Special courtroom as an element of child-friendly justice: organizational and legal aspect

Abstract

The entry of a child into the sphere of justice, regardless of its status, requires the creation of such conditions that would minimize the possibility of the impact of negative factors in the process of administering justice on the child himself. In this regard, one of the effective and important elements in the child-friendly justice system may be the organization of a special courtroom, which would be adapted to hear cases involving a child, which is not widely used in national practice and does not have the appropriate legal regulation in general. In addition, to date, there are no studies that would reflect the problems of organizing a courtroom, in which it is possible to try different categories of cases with the participation of the child. The article attempts to conduct a theoretical and legal study of existing international standards and national legal regulation of the organization of child-friendly courtrooms, identifying the basic elements for its creation, through which it is possible to formulate basic approaches to the administration of child-friendly justice. The author stressed that international standards refer to the components of child-friendly justice, including the issue of creating the most comfortable conditions for the child in the courtroom and directly during the hearing. To substantiate the conclusions, we analyzed the national case law and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which demonstrates cases of violation of children's rights by not creating appropriate conditions for the trial of children, and emphasizes the importance of the situation in which the trial took place. from litigation involving adults. Positive practices of organization of special courtrooms in some courts of Ukraine are given. Based on the analysis, it was found that the issue of arranging a courtroom friendly to children has no legislative and departmental regulations, in connection with which proposed ways to address the legislative gap in this direction and guidelines for organizing a special courtroom, which is positively assessed. Рrovided children who were invited to court and who had the opportunity to compare the general courtroom and the special. Keywords: international standards, children's rights, child-friendly justice, child interview, courtroom.