Objectives

The main objective of the CLEAR-Rights project is ”to improve equal access to a lawyer for children suspected or accused of crime”. We will make sure that they will receive quality and specialized government-funded legal aid and pro bono legal assistance, in line with Articles 6 and 18 of Directive 2016/800/EU.

Equal access to quality, specialised and pro bono legal assistance shall ensure a fair and child focused justice process. Thus, children’s best interest and non-discrimination are observed throughout the entire justice process, in compliance with Art. 40 paragraph (2) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child  and UN Committee for the Rights of the Child, General Comment no. 24.

CLEAR Rights project shall identify the problems of children who need legal assistance when they are in conflict with the law. This project shall support European Commission’s general effort to encourage child friendly justice and implement EU legislation consistently.

This is an innovative project, as it proposes pro bono legal assistance for children by strengthening the existing legal assistance systems and involving pro bono lawyers who will offer legal assistance to children, particularly in European countries that still don’t have complete, accessible, non-discriminatory legal assistance systems for all children.

Children themselves shall be involved in developing a legal assistance assessment digital tool through which they will share opinions on how they received legal assistance.  More than that, through Child Advisory Bodies, they will be able to participate in designing and developing key project results (awareness materials, etc).

Implementation period:  January 2021 - January 2023

Implemented in Hungary, Romania, Belgium, France and the Netherlands

Donor

CLEAR – Rights project is co-funded by the Justice Programme of the European Union  (2014-2020) / European Commission