MiRI | | Movimento Globale per i Diritti dell’Infanzia

Summary

MiRI - Minor’s Right to Information in EU civil actions: Improving children’s right to information in cross-border civil cases.

The child’s fundamental right to participate and express his/her views in proceedings concerning him/her is one of the guiding principles of the 1989 United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (as stated in art. 12), and it consists in one of the main preconditions to ensure that the child’s best interests are taken in primary considerations in all cases concerning them. The right of children to be heard in legal proceedings is also granted by the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights (ECHR), as incorporated into art. 8 according to the interpretation given by the European Court of Human Rights. Accordingly, the same principles are contained in art. 24 of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, on the basis of which EU regulations, as Regulation (EC) No. 2201/2003, have explicitly stated that a child is to be given the opportunity to be heard in legal proceedings. However, the child’s fundamental right to participate and express his/her views in the aforementioned proceedings cannot be effectively exercised (either directly or indirectly) if the child does not receive adequate knowledge and support.

While EU regulations in matters of parental responsibility and other related matters introduced some important procedural changes that impact upon children involved in family proceedings, the very same instruments did not impose any change to domestic child consultation procedures. As a consequence, given the fragmentation in substantive law of the different MSs, significant divergence exists between the Member States in procedures for giving adequate information to children. Whereas tools and practices diverge in different Member States to comply with local and international obligations, uniform EU law requires a shared approach to the matter, to ensure that EU law is consistency applied in all Member States. This raises the need for a development of common practices following a comparative investigation at the national and international level. Several measures can be taken to create appropriate, safe, uniform child-friendly conditions of participation. To achieve this, the development of a system in which children are able to understand their rights and the procedures should be a priority.