Children’s rights

Since its establishment, FORUM has been actively involved in the protection of children’s rights and has been working to ensure that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is respected in practice. Our lawyers are particularly dedicated to the following topics:

  • Care for children at risk
  • Children’s rights in the criminal and juvenile justice systems
  • Inclusive education for children with disabilities and Roma children
  • Access to services for children with disabilities
  • Children on the move, especially separated and unaccompanied children

FORUM has a dedicated child protection policy:


PILOT PROJECT PRACTICE 

In 2020 and 2021, FORUM and its partner organisation, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ, Belgium), implemented a two-year pilot project called PRACTICE: Procedural Rights for All Children in jusTICE. The main objective of the project was to contribute to better protection of the procedural rights of children suspected or accused of crimes.

The project activities included three training seminars for judges, lawyers, prosecutors and other relevant professionals from Czech Republic, Slovakia and other EU countries, in order to increase the knowledge of judges and other relevant professionals about the EU and international law on children’s rights, especially on the right to individual assessment and to promote exchange of best practices between these professionals and their EU counterparts. The trainins focused on the interpretation and application of the provisions of Article 7 of Directive (EU) 2016/800 concerning the right to an individual assessment.

FORUM and ICJ have prepared recommendations to help judges, attorneys, lawyers, social workers, probation officers, the police and other professionals, who come into contact with children in conflict with the law. The recommendations discuss the individual assessment of the child and explain why to approach individual assessment with respect for the protection of the child’s human rights. The recommendations have been developed for the legal system of Slovakia and the Czech Republic but are applicable to other EU national systems.

Download the Recommendations here:

These recommendations have also been developed in a child-friendly version, which can be used, among other things, to communicate with children about their rights. Download the child-friendly version here:

Our lawyers in collaboration with the creative team prepared a series of videos for children and juveniles about their rights in the criminal justice system. The series of videos is accompanied by a poster.