The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Forum for Human Rights (FORUM) submitted written comments to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case Hlaváček v. the Czech Republic. The intervention concerns procedural guarantees of children below the age of criminal responsibility.
Pursuant to the Court’s permission to intervene, the ICJ and FORUM submit that serious systemic flaws in the Czech juvenile justice system deprive children under the age of 15 of their procedural rights during legal proceedings. These include the denial of efficient legal assistance and restricted access to the police file, which undermine their ability to challenge and cross-examine witnesses.
In their intervention, the ICJ and FORUM focus on the right to a fair trial guaranteed under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to liberty under Article 5 ECHR, in the context of other international human rights standards. In particular, the interveners analyse the right to efficient legal assistance and the right to access the police file and to comment on the evidence.
“It is essential for children to benefit from at least the same procedural guarantees as adults, including the right to legal assistance and legal aid and, and the right to access the police file,” said Karolína Babická, Senior Legal Adviser, ICJ Europe and Central Asia programme. “Even for children below the age of criminal responsibility, such procedural rights should be in place, especially where the nature of the proceedings and the penalty severity is criminal-like,” she added.
“The rights of children below the age of criminal responsibility need much more attention and express recognition”, added Maroš Matiaško, Forum for Human Rights’ lawyer. “This group is in a particularly vulnerable situation, often subjected to disproportional paternalism. The justice system should balance recognising all children’s procedural rights with tailored approaches to sometimes very young children who committed an offence. We believe that the Strasbourg Court can provide fundamental guidance in this regard”, he concluded.
The key points of the intervention are as follows:
- The interveners submit that the State must provide accessible and effective legal assistance to children below the age of criminal responsibility. Article 6 ECHR requires the provision of an attorney from the very beginning of the pre-trial stage until the end of the proceedings, including the first police interrogations and the following detention hearings.
- The interveners stress that the systematic denial of access to the police file for children below the age of criminal responsibility contravenes their right to challenge and cross-examine witnesses.
Read the full intervention here.
For more information, please contact: Karolína Babická, Senior Legal Adviser at karolina.babicka@icj.org