fair trials international

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Advancing defence rights for children

29/03/2017/in Finalizate /by Rasista

This is a project funded by the European Commission, coordinated by Fair Trials International and benefiting from the input of 4 partner organisations: APADOR-CH, Fair Trials Europe (FTE), Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) and International Juvenile Observatory, Belgium (IJJO).

Its implementation period is January 2017-December 2018.

Fair Trials and its partners have supported the development of the EU directive on procedural safeguards for children suspected or accused in criminal proceedings (EU Directive 2016/800) which may reach its transposition deadline during the project timeframe.

The reason for adopting the “Children’ Rights Directive”:

A 2014 Commission study examined legislation and policy governing children’s involvement in criminal proceedings across the EU, highlighting the lack of key safeguards for child suspects and defendants in many countries. These include the failure to provide information in a manner specifically adapted to the child’s needs; insufficient protection from lengthy pre-trial detention; limitations on the right to be heard; and the failure to audio-visually record interviews with children.

Other problematic aspects when it comes to defence rights for children:

The Commission also identified the lack of mandatory specialist training for defence lawyers representing children as a key deficiency in many member states, including Hungary and Romania.

Defence lawyers lack interdisciplinary training (involving, for example, juvenile justice experts (lawyers, judges, prosecutors, NGOs and academics), social workers and child psychologists) on

the international and regional standards which can be used to ensure children enjoy their right to a fair trial,
the avenues available for enforcing those standards
the specific skills required to ensure that child suspects and defendants can effectively participate in criminal proceedings. Further, there is an absence of regional networking opportunities through which defence lawyers representing children can exchange knowledge and develop strategic regional responses to systemic challenges facing their clients.

Projects’ objectives

The overall objective of the project is to increase the capacity of defence lawyers effectively to represent children in criminal proceedings by:

a) Identifying practical barriers to the effective participation of child suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings which skilled legal representation could address;

b) Examining existing practice and engaging interdisciplinary expertise on the training of defence lawyers working with child suspects and defendants;

c) Developing and delivering a replicable and interdisciplinary training programme for defence lawyers which covers international and regional standards as well as the specific skills required for effective legal representation of child suspects and defendants;

d) Enhancing networking opportunities for defence lawyers representing children, through project activities and membership of the existing EU-wide LEAP network of criminal justice experts, coordinated by Fair Trials Europe.

Project results:

Children Directive Toolkit Training Manual Manual for Trainers International and European standards in juvenile justice Communicating with Children’ Group Exercises & scenario

Beyond Surrender

11/08/2016/in Finalizate, Proiecte /by Rasista

Beyond Surrender aims to look at the use and abuse of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) and its impact on the life of the defendants and their families. The project, funded by the EU Commission, is being coordinated by Fair Trials and implemented in cooperation with four partner organisations in Lithuania (Lithuanian Human Rights Monitoring Institute), Poland (Helsinki Committee in Poland), Romania (APADOR-CH) and Spain (Rights International Spain).

The project will be implemented during April 2016-February 2018.

Context
While the simplified system of surrender established by the EAW Framework Decision has undoubtedly had success in preventing the EU’s open borders from being exploited by those seeking to evade justice, the past eleven years have highlighted significant problems in its operation. The European Commission, the European Parliament, certain Member States and civil society have recognised that the main problems relate to:

Disproportionate use of EAWs;
Excessive and unjustified use of pre-trial detention; and
The failure of issuing states adequately to protect human rights.

Member States have responded to these problems by adopting different approaches to implementation, while judges in executing states increasingly face the dilemma of the proper relationship between the principle of mutual recognition and a commitment to fundamental rights and other principles of EU law. After decisions to surrender are made, judges and lawyers in the executing state do not generally monitor what follows, including whether assurances (where given) are upheld, whether fundamental rights are enjoyed and whether the outcome confirms that the EAW was the right instrument to have used.

