The Voice of the Child - VotC

Project description

The project “The Voice of the Child” aims to contribute to the EU strategy on the Rights of the Child and more specifically to child-friendly justice. To reach this goal, the project will support the development of three video recordings of real cases where children speak with judges. The videos will be recorded in three different countries and they will be used to train magistrates, court staff and future magistrates around Europe.

The development of the videos will be accompanied by a Manual that will provide contextual and relevant information to support the use of the videos. Additionally, an International Conference will be organised at the end of the project to present the videos together with the manual.

A total of six videos have been produced already in The Netherlands for the same purpose and they will be (complimentary) added to the new batch of videos produced in the framework of this project. After the closing of the project and the implementation of the International Conference, the training materials will be distributed through two channels: 1) to all judicial schools and institutes under the EJTN, ie. to all schools and institutes in the EU Member States, where magistrates and court staff will be trained with these videos; 2) at selected universities, where law students – the possible future magistrates – will analyse these videos during their studies. The videos produced will provide both target audiences the opportunity to learn from cases that otherwise are hardly accessible because they are normally handled behind closed doors.

The purpose of this dissemination is mutual learning through the exchange of knowledge and practices among judiciaries. Since the videos are recorded in different countries, magistrates, court staff and students can learn about (best) practices and make legal comparisons with practices in other countries or in one’s own country. This comparative view will enable an exchange of ideas aimed at improving the options, the system and the procedure with the higher objective of giving children a clearer voice when they appear in front of a judge.