The Council of Europe and European Union have launched a new Child-Friendly Justice Assessment Tool – a practical step towards making children’s rights real in justice systems across Europe. 

Children come into contact with justice systems in many ways – as victims, witnesses, accused children, or in civil and administrative processes. Too often, these systems remain designed for adults, making them difficult to understand and navigate. 

This new tool moves beyond standards and focuses on implementation. It supports countries to assess how well their systems are: 

This reflects a key challenge we see in Scotland: not whether the rights framework exists, but whether it is consistently realised in practice. This tool will be important for scrutinising the extent to which Scotland is making children’s rights real within its justice systems, and for assessing whether commitments under the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

We look forward to seeing how this is taken forward across Scotland and more widely across Europe. 

Find more information on the child friendly justice assessment tool  

Access the child friendly justice assessment tool