CLEAR-Rights project is aimed at improving access of teenagers in conflict with law to quality, pro bono and specialised legal assistance. Also, this project will facilitate contact with lawyers for the young people / children suspected or accused in criminal proceedings
The project is also meant to cover a gap in the social and legal fields: on one hand the teenagers/ children in conflict with law cannot access the legal assistance they need and do not know their rights, on the other hand there are state-financed pro bono lawyers who are willing to help and don’t know how. CLEAR-Rights makes this connection between needs and resources to the benefit of teenagers in disadvantaged communities.
The project develops in the period 2021-2023, and is led by Terre des hommes Hungary regional hub. It is implemented in partnership with Alliance of Lawyers for Human Rights, Defence for Children Belgium, Defence for Children the Netherlands, PILnet and Terre des hommes Romania, and is co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (2014-2020).
As part of the project, a Children’s Advisory Board were set up in France, Hungary and Romania. In Hungary, Hintalovon Foundation was coordinating the setting up and operation of the Board, currently working with 11 children.
The task of the Boards was to “child-proof” the support materials and guidance, create their own information and awareness-raising materials, advise on the development of training materials in a way that is interesting for children and young people. The panels are also responsible for testing: they evaluate the project’s information materials as a “test audience” and provide ongoing feedback to the project partners.
The Hungarian Board Members also prepared videos in relation to child friendly justice.
‘It is important that not only the child understands what their lawyer, the grown-up says, but the grown up should understand the child’s feelings, thoughts and doubts as well. This helps the efficiency of the cooperation and in the end we will get a result that qualifies for child-friendly jurisdiction.’ – said one member of the Hungarian Child Board.
“Making the video for the forum was a wonderful experience. I especially liked the fact that we created and invented the whole concept of the video. Our video concerns the child’s thoughts while discussing with a legal expert. The main message of our video is the importance of understanding children in these situations.“- said another member of the Hungarian Child Board.
Hintalovon Foundation also took part in the pro bono lawyer trainings. In related to that activity, please find information in this related source:
