Guidelines on justice for child victims and witnesses The approach of the Guidelines is innovative because it considers the child to be at the centre of the legal process and not only as a peripheral component of the proceedings or an instrument used to ensure a sentence.
The Guidelines on justice for child victims and witnesses of crime (the Guidelines) originated from the IBCR, were finalised by the IBCR as well in 2003, and were adopted by the ECOSOC in 2005.
The Guidelines reflect the promising practices developed throughout the world in matters of the protection of child victims and witnesses of crime, helping and guiding professionals working in the field in their everyday practices. They also help for the elaboration, review and implementation of national laws, procedures and practices in this field.
Dignity, non-discrimination, the best interest of the child and the right to participation are among the cross-cutting principles that drive the Guidelines. While recognizing the rights of the accused to a fair trial, the Guidelines point out the rights of the child in the context of his/her participation to the criminal legal process : the right to be treated with dignity and compassion, to be protected from discrimination, to be informed, to express views and concerns and to be heard, to effective assistance, to privacy, to be protected from justice process hardship, to safety, to reparation, and finally the right to special preventive measures.
The Guidelines, which can be adapted to the national context of any country, were first published in English, French and Spanish, and shortly afterwards in Arabic, Chinese, Slovak and Russian.
Today, these guidelines are an international reference tool for professionals working with child victims and witnesses of crime, with the Committee on the Rights of the Child regularly recommending that States integrate the Guidelines into their legal system. To view the English version of the ECOSOC resolution 2005/20, which contains the new Guidelines on justice for child victims and witnesses of crime, click here. A Study on the application of the Guidelines in Quebec Concerned by the lack of data on the application of the Guidelines in Quebec, the IBCR team updated its work on child victims and witnesses of crime in the spring of 2010 by completing a research project describing how Canada, and particularly Quebec, enforces the rights of child victims and witnesses.
This unique project was made possible through the financial support of the National Office for Victims of the Department of Justice Canada. This project consists of collecting the different points of view of lawyers, judges, social workers and other professionals to highlight Canada’s current progress on the issue, including good practices and challenges faced in the realisation of children’s rights by professionals, parents and the children themselves.
The IBCR hopes to improve and carry on with its research project on child victims and witnesses of crime by obtaining the opinions of child victims. This would allow the children concerned to have the possibility to fully participate in promoting and ensuring the respect of their rights.
This document is also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Russian.
