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Description
The project aims at improving the education of judges and the judicial personnel in order to improve response to the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups; Roma-population, foreigners and migrants, persons with disabilities, children; victims of gender-based violence and domestic violence. The project will address the position of children in court proceedings in line with the principles of child-friendly justice and it will have a multidisciplinary approach comprising of law, psychology, sociology, social work and other disciplines necessary in dealing with children.
The project will, inter alia, include the following main activities:
- Training of judges, public prosecutors and judicial personnel. Part of the activities will be targeted to the members of the relevant multidisciplinary team (judicial staff, child protection service officials, social workers, psychologists, judicial experts, mediators, solicitors etc.). Also, Part of the activities will be targeted to sensitisation of judges, prosecutors and other legal professionals to all forms of violence against women and domestic violence,
- Development of e-learning materials for judicial personnel,
- Translation, adaption and implementation of the existing e-learning courses prepared by the Council of Europe within the program HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals),
- Development of educational videos for the use at the Judicial Academy and on the websites of the courts,
- Piloting a “Children’s commission for the quality of justice” as an advisory body to the Judicial Academy,
- Piloting a new position as forensic social worker at selected district courts to improve communication and consultation with target groups, realisation of participation rights of children and secure coordination of interdisciplinary teams,
- Study visits to project promoter’s counterparts in EU/EEA to exchange know-how, experience and best practices within judicial systems in the area of project’s focus.
Summary of project results
The training of judges (and other positions) and their awareness of the protection of the rights of children, persons with mental disabilities and others and in the protection of human rights in general has been significantly strengthened. The project has successfully piloted the involvement of judicial social workers in family law divisions of courts.
A total of 4,996 persons (905 men and 4,091 women) were trained in the training events, of which 3,762 persons declared increased capacity in human rights protection, which is 75.30%. A total of 9 videos and 15 e-learning tutorials were produced during the project. Furthermore, 6 HELP e-learning courses were translated and adapted for the Czech context. All 10 partner courts participated in the pilot testing of the position of forensic social worker. Judges participated in 4 study trips abroad, thanks to the 5th trip a lecturer from a London court visited the Judicial Academy. The capacity of the state administration in implementing the Istanbul Convention was strengthened by the creation of 0.2 posts. In addition, the HELP course Violence against women and domestic violence was translated and adapted for the Czech environment, which was run twice during the project and completed by 50 women and 9 men.
An unintended benefit of the project is the creation of a regional training format where all members of the interdisciplinary team are trained together, which significantly strengthens their cooperation. In total, nearly 60 such seminars have been held in the regions. It was also possible to translate a total of 6 HELP courses, which is 1 more than planned. The outcome of the project, which clearly exceeds in its importance all other activities of the project, is the verification of the functionality of forensic social worker as a new position in judiciary, which creates from this formal environment a place that is able to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups. In the long run, a universal tool has been created in the justice system that can be used in many other situations (e.g., juvenile justice and criminal law in general).