Child-Friendly Justice Assessment Tool Launched

Detected March 27th, 2026

Summary

The Council of Europe and the European Union have launched a new child-friendly justice assessment tool to help protect children involved in legal proceedings. Pilot countries Belgium, Poland, and Slovenia have shared their experiences using the tool to adapt justice systems to the needs of children.

View original document View source feed page

What changed

The Council of Europe, in collaboration with the European Union, has introduced a new "Child-friendly-justice assessment tool." This tool aims to assist member states in evaluating and adapting their justice systems to be more accessible, age-appropriate, and focused on the needs of children who interact with legal proceedings as victims, witnesses, offenders, or parties. The initiative builds upon the Council of Europe's Guidelines on child-friendly justice and was piloted in Belgium, Poland, and Slovenia.

Compliance officers and legal professionals should be aware of this initiative as it promotes a shift towards child-centric legal processes. While the tool itself is non-binding, it provides a framework for national governments to implement more child-friendly justice standards. Countries are encouraged to adopt and adapt their legal and policy frameworks accordingly. Further engagement with the tool and its available resources in multiple languages is recommended for entities operating within or interacting with European justice systems concerning children.

What to do next

Review the Council of Europe's Guidelines on child-friendly justice.
Explore the Child-friendly-justice assessment tool for potential application in relevant jurisdictions.
Consider adapting legal and policy frameworks to better meet the needs of children in legal proceedings.

Source document (simplified)

Back How can Europe become a champion of child-friendly justice?

Council of Europe and the European Union launch child-friendly justice assessment tool to protect kids in legal proceedings

Belgium, Poland and Slovenia took part in the pilot project, using the new tool to help children before the courts

Children come into contact with the justice system in many different ways. They can be victims, witnesses, offenders or parties in non-judicial, judicial (civil and criminal) and administrative proceedings. Often, when faced with the justice system, they are thrown into an intimidating adult world which they cannot understand. Adapting justice to their needs – making it child-friendly – is therefore necessary.

Child-friendly justice should be accessible, age-appropriate, speedy, diligent, adapted to and focused on the needs of the child. It respects the rights of children to due process, to participate in and to understand the proceedings, as well as their rights to private and family life, and to integrity and dignity.

How is the Council of Europe promoting child justice?

The Council of Europe has played a leading role in promoting child-friendly justice through the adoption of the Guidelines on child-friendly justice, which set out the most extensive standards in this area. However, standards alone are not enough; the real challenge lies in implementation. To help translate the guidelines into concrete and workable mechanisms, a special tool was created under the joint European Union - Council of Europe child-friendly justice project. This tool supports member states in evaluating how well their justice systems are adapted to children.

The Child-friendly-justice assessment tool was launched in Brussels today at an event organised by the Children’s Rights division of the Council of Europe and the Directorate-General for justice and consumers of the European Commission.

Representatives of Belgium, Poland and Slovenia – the project pilot countries which conducted self-assessments and received recommendations on how to adapt their legal and policy frameworks – have shared their experiences in the roll-out of the tool. Together with representatives from Greece, Hungary and Portugal, international organisations and NGOs, they exchanged ideas on how Europe can become a champion in the field of child-friendly justice.

The tool is available in French, Dutch, Polish and Slovenian.

Learn more about the child-friendly-justice assessment tool

The Council of Europe’s extensive work for children: find out more Regulate online platforms, not children - Portal

Council of Europe Brussels 27 March 2026
- Diminuer la taille du texte
- Augmenter la taille du texte
- Imprimer la page

2026-03-27T10:30:00