Project title: Ensuring Access to Intermediaries for Children with Disabilities in Judicial Proceedings
Donor: ENSURE
Implementation period: 3 March 2025 – 28 February 2027
This initiative is dedicated to improving communication with child victims and witnesses with disabilities in the criminal justice system by integrating intermediaries, support persons and special representatives and aligning the system with the European Union’s (EU) objectives to enhance child protection systems and ensure access to justice for children with disabilities.
By developing tools for multidisciplinary support and fostering coordination among authorities and professionals, the project seeks to remove communication barriers that prevent children with disabilities from effectively engaging in legal proceedings. While intermediaries already exist in some EU countries, their formal regulation remains inconsistent. ENSURE will test their integration into existing professional categories or explore the creation of new roles in Austria, Romania and Serbia, with contributions from experts in Spain and Ireland to share best practices.
The two-year project is implemented between 2025 March and 2027 February in 5 European countries: Belgium, Hungary, Romania, Austria and Serbia. The project consortium includes:
– International Commission of Jurists – European Institutions (ICJ-EI) – project coordinator
– Validity Foundation from Hungary
– Terre des Hommes (TdH) from Romania
– Child Rights Centre (CRC) from Serbia
– Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) from Austria
The project targets criminal justice and child protection professionals, judicial authorities and EU policymakers, ultimately benefiting children with disabilities in the justice system. Specific objectives include developing the roles of intermediaries, enhancing the skills of legal professionals, improving multidisciplinary cooperation and raising awareness of the importance of specialized support for child victims and witnesses with disabilities.
The main activities include:
– Disability advisory board engaging experts with disabilities to guide project activities and ensure inclusive approaches
– National reports examining the role of experts, consultants and interpreters in justice systems, focusing on their impact on procedural accommodations for children
– International synthesis report
– Model Rules-based processes for special representatives, intermediaries and support persons, adapted to national contexts through National Rules-based processes
– Internal online workshop
– Training pack and curriculum
– Three national workshops conducted in person in Austria, Romania and Serbia to equip professionals with practical skills for working with intermediaries
– International conference
– Two public webinars
– Policy brief
– International expert panel
By implementing these activities, the ENSURE project aims to make legal proceedings more accessible, inclusive and supportive for children with disabilities, fostering systemic change in child protection and justice systems across Europe.
National Report Serbia
Model Rules – Children Victims and Witnesses with Disabilities in Criminal Justice System
Easy-to-Read ENSURE project
