A cooperation of the German Children's Fund and the German Institute for Human Rights

The Coordination Office for Children's Rights of the German Children's Fund (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk) and the National CRC Monitoring Mechanism of the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte) have been working for many years on the topic of child-friendly justice.

Joint Actions

Initiation and support of the development of practical guidelines on child-friendly justice for
Germanyfor family law proceedings and criminal law proceedings involving child victims, based on the Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on child-friendly justice
(CoE guidelines)
Promoting the implementation of the international framework and the normative requirements of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the CoE guidelines as well as the corresponding elaborations of the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA)
Statements to influence legislative procedures, expert discussions, expert conferences, etc.

Testing of the implementation of the practice guidelines in family law proceedings in Germany

Qualitative research through interviews with judges (in three different courts in Germany) with the aim to find out how they conduct proceedings that involve children (without and with knowing the criteria)

Presentation of the results in a conference with experts, civil society, political and judicial representatives and interested parties
Monitoring of the implementation of the practice guidelines in criminal law proceedings in Germany involving child victims

Quantitative research through interviews of professionals in 5 federal states and
Qualitative research through queries to the 16 state departments of justice

Sophie Funke, Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte, funke@institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de
Leona Vehring, Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, vehring@dkhw.de
Linda Zaiane-Kuhlmann, Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, zaiane@dkhw.de