conducting multidisciplinary individualised assessments for children with enhanced vulnerabilities.
- Development of a suite of models and tools to aid professionals in conducting multidisciplinary individualised needs assessments for children with enhanced vulnerabilities.
- Training and capacity-building of lawyers, judges and other professionals involved in the administration of justice to adopt a child-friendly approach to conducting individual assessments. Training events, webinar Labs and international symposium to enhance and exchange knowledge between relevant professionals.
- Piloting the model of ‘social courts’ in two regional courts in Bulgaria. This pilot phase will be focused on testing the methods and tools developed under this project.
- International conference targeting relevant European networks of lawyers, judges and justice professionals, as well as representatives of NGOs, CSOs and civil society concerned with the rights of children.
Results
The results will be to improve the capacities of professionals trained to implement individual assessments and child-friendly justice. Longer term, targeted dissemination of the outputs will increase understanding of the specific needs of children with enhanced vulnerabilities by justice professionals across the EU and beyond.
Co-Experts
- Children with mental disabilities, unaccompanied minors and children deprived of parental care (collectively: children with enhanced vulnerabilities);
- Judges, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, human rights organization and allied professionals.
Keywords
Individual assessments, multidisciplinary approach, child-friendly courts, child-centred communication, action-research, children with enhanced vulnerabilities, disabilities, unaccompanied minors.
Tags
This project is co-funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.