IMPROVEMENT OF GUARANTEES FOR THE SUPPORT OF the RIGHTS of MINORs IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURES BY IMPLEMENTing the IDEAS OF JUVENILE JUSTICE: LEGAL ASPECTS

Abstract

Russia's accession to the Council of Europe and the signing of relevant international agreements contributed to the development of regulations on the rights of a child and branching juvenile law in the Russian legal system. Meanwhile, it should be pointed out that processes of legal regulation in the field of the formation of the legislative basis of juvenile law are in some way incomplete, which is the result of the imperfection of the existing legal acts affecting the rights and interests of minors. The issue of the expediency of creating juvenile justice in Russia is being discussed for a long time in the legal papers and at the legislative level. The provision on the formation of juvenile justice was included in the 1991 Concept of Judicial Reform in the Russian Federation. Later, different authors worked out several draft Laws on Juvenile Justice. At parliamentary hearings in the State Duma, the prospects of creating juvenile courts in the system of courts of general jurisdiction were considered. Meanwhile, such close attention to the indicated problem does not have a significant impact on the increasing child and adolescent crime in the country. The plurality of the above-mentioned legal problems and their multifaceted nature necessitate improvement of justice in relation to minors. This raises a number of theoretical, legal, practical and ethical issues that require studying and adopting relevant decisions at the legislative level. Therefore, studies that allow analyzing the current Russian criminal procedure legislation from the point of view of the possibility of functioning of juvenile justice on its basis relying on international legal standards are really urgent. The criminal procedure legislation in the Russian Federation as a whole is focused on continuous improvement in the context of ensuring the maximum number of procedural guarantees of the legality of criminal proceedings, as well as observance of human rights with the application of their minimum restrictions, including in relation to such category of persons involved in criminal proceedings as minors. In this article, the authors consider the institution of juvenile justice as an additional guarantee of securing the rights of minors in criminal proceedings in Russia, propose the ways to address current and debatable aspects of this problem. The paper analyzes the current criminal procedural legislation, decisions of the Plenums of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation as well as the judgements of the courts in specific cases concerning the problems of the study. In the study of individual topics of the issue, scientific literature as well as statistical data have been used. The conclusions and proposals made in the work are aimed at improving the current legislation of the Russian Federation and law enforcement practice, and can also be used in the educational process.