UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES

TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES
IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Summary of key achievements, challenges
and recommendations

Vanessa Sedletzki October 2020

Produced by UNICEF
Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

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Acknowledgements

The UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) would like to thank Vanessa Sedletzki
for conducting this study and writing the report. Thanks also go to all the child protection colleagues
who provided information and materials for the report. Special thanks to Goktan Kocyildirim (Turkey),
Antonia Luedeke, Mario Tokic, Elvir Music (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Traian Turcanu and Gheorghe Trofin
(Moldova), Hayk Khemchyan and Victorya Ohanyan (Armenia), Ines Cerovic (Serbia), Aleksandra Ivanovska
(N. Macedonia) and Elena Zaichenko (Kyrgyzstan) for providing comments on the draft report. In the case
study countries, colleagues also facilitated country visits and meetings with partners and reviewed the
case studies for country context accuracy and relevance, all of which was extremely helpful. The study was
coordinated by Phenny Kakama, ECARO child protection specialist.
JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES
TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES
IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Summary of key achievements, challenges
and recommendations

Vanessa Sedletzki

UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia October 2020
INTRODUCTION TO JUSTICE
SYSTEM RESPONSES
TO CHILD VICTIMS AND
WITNESSES IN ECAR
© UNICEF/UN045579/Pirozzi
6 JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

INTRODUCTION
An effective justice system response to child victims and witnesses involved in proceedings is
integral to children’s access to justice. It guarantees that children have an effective remedy when
they are victim or witness to a crime, thus halting the violation, providing redress and paving the
way for recovery. Effective responses also ensure that children do not experience re‑traumatization
and that their rights are respected when in contact with the law. Justice system responses to
child victims and witnesses are therefore of fundamental importance to strengthening sustainable
development and the rule of law, as highlighted in Sustainable Development Goal 16, which
addresses both protecting children from violence and equal access to justice for all. In its strategic
plan for 2018–2021, UNICEF committed to supporting “capacity development programmes for
justice and administrative bodies as well as civil registration systems,” with the objective of making
“sure that child victims, witnesses or perpetrators seeking to access justice, and/or participating
in criminal, civil and administrative justice processes, are treated in accordance with international
standards.”1

Although juvenile justice has received significant attention across the Europe and Central Asia region
(ECAR), yielding many positive outcomes, the situation of children in contact with the law because
they are victims or witnesses of a crime has obtained far less programmatic support. Yet available
data suggests that their number is significant and possibly increasing – the full picture is not known
due to under‑reporting and under-registration. Over the last decade several countries in ECAR have
engaged in initiatives to bring their justice systems in line with international and regional standards in
this area.

Recent attention to the rights of child victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings, both
internationally and nationally, was influenced mainly by two considerations. First, it responds to the
need to gather solid evidence to facilitate the conviction of perpetrators of crimes. Child‑friendly
proceedings are seen as a means of obtaining quality testimony from children, which is often pivotal
to prosecutors and judges as the most critical piece of evidence in a trial – especially in cases of
child abuse. Second, this new attention responds to pressure from child rights advocates seeking to
establish procedures that guarantee respect for children’s rights and ensure that their best interests
are given primary consideration in criminal proceedings.

The study takes stock of these developments and aims to:

• Explore main trends and changes in the region in justice system response to child victims and
witnesses of crime in light of international and regional standards;

• Document promising practices that could inform UNICEF’s programmatic work and advocacy;

• Identify outstanding challenges;

• Extract lessons and issue recommendations for UNICEF and its partners’ work in this area.

1
UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018‑2021, E/ICEF/2017/17/Rev.1 of 16 Aug. 2017, para. 52.
 SUMMARY OF KEY ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 7

INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL STANDARDS

The development of an international and European legal framework for crimes committed against
children has been interwoven with the adoption of standards dedicated to protecting children’s
procedural rights when they are in contact with the law, regardless of the crime involved.
These standards provide detailed guidance for handling child victims and witnesses during
judicial proceedings.

