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Children come into contact with the justice system in many different ways. This can be for family matters such as divorce or adoption, in administrative justice for nationality or immigration issues or in criminal justice as victims, witnesses or perpetrators of crimes. When faced with the justice system, children are thrown into an intimidating adult world which they cannot understand. It is therefore necessary to ensure that both access to and the processes within justice are always friendly towards children.

The Council of Europe has developed many legal standards and practical guidelines in the field of child-friendly justice. The most extensive set of standards are contained in the Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on child-friendly justice. Child-friendly justice for all children is a key priority area of the Council of Europe’s Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021), which supports member states in strengthening children’s access to, treatment in and participation in civil, administrative and criminal justice proceedings.

Therefore, it is important to ensure that professionals in member states have a comprehensive and professional knowledge of the relevant standards applicable in this area, in particular with respect to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its case-law on child-friendly justice.

The free online course on Child-friendly Justice and Children's Rights was developed as a joint initiative between the Council of Europe Children's Rights Division and the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) with the primary purpose of strengthening and harmonising the knowledge of the ECHR and other relevant European standards on child-friendly justice across the Council of Europe member states.

There are nine modules:

1. Introduction
2. Child-friendly justice
3. Non-judicial proceedings
4. General elements
5. Interactions with children in judicial systems - main challenges
6. Interdisciplinarity
7. Deprivation of liberty
8. Violence against children
9. Migration and asylum

The course is available on the HELP e-learning platform, upon the creation of an account. The course brief can be downloaded here.