My Legal Support - what have young people said?
As part of the CLEAR-Rights project, the "My Legal Support" application was co-designed with children from the project's Child Advisory Boards in close collaboration with Mind of My Own, to be used by children with and without experience receiving free legal assistance. This tool will enable children to express their views, wishes and feelings in an instant and convenient way. It will also enable the service provider (either state-funded legal aid or pro bono service) to improve the quality of its work.
Between September and December 2022, this application was piloted in France, Hungary, and Romania. It was presented to children in child protection services, detention centres, probation services, schools, and partner organisations.
199 children and young people used the application and here are some key numbers of the results' report:
- We asked children to pick three characteristics of their ideal lawyer. These were the top 3:
- She/he gives good advice (105 children and young people voted for that!)
- She/he listens carefully
- She/he shows respect
- 45% of the respondents said that they would like to find a quick response about legal assistance on a website
- However, when it comes to receiving personal recommendations about legal assistance, 55% of them said they would prefer to get it in person
- The number is even higher when we asked how they would like to be listened to if they need legal assistance: 75% said in person
These results should be interpreted as the voice of young people. Terre des hommes partners commit to making sure that they are heard and taken into consideration by the relevant stakeholders.
The full results' report is available below in English and with a country-specific focus on France, Hungary, and Romania.
The CLEAR-Rights project is led by Terre des hommes Hungary in partnership with Terre des hommes Romania, PILnet, the Alliance of Lawyers for Human Rights (France), Defence for Children International (Belgium), Defence for Children International – ECPAT (The Netherlands). It is funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (2014-2020).