Key international and European standards

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

• Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Child on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography (2000)

• Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (2000)

• United Nations Guidelines on justice in matters involving child victims and witnesses of
crime adopted by ECOSOC (2005)

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

• Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and
Sexual Abuse (2007)

• Council of Europe Guidelines on child‑friendly justice (2011)

• EU Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and

protecting its victims (2011)

• EU Directive 2011/92/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children
and child pornography (2011)

• Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence (2011)

• EU Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and

protection of victims of crime (2012)

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES ACROSS ECAR

Significant progress has been made over the past five to ten years in this area, through a
variety of legal and institutional reforms that paved the way for important changes in daily practices
tied to children’s participation in criminal proceedings. UNICEF’s strong engagement in the field of
juvenile justice allowed the organization to play a key role in achieving justice for child victims and
witnesses and build on existing partnerships.

UNICEF’s played a key role in promoting legislative reforms that address the needs and rights
of child victims and witnesses, in line with international standards. Studies supported by
UNICEF analysing the legislative framework have in several instances served as the basis for legal
reform. However, efforts are still uneven; a number of countries still need to bring their legal systems
8 JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

into compliance with international standards. Moreover, the fact that changes are quite recent means
that implementation on the ground is often incomplete.

Justice system responses to child victims and witnesses tend to focus on the provision of
testimony and the importance of avoiding re‑traumatization for children. As a result, interventions
have largely concentrated on the development of child‑friendly hearing rooms and procedures,
appointment of non‑legal court experts and training of staff interacting with children in relation to
their testimony. The establishment of child‑friendly hearing rooms represents a tangible step towards
child‑friendly justice that mainly requires material contributions. The conditions under which a child
gives testimony are a critical dimension of child‑friendly justice for victims and witnesses. They
are also of particular interest to the justice system because they facilitate the collection of quality
evidence.

Significant discrepancies can be seen across ECAR countries in child victims and witnesses’
access to child‑sensitive justice. While promising practices signal positive developments, a key
question is whether they represent an initiative carried out in just a few areas (a capital city or
another major city) or are applied at scale across the country, allowing all children to benefit.

A major area of intervention for UNICEF and its partners has been the provision of training for
staff who interact with child victims and witnesses in the justice system. Multiple training formats
and curricula have been developed across the region. Practical training was found to be particularly
useful. Multidisciplinary training programmes were also highly appreciated, although they tend to be
conducted on a smaller scale due to the difficulty of identifying national actors that can support them
over the long run.

Attention to specific groups and gender approaches remains too limited. Equal access for
children with disabilities is insufficiently taken into account. Possible discriminatory practices against
children from minority groups have not received specific attention, although they are sometimes
tackled in training programmes. Gender-sensitive approaches may be applied to adult women in
contact with the law, but overlooked in relation to children.

Interventions to support children beyond judicial proceedings remain scarce. Children’s access
to information on proceedings after they testify is limited, as are opportunities for children to be
heard outside the courtroom or prosecutors’ office. Access to a lawyer or legal advice would be
critical in this respect, but is rarely offered – even when law calls for free legal aid – since children or
guardians must file a formal request but may be unaware of this requirement.

Links with the social sector are insufficient. Except in the limited instances where a formal
and effective coordination mechanism has been established with adequate geographic coverage
(e.g., child support centres), justice system responses remain largely isolated from social sector
responses. The main interaction occurs when a child protection agency serves as the legal
representative, in lieu of parents, during the child’s testimony. But this does not imply that the
two sectors will interact beyond what is required for legal representation. A holistic approach to
promoting recovery for child victims and witnesses requires a continuum of interventions – before,
during and after judicial proceedings.
 SUMMARY OF KEY ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 9

WAY FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Need for a solid legal framework

A solid, comprehensive legal framework that ensures child‑sensitive criminal proceedings is

essential. While in other fields of child rights and child protection legislation is important, but practice
is the primary concern, in criminal law the law is fundamental and determines the approach taken
by legal professionals. The latter will not take any step that is not fully spelled out by legislation, as
they fear it could invalidate proceedings or compromise the right to a fair trial. Law reform is thus
a critical step toward achieving significant changes in justice system approaches to child victims
and witnesses. Experience has shown that even when legislative reforms were not immediately
well‑received by professionals and changes in practices proceeded slowly, amending laws has
achieved significant improvements in the treatment of child victims and witnesses by the justice
system.

