The Child Rights Centre (“Centre”) has launched a digital platform “Child-friendly Justice” where children and youth can get the information about their rights in case they come into contact with the justice system. At the same time, the platform can be an important resource for parents, guardians and other actors who are in contact with children and youth. The platform contains basic information about the concept of child-friendly justice, the most common reasons why a child can come into contact with the law and the rights they have if they come into contact with the law as a victim, witness or perpetrator of crime. In addition, there are some useful informative materials in the field of child-friendly justice, developed in cooperation with children and youth from the Centre’s DX Club.
The platform was developed to educate children about their rights if they come into contact with the law, since the findings of the research “Child-friendly Justice – The Perspectives of Children and Youth”, conducted by the Centre in 2020, has revealed that 44% of children and youth in the general population are not informed at all about their rights in case they come into contact with the justice system, while 28% of respondents claim to be partly informed, and only 3% of respondents believe that they are fully informed.
The members of the Child Advisory Board, established by the Centre as part of the FOCUS project, participated in the creation of this digital platform. The members of the Child Advisory Board had previously participated in a workshop about the media, arts and public speaking, aimed at encouraging their creativity to take an active part in creating the informative material. They also had the opportunity to participate in the creation of video “Individual Assessment of Children in Contact with the Law”,which shows the importance of the multidisciplinary individual assessment of the child who comes into contact with the justice system as a victim, witness or perpetrator of crime. In addition, over the past two years they actively participated in workshops to learn about the importance of child-friendly justice, with a focus on individual assessment of the child in contact with the law. As child advocates, they also participated in the consultative process for drafting the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, and in the meetings organised by European organisations.
The Child Rights Centre created this platform as part of the project FOCUS – Working together for children in criminal proceedings, implemented in partnership with the following organisations: Terre des hommes Regional Office in Hungary, Defence for Children in the Netherlands, Institute of Social Activities and Practices (SAPI) in Bulgaria, Child Circle in Belgium, Terre des hommes Hellas and Terre des hommes Romania. The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme.
You can access the platform through this link.
