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Josiane Bigot has been a judge in France for 30 years. She currently works as a magistrate and adviser at the Appeal Court in Colmar, France, and was formerly President of the Strasbourg Children’s Court. She is also the founder of Themis, an association providing support for children’s rights and access to justice for children and young people. I have always worked on cases involving children. I started out working at the criminal court where I worked with children in conflict with the law, now I am at the family court where I see children who have been separated from their parents. These experiences led me to create an association called Themis which aims to promote respect for the rights of child victims, witnesses and offenders in the justice system and in schools. One of the biggest obstacles for children in the justice system is access to information. They are not informed about what is happening and are excluded from participating in the process because of their age and status. Another problem for children in the family court is the consequences of how their views will be interpreted. They fear that what they say will hurt their parents as their views must be written down and given to the parties involved. On the one hand, we have to make sure children have a place to have their views heard; on the other hand we must make sure they are protected from negative consequences. A judge must say that what the child says is important but not decisive so that the child knows that he or she does not have responsibility for the whole decision. I try to help the child by sitting with them and making sure they understand the process and make sure they are happy with what is being said. A case which has had a particular impact on me is one which is common and affects me because it is emblematic of a wider problem: the lack of agency that children have in the justice system. A 16 year old boy went to live with his father when his mother died. The boy didn’t want to be with his father and he didn’t want to go to the school that his father wanted him to go to. A child in this situation cannot go before a judge with such a case until they reach 18. There is no judge to manage the situation which means no solution can be reached and the child ends up being unhappy and out of school. The only time a child can get legal help without parental consent before the age of 18 is if their safety is in danger. Some of the key elements of a child friendly justice system must be to ensure children are listened to and that a child is considered a child and not a little adult with adult responsibilities, and to make sure those involved in children’s cases are trained in children’s rights. In France, there is some training on this when people are studying to become judges but after that only if a judge wants training. Judges are however referring more and more to child rights conventions, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights, which is at least a positive step. In terms of the criminal justice system, we have to change how we see children in conflict with the law. European States are becoming more and more repressive and considering children less as children and more as adults. This has been particularly true of non-nationals. A proposed EU Return Directive will mean children seeking asylum can be detained and forcibly returned to their country of origin. My organisation, Themis, has been pushing to change this and is discussing the Directive with various organisations, but there has not been much movement. The best thing about my job is giving hope to some children - and adults – that their rights can be recognised. The worst thing is to punish! We are given a wide range of options and discretionary powers which allow us to find alternative measures to imprisonment, but you must remember that I decide cases along with two other judges with me and nine other people, so it is not entirely up to me! I think one of the most important things in my role as a judge is to be consistent and not change your mind in cases of repeat offending so if you tell a child what the next stage will be, the next time around you must follow through with that. If I could give judges working on children’s cases one piece of advice it would be to work with professionals in other related fields, such as lawyers, psychologists to ensure cooperation to avoid re-traumatising the child.