“Can anyone hear me?” Manual for most children-friendly european justice systems

The International, Humanitarian and Independent Organisation “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center with joy, pride and a sense of high responsibility announces the release of…
Manual for most children-friendly european justice systems “can anyone hear Me?” The manual was prepared and today published in the framework of the programme “Improving the European Systems of juvenile Justice: Training for Professionals” (JUST/2013/FRC/ AG), in which the “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center is participating as a national partner, under the guidance of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory who coordinates the program and its partners (organisations, institutions, Authorities) from 13 european countries.
The manual “can anybody hear Me” is an innovative project that aims at the collection, summary, and formation of corpus all of the minors in conflict with the law authorities, as well as the consolidation and dissemination of best practices concerning the rights of juvenile offenders and the child-friendly judicial procedures.
The material in the manual covers a first for the up to now data number of relevant issues: from the international and european standards of juvenile justice, the fundamental rights of juvenile offenders, the role of parents and the conditions for effective participation of a juvenile defendant to the technical discussion in the court of justice, the appropriate use of (legal) language, and the monitoring and support of a juvenile offender after the trial.
Especially for Cyprus, the publication and dissemination of the manual “can anyone hear Me?” is a culmination of the efforts of “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center in the direction of establishing a base for future cuts in the system of juvenile justice of which the fragmentation and the lack of a single axis create, among other causes, irreparable distortions with regard to the recruitment of child and juvenile delinquency as well as the means to tackle it.
The version of the manual was preceded by the organization of the “Hope For Children” UNCRC Policy Center of the 1st Meeting of the Round Table with institutional stakeholders and representatives where it was presented the program “Improving the European Systems of juvenile Justice: Training for Professionals and the key issues of the manual.” In the continuation of the project, trainers of the Agency will seek the transfer of the relevant know-how received during the meetings of partners in Brussels to representatives of national Authorities, agencies and organisations.