Thus it is critical for UNICEF to focus its advocacy efforts on law reform, as a first step, to ensure
that legal gaps are addressed. Of particular concern in ECAR are the age limits defining who can
benefit from certain child‑friendly measures during criminal proceedings, which may exclude
older adolescents, as well as the acceptance of audio‑video recordings of children’s testimony as
valid evidence. In several countries legal gap analyses have provided a strong basis for UNICEF
engagement and for rallying other actors around the need for law reform.

Value of child‑sensitive proceedings

Special proceedings for child victims and witnesses can significantly increase the quality of their
testimony, thanks to child‑friendly rooms, video recording and the presence of psychologists, thus
facilitating the conviction and sentencing of perpetrators and reducing the need for additional
hearings. Limiting secondary victimization for child victims and witnesses requires avoiding
multiple interviews about the event to the maximum extent possible. The child’s initial interview
is of paramount importance for collecting evidence about what happened, as the quality of the
child’s statement often declines afterwards. A high‑quality first interview will increase the quality
of evidence collected overall, as well as reduce the need for subsequent interviews that can be
traumatic for the child. The practical value of child‑sensitive approaches is a powerful argument for
convincing otherwise reluctant judicial professionals to implement such measures. UNICEF can play
a valuable role by continuing to invest in adapting the settings and approaches used by courts and
prosecutors’ offices to interview children.

The acceptability of video‑recorded testimony as evidence in criminal trials should be explicitly

described in laws to avoid any possible questioning of its value (by defence lawyers in particular), as
well as to prevent situations in which prosecutors and judges anticipate future challenges and thus
require the child to provide testimony on multiple occasions.

The status of interviewers is another important component of child‑friendly hearings. The use of
non‑legal court experts, such as psychologists or pedagogues, to interview children has proven
critical to ensuring quality testimony, as long as their role is well defined in legislation. Beyond the
hearing room and equipment, the quality of testimony largely depends on trust between the child
and the interviewer and the latter’s ability to adequately pose questions for forensic purposes. While
judges and prosecutors may express initial reluctance to working with these actors, the value of their
10 JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

contribution in practice often overcomes this reluctance. When interviewers benefit from recognized
status, bolstered by training and certification, it enhances the effectiveness of their contribution and
the sustainability of their engagement.

Harmonizing equipment and practices across a given country is essential to ensuring consistency in
the quality of justice system responses and guaranteeing all children’s access to justice under similar
conditions, regardless of their situation.

However, child‑sensitive hearings also require that attention be paid to individual children’s
needs. Gender‑sensitive approaches and specific measures for other groups, such as children
with disabilities, are still critically lacking in ECAR and deserve additional efforts, especially given
UNICEF’s focus on equity.

Giving official status to non‑judicial professionals involved in

proceedings

Non‑judicial professionals, including psychologists, teachers and social workers, may be directly
involved in criminal proceedings, either by accompanying or interviewing the child. It is important
to make sure that their status is fully recognized in legislation, with an adequate level of detail. This
will help to: ensure their acceptance by other justice professionals as integral to the proceedings,
precisely define their role and how they are meant to intervene, and specify the competencies and
other requirements for the position. It can also address possible conflicts of interests.

UNICEF could contribute by making sure that such recognition is accompanied by guidance tools,
capacity‑building initiatives and relevant steps to make the role attractive. This could help to limit the
frequent shortages of qualified personnel encountered across the region.

Capacity‑building of judicial and non‑legal personnel

Training needs to be very practical. Practitioners particularly value concrete guidance on how to
interact with children and practical tools, such as dolls or personality tests. The consistency and
overall coherence of approaches, which can easily become fragmented, is an ongoing challenge.
Thus relying on national institutional actors (e.g., justice academies) for sustainable and coherent
capacity building could be an effective strategy. These actors are usually open to collaborating with
NGOs working in various fields and rely on their expertise. Fostering such partnerships could help
institutionalize capacity building for professionals working with children in legal proceedings over the
long term, and support recognition of the specific skills needed to work in this area.

Multidisciplinary trainings are also of tremendous value and pave the way for cross‑sectoral
coordination. National training institutes could be invited to open their doors to professionals
other than judges and prosecutors, such as social workers, lawyers, teachers and other relevant
professionals dealing with child victims and witnesses. Lawyers also need to be fully included,
possibly through partnerships with Bar Associations or other relevant institutions.

