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Child-friendly Justice • Seminar "Justice, democracy and the rule of law"

• Brussels, 17-20 June 2013

Marina Marchetti Head of Sector "Gender equality and non-discrimination DEVCO B1

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Content:

• What is child-friendly justice?

• International Standards

• EU and child-friendly justice

• Child-friendly justice programming

• Where to go to find information

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Child-friendly justice• Children (anyone below the age of 18 years old) can come in

contact with the legal system in many different ways.

• "Child-friendly justice” : justice systems which guarantee the respect and the effective implementation of all children's rights at the highest attainable level, respecting CRC fundamental principles and keeping in mind the child’s level of maturity and understanding and the circumstances of the case.

• It is accessible, age appropriate, speedy, diligent, adapted to and focused on the rights and needs of the child, respecting the rights of the child including the rights to due process, to participate in and to understand the proceedings, to respect for private and family life and to integrity and dignity. (CoE definition)

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International Standards

• 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two optional protocols

• Crc Article 40 on administration of juvenile justice

• Interpretations of the contents in the CRC and the optional protocols are found in the General Comments of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

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EU and child-friendly justice

• ’An EU agenda for the rights of the child’ (2011) highlights 11 actions that will contribute to making justice systems within the EU more child-friendly, and to improving children's well-being

• One of the actions is to promote the use of the CoE "Guidelines on child-friendly justice"

• The policies and standards that are applied within the EU should also serve as the basis for the work that is done in external actions

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CoE Guidelines fundamental principles:

• A. Participation

• B. Best interests of the child

• C. Dignity

• D. Protection from discrimination

• E. Rule of law

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CoE general elements for child friendly justice:

Information and Advice

Protection of private and family life

Safety (special preventive measures)

Training of professionals

Multidisciplinary approach

Deprivation of liberty

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Child-friendly Justice Programming• Focus on:

• Prevention, which entails understanding offending behaviours and how they can be prevented; and/or

• Protection, the measures that must be taken to protect children that come into contact with the legal system, i.e. the formal administration of justice

• Rehabilitation, which entails ensuring that children that come into contact with legal system are given the necessary support and tools to prepare for life after custody

• Reintegration, which entails ensuring that children that have been institutionalised can successfully reintegrate into society

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Child-Right mainstreaming in policy and programmes

How to integrate and ‘operationalise’ a child rights approach in….

….development programming?

….policy dialogue?

….budgeting?

….country and sector context analysis?

….project identification, formulation, implementation and evaluation?

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Toolkit for Child-Right mainstreaming in development cooperation

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Entry points for CR mainstreaming

1. Programming

4. Implementation

5. Evaluation + Audit

2. Identification

3. Formulation

NIPCSP

Identification fiche

Screening Checklist

Financing agreement

Action ficheScreening Checklist

Annual Operational Plans

MonitoringReports

EvaluationReportAudit

Country (or Sector) Profile

Indicators

Impact assessment

Monitoring

3. Formulation

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Examples of child-friendly justice reform

• Ensuring that law is clear on the issue that children only should be deprived of their liberty as last resort and for the shortest period possible

• Ensuring that anti-social behavior is dealt with by social agencies rather than the justice system

• Ensuring that the age of criminal responsibility is not too low

• Ensure that there is a separate legal/court system for children

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Examples … cont.• All actors involved in processes concerning children and justice

must be properly trained: police officers, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and social workers …

• On the basis of the role that the child has in the legal process (victim, witness, offender, complainant, asylum seeker) , adequates measure shall be adopted to respect and promote his/her rights

• Even more specific training to integrate gender issues (girl child).

•

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Child participation in justice programmes• Participation is :

• a programming principle, and • a principle of child-friendly justice

• Children should be at the centre of child-friendly justice programming, to ensure that programmes reflect the actual needs and priorities of children that come into contact with the legal system

• Experiences of children who have been through the legal system provide valuable insights into what needs to be done to reform these systems

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Example – child participation

• In Bangladesh, 14 street children took part in a consultation process over a two-year period aiming at documenting the views and experiences of the children who had been either in jail or other forms of incarceration.

• The consultation process included the children themselves, other children and NGOs. The results of the consultations, additional research in jails and other correctional centres and a video that was made were discussed in various workshops.

• The research resulted in recommendations to a wide range of audiences: parents, government departments, the police, the courts, jail authorities, NGOs, the media, politicians, and other children.

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Where to go to find information

• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/

• EC-Justice website for Child-friendly justice:• http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/rights-child/friendly-justice/

index_en.htm

• Council of Europe website on Child-friendly justice:• http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/childjustice/default_en.asp

• EU Agency for Fundamental Rights website on child rights: • http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/child_rights/child_rights_en.htm