COUNCIL OF EUROPE: Call for Consultation of Children on Guidelines for Child-Friendly Justice

The Council of Europe has launched an Online Questionnaire for children and young people under the age of 18 to solicit feedback on the Draft Guidelines for Child-Friendly Justice. 

The Questionnaire can be taken online in English and French and can additionally be downloaded and returned in Italian, Moldovan, Russian, Serbian, Greek, Lithuanian, and Georgian.

The Council is both very excited to include children in the drafting process and eager to have as many children from as many countries as possible participate.  It now requests your help in disseminating and administering this questionnaire to children around Europe.  Details of the consultation and links to the Questionnaire and other important information appear below:

CONSULTATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN - GETTING STARTED

You are 17 years old or under,
You have already been in contact with the legal system (for example because your parents have divorced or because you have done something ‘wrong’), You know someone who has been in contact with the legal system, or
You have only seen the law in action on TV,
…..do you want to tell us what you think?

The Council of Europe is listening!

What is the Council of Europe?
The Council of Europe protects the human rights of people who live in 47 different countries in the continent of Europe. 150 million children and young people are affected by its work.

Child friendly justice
The Council of Europe has written some rules (or guidelines) to protect children's rights in justice. It wants to find out children and young people's views and experiences before finishing and publishing the rules.

The guidelines will cover lots of different decisions about the law and individual children and young people's lives, such as:

• Who you will live with if your parents are separating or getting divorced
• What happens if you are the victim of a crime (including abuse against you) 
• What happens if you have been arrested by the police or charged with committing a crime 
• How can you make complaints about how you are treated

Click here to see what other kinds of decisions will be covered by the guidelines.

If you want to know more about your rights, click here

If you want to know more about what the Council of Europe is doing for you and with you, you can also visit the site « Building Europe for and with children »: www.coe.int/children

Now it's over to you: LINK TO QUESTIONNAIRE