About the compendium

Policymakers, legal, social and law enforcement professionals and stakeholders can use this compendium, alone and with the other Network resources, to link their work with the relevant legal provisions for child victims and witnesses of violence at European Union (EU), regional and international level.

The Compendium of Law & Guidance (2017) provides a comprehensive overview of the legal framework and authoritative guidance concerning the rights of child victims and witnesses across the EU, Council of Europe and United Nations (UN).

In doing so, the Compendium maps these relevant provisions in key instruments to the Barnahus Quality Standards.

It introduces the different bodies of international and European laws and guidances concerning child victims and witnesses of violence. This provides a baseline of the laws involved, their scope and the need to take account of them collectively.

It contains profiles of relevant provisions in key instruments based on a common framework which identifies obligations to provide assistance and support to child victims as well as to ensure specific safeguards for children in criminal investigations and proceedings.

About the author: Ms Rebecca O’Donnell is an Irish lawyer with extensive experience in EU legal and public affairs. Her areas of expertise include fundamental rights, child-friendly justice, child protection, asylum, migration and trafficking policies. She is co-founder of Child Circle, since 2014.  She formerly worked in Save the Children EU Office as a senior child protection adviser and as a partner in the EU office of an international law firm.

Relevant laws and guidance

International

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Best interests – Article 3 establishes the best interest of the child as a general principle and a rule of procedure. At Barnahus, according to PROMISE Barnahus Quality Standard 1.1, the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all actions and decisions concerning the child and the non-offending family/caregivers/support persons.
  • Right to be heard and receive information – Article 2 states that a child should in particular be provided with the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child.
  • Non-discrimination – is a general principle of the UNCRC set out in article 2 and is an essential principle for the implementation of article 19 on children’s right to freedom from violence.
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment no 1354
  • Undue delay – In this General Comment, the Committee states that effective help requires that actions, once decided through a participatory process, must not be subject to undue delay.
• Optional Protocol to the UN CRC on the Sale of Children
• UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children

European

• Council of Europe Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on child-friendly justice and their explanatory memorandum 2011
  • Child-friendly justice – refers to justice systems which guarantee the respect the effective implementation of all children’s rights at the highest attainable level.
• Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention)
• European Convention of Human Rights
• EU Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation Directive
• EU Victims’ Rights Directive
• EU Anti-Trafficking Directive
• Council of Europe Convention on Trafficking
• European Protection Order

Key legal obligations on assistance, protection and procedural safeguards

The laws and guidance listed above, in combination with national law and policy, elaborate the following legal obligations that Barnahus responds to:

• Avoiding repeat or secondary victimisation of victims
• Ensuring the best interests is a primary consideration
• Non-discrimination
• Taking due account of the views of the child
• Identifying child victims
• Assistance and support to the victims
• Provision of information
• Right to interpretation & translation
• Individual assessment of each child’s circumstances and non-offending family members’ needs
• Safeguards relating to abuses within the “circle of trust”
• Representation where appropriate for children deprived of parental care or where their interests conflict with those of their parents
• Legal counselling and representation
• Reporting obligations
• Initiation of criminal proceedings
• Adapted procedures in investigations and judicial proceedings involving children
• No unjustified delay between the reporting of the facts and interviews take place
• Provision for medical examinations
• Interviews take place, where necessary, in premises designed or adapted for this purpose
• Interviews are carried out by or through professionals trained for this purpose
• The same persons, if possible and where appropriate, conduct all interviews with children
• Considerations as to the gender of professionals involved in interviews in cases of sexual violence et al
• The number of interviews is as limited as possible and interviews are carried out only where strictly necessary and for the purpose of the investigations and proceedings
• Accompaniment by legal representative or where appropriate by an adult of his or her choice unless a reasoned decision has been made to the contrary in respect of that person.
• All interviews with a child victim or where appropriate a child witness, may be audio-visually recorded and that such recordings may be used as evidence in criminal court proceedings
• Possibility to order that the hearing take place without the presence of the public
• Possibility to order that the child victim be heard through the use of appropriate communication technologies
• Necessary measures to protect the privacy, identity and image of child victims and to prevent the public dissemination of any information that could lead to their identification.
• Right to avoid contact between victim and offender
• Necessary measures to find durable solutions for trafficked children
• Training & tools
• Multidisciplinary/coordination/cooperation
• Data & monitoring
• Awareness Raising/ Prevention
• Other (compensation, non prosecution & non punishment)

The above has produced with co-funding from European Union. The contents herein are the sole responsibility of the respective project partnership and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.