Systems for providing formal recognition to professionals who have engaged in capacity‑building
efforts are needed and should be a criterion for recruitment and career advancement.
 SUMMARY OF KEY ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 11

Ensure adequate representation of children in proceedings

Children’s representation in proceedings involves both legal representatives – parents or guardians

– and access to a lawyer. Both dimensions require significant strengthening in ECAR countries.
Guardianship authorities may not be comprised of professionals, depending on the country, making
their competence in child protection uneven. Furthermore, their knowledge of judicial proceedings
is often limited. Capacity‑building efforts, including necessary reforms in the functioning of the child
protection system, need to involve these authorities as vital defenders of children’s rights and best
interests when they are victims or witnesses in judicial proceedings.

Likewise, access to free, quality legal aid and legal counselling is spotty across the region, even
when national legislation is favourable. This issue is integral to the due process of law and to
children and their representatives’ ability to understand proceedings and defend their rights.
Thus it is important to ensure that legislation provides access to free legal aid and requires that it
be automatically proposed to the child. It is also important to create a pool of lawyers who have
the relevant skills and willingness to legally represent child victims and witnesses in criminal
proceedings.

Strengthen access to information for children

The right of child victims and witnesses to information about the proceedings they are involved
in remains inadequately secured. This right concerns the proceedings themselves, but also their
outcome. Rather than relying on individual initiatives, it is important to (a) develop protocols that
define who is responsible for keeping the child informed during each step of the process and (b)
issue user‑friendly material for children and their parents or legal guardians.

Develop and implement protocols and standard operating procedures

The use of protocols makes it possible to define the objectives, actions and responsibilities of the
various actors. Such protocols should be strengthened in each country to ensure that the treatment
of and response to child victims or witnesses of crime is consistent. It is also important to consider
how the protocol can be implemented and who is accountable for doing so.

Need for stronger links between justice and child protection systems

Judicial proceedings involving children as victims and witnesses of a crime are largely disconnected
from social interventions. Lack of cooperation often means that the process is heavily focused on
prosecuting the alleged offender for sentencing, but fails to sufficiently address the broader needs of
the child involved – which are closely linked to the nature and circumstances of the crime, including
the child’s relationship with the accused. The child’s experience should not be fragmented between
judicial proceedings, on the one hand, and the many forms of support that may be needed, on the
other. Child protection considerations need to be effectively included as part of the proceedings, not
as an optional add‑on. Children may require shelter, health care, psychosocial support and protective
measures. Providing such assistance involves a high level of cooperation between the justice system
and child protection services. The Barnahus model and its variations provide such a link, and thus
represent an interesting model for ensuring that child victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings
benefit from the support they need to overcome any possible trauma. Cooperation is often best
12 JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

achieved at the local level, since decentralization frequently puts local authorities in charge of child
protection. Adequate links between the two systems, however, implies that a solid child protection
system be in place to support children and their families.

Reinforcing gender approaches in justice system responses to child

victims and witnesses

There is a need to address the insufficiency of gender approaches in justice system responses with
respect to children. This requires very practical guidance on the concrete steps to be adopted to
ensure that the justice system takes into account the gender dimension of the crime, the trauma
experienced, the way testimony is communicated and the impact of social norms on child victims
and witnesses and justice system professionals. Gender dimensions need to be addressed using
a child rights approach, and not limited to adult women. In addition, it would be valuable to develop
a conceptual and practical framework for addressing the experience of child victims and witnesses
in the context of domestic violence that takes into consideration their situation as individuals,
independent of that of their mother.

Ensuring access to justice for child victims and witnesses from

marginalized groups

The accessibility of the justice system is a key, but under‑addressed, issue. A first step would require
significantly improving the collection of data on children from marginalized groups, including children
with disabilities and children from minority ethnic groups or who do not speak the official language
(for which data is currently virtually non‑existent). A second step would be to ensure that protocols,
guidance documents, capacity‑building efforts and other steps to make proceedings child‑sensitive
fully integrate the accessibility dimension for children who face specific access and communication
obstacles.

Continue to enhance data collection and evidence‑based policy making

Data collection on child victims and witnesses and the justice system response remains insufficient
and demands specific efforts to improve its quality and breadth, as well as to ensure that data is
being effectively used to inform interventions on individual cases and policy‑making, as well as to
support coordination.

