The Voice of the Child

The Voice of the Child project helps fulfil the EU strategy on the Rights of the Child with a specific focus on child-friendly justice. This is being done by developing three video recordings of real cases in which children speak with judges. The project entails recording videos in three different countries and drafting a corresponding manual on how to use the videos effectively. These resources will be used to train magistrates, court staff and future magistrates across Europe. The project will culminate with the presentation of the videos and manual at an international conference.

An important judicial educational resource

The three new videos being produced within the context of this project will be added to the six videos that have already been produced for this purpose in the Netherlands. Upon completion of the project, these training resources will be distributed via two channels to relevant academic institutions. They will be provided to all judicial schools and institutes within the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), which includes all judicial schools and institutes in the EU, for use to train magistrates and court staff. The materials will also be sent to selected universities for use an educational resource for law students, who could potentially become magistrates.

Learning and knowledge exchange based on actual cases

The videos meet a genuine need for all of these judicial educational bodies. This is because they make it possible to learn from actual cases that are normally inaccessible as they are usually handled behind closed doors.

The related aim is to bring about mutual learning through an exchange of knowledge and practices among judiciaries. Because the videos have been made in different countries, magistrates, court staff and students to learn about best practices and compare them to the practices in their own country or in other countries. This enables an exchange of ideas with a view to improving the options, system and procedures – all with the primary objective of giving children a clearer voice when they appear before judges.