Right to be heard and child-friendly justice

In 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Liechtenstein to take measures to respect the views of children and to ensure that they are heard. This includes better consultation in family decisions and effective and autonomous participation of all children, especially younger children, in the family, community, school and justice system.

All children have the right to be heard and to participate in the legal system in matters that affect them. This is regulated in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This applies, for example, in divorce or custody proceedings, guardianship or adoption proceedings, but also in criminal proceedings in which children and young people are involved. To implement these participation rights, the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe developed guidelines for child-friendly justice in 2010. According to these guidelines, child-friendly justice must be designed in such a way that the rights, needs and welfare of children are given special consideration in all legal proceedings. It must be ensured that children are heard in court proceedings, are accompanied and informed in an age-appropriate manner and are protected from further burdens. This also includes ensuring that proceedings are child-friendly, for example through understandable language, protection of privacy and specialized professionals. To this end, courts, lawyers and social workers must be trained and courtrooms and hearing rooms must be set up in a child-friendly manner. The aim is to ensure that children and young people can express themselves freely and that the justice system does not have an intimidating, threatening or traumatizing effect on them.

The Ombudsman's Office for Children and Adolescents has been dealing with the right to be heard of children and adolescents for years through its case work, the coordination of the working group on the topic of custody and its involvement in the evaluation of child custody law. In the reporting year, she worked on ways to systematically investigate and improve the participation rights of children and adolescents in legal proceedings and developed the basis for a scientific study. At the same time, together with the Liechtenstein Chamber of Lawyers, it initiated a pilot project to establish a children's advocacy office in Liechtenstein. The implementation work is scheduled for 2025.

 

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