Criminal justice remains unjust for children and youth in Europe. It is necessary to ensure free and equal access to specialised legal aid for all young people in contact with the law.
Within the CLEAR RIGHTS project (enhancing legal aid for children in Europe), Terre des hommes Foundation held two training sessions for 30 pro bono lawyers from the Romanian bar associations, in the period 28 June - 3 July 2022, in Sinaia (Romania). The training was dedicated to lawyers who work with children suspected or accused of crime.
The participants enjoyed the presence of professional trainers, as the sessions were coordinated by Mr. Dragoș Chilea, President of the International Criminal Bar Association.
The training courses aimed to improve knowledge of pro bono lawyers and to create a legal aid network to connect legal needs of NGOs and children with pro bono lawyers who are willing to help them. Also, the courses aimed to achieve a promising exchange of practices regarding provision of legal aid to children in conflict with the law. Another objective of the course was to raise awareness among policy makers and service providers about legal aid for children in conflict with the law and who benefit from a permanent legal aid system.
The participants emphasised the gaps in the current justice system for children and made proposals for improvement: organising child friendly hearing rooms, psychological counselling for assimilation of the trauma, developing a mechanism for reintegration of a crime victim into society, psychological training for lawyers, specialised training in juvenile cases for both lawyers and criminal investigation bodies, keeping the same pro bono lawyer at all stages of the criminal proceedings.
The next step of the training programme is a study visit to Belgium for five lawyers selected from the participants.
CLEAR-Rights project is coordinated by Terre des hommes regional office in Europe. It is implemented in partnership with the Alliance of Lawyers for Human Rights, Defense for Children Belgium, Defense for Children the Netherlands, PILnet and Terre des hommes Romania. The project is co-funded by the Justice Programme of the European Union (2014-2020).
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