PROJECT TITLE: MINOR RIGHTS - Access to Justice for Children at Risk of Social Exclusion
COUNTRIES: Italy, Greece, Spain
OVERALL OBJECTIVE: To enhance knowledge on the current situation of children’s rights’ justiciability and promoting a child-tailored justice system at a national, European and international level. It aimed at expanding and improving legal practitioners’ and institutions’ knowledge on the obstacles that prevent the exercise of children’s rights and creating a network of legal practitioners in order to assure the guarantee of children’s rights’ justiciability.
Specific objectives:
- enhancing the knowledge regarding children's access to judicial protection of their rights in five Member States: Italy, Greece, Spain, UK and Sweden, in a comparative way, with regard to the situation of justiciability and enforcement within states that have ratified the 1996 Strasbourg Convention (Italy, Greece) and those who have signed and not yet ratified it (Spain, UK, Sweden);
- exchanging information and good practices among Italy, Spain and Greece, through local workshops for legal practitioners;
- setting up an international network of children's counsels among Italy, Spain and Greece, focusing on children at risk of social exclusion.
ACTIVITIES:
Lack of access to justice and legal assistance for children represents a critical risk factor for reduced life opportunities and social exclusion, including the potential of them entering an illegal environment as victims or perpetrators of criminal acts.
Children at risk of social exclusion, and mainly those affected by migration and afflicted by poverty, face great difficulty in accessing justice. Poor information, lack of participation in proceedings before judicial authorities, limited possibilities in applying for the appointment of a special representative or obstacles in appealing decisions in the absence of parents are some of the most important issues involved.
The activities included:
1) Survey: a comparative desk research and an action oriented field research in Italy, Spain and Greece, aiming at gathering information on good practices in the exercise of minors' rights and at analyzing particular issues of minors at risk of social exclusion. The research on the field devoted special attention to minors' participation, by actively involving and encouraging them to express their opinions on all more controversial issues also using the tools of creative work and arts.
2) Workshops in Italy, Greece and Spain aiming at underlining some recommendations to better apply international principles of children's rights justiciability, participation and enforceability, also with reference to the 1996 Strasbourg Convention.
3) A final conference in Brussels addressing European and international institutions.
FUNDING AGENCY: European Commission
LEADER: EPLO
PARTNERS: Associazione Studi Giuridici sull’ Immigrazione (ASGI), European Public Law Organization (EPLO), Instituto Universitario de Estudios sorbe Migraciones (IEM), Università Roma Tre
TIME FRAME: 2011-2012
