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Child Rights in Serbia – Improving Outcomes for Children in the Serbian Justice System

11.05.2020.

Child Rights Centre is implementing the project Child Rights in Serbia – Improving Outcomes for Children in the Serbian Justice System in partnership with International Rescue Committee and ASTRA and it aims to improve outcomes for children in contact with the law in through systematic application of the rights of the child and evidence-based supports in legal proceedings. The direct beneficiaries of the project will be professionals involved in legal proceedings conducted by public institutions and referring to minors, law students, as well as children and their parents/guardians.

The special focus of the project is to improve outcomes for children victims or witnesses of trafficking in human beings, unaccompanied children, and children not recognized as victims or witnesses, but as offenders. However, learning and materials will be applicable to other categories of children in contact with the law.

The project will work to engage stakeholders and identify key areas in need of improvement in relation to child friendly justice, build capacity of relevant professionals to support improved respect for children’s rights, and expand children’s understanding of their judicial rights.

The main activities of the project include: establishing a multidisciplinary Project Advisory Board (PAB); conducting an action-oriented formative analysis of the existing Serbian child friendly justice legal framework and application in practice; organizing 10 events (conferences, round tables and meetings) with more than 150 stakeholders; developing a child friendly justice training toolkit; training 20 trainers; providing support to trainers on the roll-out of the training with 80 professionals; developing a court practice monitoring framework; training 50 law students on the monitoring of court cases; organization of events to inform and raise awareness of children and the general public, as well as the development of printed materials and video on the topic of child friendly justice.

The expected results of the project are: stronger connection and greater cooperation between stakeholders in the field of juvenile justice in the Republic of Serbia; researched and noticed challenges and needs of the juvenile justice system; enhanced knowledge and skills of relevant practitioners to provide child friendly justice, and increased access to information for children and parents/guardians.

Project duration: 2 February 2020 – 1 February 2022.

This project is co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020 of the European Union.

In Belgrade, 30 April 2020