2023 OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice
We’re delighted to join the OECD and the Ministry of Justice Slovenia at the 2023 OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice, co-hosting the Pre-Conference Collaborative Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children and Child-Centred Justice!
The Collaborative Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children and Child-Centred Justice is co-hosted by the Ministry of Justice Slovenia and the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures and Global Initiative on Justice With Children, on behalf of the Working Group on SDG 16 Justice for Children. This workshop is the next step in achieving the implementation of the NEW OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework, available now!
See below for key themes emerging from the 2023 OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice, and the Pre-Conference Collaborative Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children and Child-Centred Justice.
2023 OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice
📅 6-8 December, 2023.
📍 Ljubljana, Slovenia
🔗 Watch the High-Level Session here on 7 December!
Key Themes:
Access to justice for children and child-centred justice
Building evidence for people-centred access to justice
Responsive and resilient justice systems for healthy democracies and trust in institutions
Learning from diverse experiences with justice
Ensuring impact and implementation of access to justice and people-centred justice systems
Strengthening capacities in the context of digitalisation
‘Leaving no one behind’
and more…
2023 OECD Pre-Conference Collaborative Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children and Child-Centred Justice
📅 6 December, 2023
🕒 14:00 - 17:00 (CET)
📍 Ljubljana, Slovenia
This workshop focuses on crucial next steps for achieving the implementation of the new OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework, across the Framework’s Four Pillars:
Designing and delivering child-centred services
Governance enablers and infrastructure
People empowerment
Planning, monitoring and accountability
Supported by presentations from Slovenia, Latvia, Canada, Greece, Lebanon, Terre des hommes, HiiL and UNODC.
Key Reflections
The Pre-Conference Workshop was a milestone moment in our next steps to secure justice for children, supporting the launch of the OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework, and accelerating action to effectively achieve its implementation. Key messages on access to justice for children and child-centred justice from the Workshop include:
Reaffirming the importance of creating a child-friendly justice infrastructure, which enables multisectoral engagement to address the distinct needs of children in their interactions and experiences of justice and justice systems, as victims/survivors, offenders and witnesses.
Upholding key calls in our Agenda for Action on the essential nature of evidence and data to secure justice for children. Emphasising persistent gaps in both the content and methodologies deployed to understand and address the legal needs of children, innovations and emerging best practice - such as engaging and collaborating with child experts in the design and implementation of justice processes - are key to accelerating progress.
Noting that the common justice problems facing children extend beyond those related to criminal and family law. Designing justice journeys with and for children, including their voices, and understanding the full range of their legal needs are essential steps to address the aforementioned gaps in understanding the impact of justice on children’s lives.
Affirming the holistic nature of the reforms necessary to design and deliver Child-Centred Services. Engaging with children directly has led to a greater understanding of the reforms they want to see - “I want the judge to give me eye contact.” Child-centred justice reforms require a more acute focus on improving children’s engagement with both systems and professionals.
Finally, a central theme of this Pre-Conference Workshop was acknowledging that, despite some progress in access to justice for children, justice reforms, and innovations, many children are still being ‘left behind.’ Further sustained action is required to ‘address the furthest behind, first’ with the workshop highlighting the disproportionate impact on children in some distinct circumstances and communities, such as those in conflict with the law after exploitation into violent extremism and Indigenous children.
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