Role of ombudspersons and other independent human rights

institutions

An ombudsperson for children or a human rights institution has a mandate to monitor how children’s
rights are implemented. Yet there are limitations to their influence in relation to justice system
responses to child victims and witnesses. Ombudspersons cannot usually intervene in criminal
proceedings (except as children’s advocates) or take on cases under justice system jurisdiction,
because of the separation of powers and need to avoid possible conflicts of interpretation.
Additionally, given their very limited resources, ombudspersons may focus on other areas where
they are more likely to exert an influence. However, it is important to include children’s access to
 SUMMARY OF KEY ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 13

justice in the ombudsperson’s mandate; potential roles could include conducting systemic reviews
and advising the government and parliament on needed reforms.

Develop and implement protective measures

The need for protective measures for child victims and witnesses involved in criminal proceedings is
often insufficiently assessed and implemented, which can put children at risk and potentially deter
the reporting of crimes. There is a need to fully integrate this issue into justice system responses
and highlight its importance.

Enhanced link between criminal and civil procedures

Criminal and the civil procedures are typically disconnected in relation to child victims and witnesses
of crime. While the criminal procedure focuses on trying alleged perpetrators, the civil procedure
concentrates on issues related to parental rights and their possible limitation, as well as the right to
compensation. Protecting child victims and witnesses involves ensuring that civil proceedings also
reflect principles of child‑friendly justice, in particular by recognizing the best interests of the child as
a primary consideration and setting up appropriate determination procedures. This is an area where
UNICEF engagement is still incipient but is gaining more and more visibility.

Building on the link between juvenile justice and justice for child
victims and witnesses

Support for juvenile justice has often represented a first step towards justice for children. Efforts
focused on children in conflict with the law (such as preventing delinquency and promoting
diversion), involve competencies and coordination among actors that may already in be place
and could be used for child victims and witnesses. However in some places child victims and
witnesses are perceived as potential future offenders. As a result, interventions to protect their
rights and promote their rehabilitation tend to be seen as a mechanism to prevent future crime. Yet
if communicated well and supported with adequate tools, building on juvenile justice settings and
approaches could prove highly beneficial, particularly for advancing holistic approaches.

Overall approaches: Building on what exists and has been tested

It is easier to build on existing processes to advance child‑sensitive approaches than to start from
scratch. In addition to building on existing justice for children initiatives, identifying positive practices
beyond the child rights field can be very valuable – as occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where
experts who assisted war crime victims began to work with child victims and witnesses.

A number of projects in ECAR started as pilot initiatives promoted by UNICEF or by other actors, and
have subsequently been taken on by national governments. Piloting is instrumental to convincing
national actors to invest in certain strategies. For UNICEF and other actors this suggests that it is
worth investing in pilot initiatives to demonstrate the value of an approach and then advocate with
the government for its institutionalization.
14 JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSES TO CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

Suggestions for future research

Research is needed into a number of issues affecting child victims and witnesses in contact with the
justice system. Lessons learned in the course of this study suggest a few key gaps to be filled.

• Children’s views and experiences of proceedings. Current approaches build on international

standards and professionals’ views of how to help child victims and witnesses avoid
re‑traumatization and gather evidence. Yet limited country‑level research has been carried out
into children’s experiences of proceedings and how they could be made more child‑sensitive.
Such research could inform improvements and contribute to advocacy for their implementation.
Research carried out by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been instrumental in this
respect, but only covers a few EU countries.

• Intersection between social policy and the justice system in relation to child victims and
witnesses. Research has been conducted on social protection and juvenile justice, and on
social protection and child protection issues such as violence, abuse and exploitation. Further
research could build on and complement these efforts, emphasizing how social support can be
implemented in the context of criminal proceedings for child victims and witnesses, including
and beyond the Barnahus model.

• Girl victims and witnesses and gender-sensitive approaches in justice system responses. This
would address a gap in the literature, which tends to focus on either children in general or adult
women. The specific issues girls face could be fleshed out and the concrete steps required to
address them identified.
United Nations Children’s Fund
Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Palais des Nations, CH‑1211 Geneva 10,Switzerland

Phone: +41 22 909 5111
Email: ecaro@unicef.org
Website: www.unicef.org/eca/