Objectives
The overall aim of this project is to use the human stories of experiences beyond surrender to document the impact of a EAW on people’s lives and to inform future legal and policy developments. Our objectives will be to:

Provide a human insight into the treatment of people following their surrender under accusation EAWs;
Raise the awareness of judicial actors and legal professionals of the practical relationship between the minimum standards in the Roadmap Directives, the ESO and the operation of the EAW FD;
Identify and illustrate good and bad practice in post-surrender treatment to support effective implementation of the EAW FD, the Roadmap Directives and the ESO; and
Inform future EU justice work to create minimum standards as a sound basis for mutual recognition.

Activities
Fair Trials and its partners will identify cases of individuals post-surrender through contact with local lawyers, bar associations and legal aid boards as well as via their own monitoring of detention centres.

20 cases in each project country will undergo post-surrender monitoring to obtain information on the: enjoyment of Roadmap rights; use of pre-trial detention or alternatives; proportionality of the EAW; and human impact of surrender.

Each Partner will produce a short report on the monitored cases, identifying patterns of good and bad practice and placing key findings in a broader domestic context. The report will set out recommendations for domestic stakeholders and valuable information for judicial stakeholders in other Member States.

Detailed documentation will be produced on 3 cases in each project country, demonstrating the human impact of surrender and placing procedural rights protections in the context of real cross-border cases. Materials will include case summaries and a short video featuring, where possible, personal testimony.

Final report

Fair Trials will produce a regional report highlighting common themes and using the human stories to support concrete reform proposals and demonstrate examples of good practice. A composite video and a booklet summary will be produced which, with the report, will be launched at a European Parliament event attended by MEPs, Commission officials and Member State representatives. Partners will also host launch events for the country reports/videos for domestic stakeholders.

Beyond surrender Romania report

Beyond surrender final report launched at European Parliament

Beyond surrender country reports: Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Romania

Co-funded by the Criminal Justice Programme
of the European Commission

The Practice of Pre-Trial Detention: Monitoring Alternatives and Judicial Decision-Making

17/06/2014/in Finalizate, Proiecte /by Rasista

The project, with generous funding from the European Commission, will provide a unique evidence-base about how pre-trial detention (PTD) is being used in practice across the EU in collaboration with Partners from 10 EU countries: Romania (APADOR), Lithuania (Human Rights Monitoring Institute), Ireland (Irish Penal Reform Trust), the Netherlands (Leiden University), the UK (University of Western England), Spain (APDHE), Greece (CECL), Poland (Polish Helsinki Committee), Hungary (Hungarian Helsinki Committee), and Italy (ASF – Lawyers Without Borders). This week, Fair Trials met with the Partners to finalise plans and working practices for the upcoming project.

The partners will gather data on their local PTD decision-making process and the use of alternatives through in-depth surveys of defence practitioners, monitoring detention hearings, reviewing case files, and interviewing prosecutors and judges. In July 2015, each Partner will produce a country-specific report on local use of PTD comparing local practice with international standards and domestic law.

In September 2015, Fair Trials will hold an expert seminar to discuss the information gathered in the local reports in order to identify common problems and share good practice. The seminar will bring together PTD experts from all 28 Member States.

With input from the Partners and Advisory Panel, Fair Trials will produce a major regional report containing a comprehensive analysis of PTD practice and highlighting common themes and differences within the EU. Fair Trials expects the regional report to be launched in March 2016, bringing together policy-makers and PTD experts for a launch event in the European Parliament.

The research project will inform the development of future initiatives aiming to reduce the unnecessary use of PTD within the EU. The project will provide a unique knowledge-base of PTD practices in different Member States and transferable examples of best practice.

In gathering this information, the report will help provide lawyers with practical information on best-practice, and the use of alternatives to PTD. It is hoped that the findings will also help policy-makers, judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers across the EU to build on information on good practice.

The report is part of Fair Trials’ campaign to put fair trials at the heart of EU Justice. Fair Trials International is calling on the EU to stop excessive detention without trial, including requiring EU countries to make more use of alternatives to pre-trial detention when available and not using extradition until a case is ready to go to trial.

In 2011 the European Commission carried out a consultation on detention in the EU, and the responses showed widespread support for action from civil society and member states. The European Parliament has also called for reform of pre-trial detention in the EU, most recently in its report on the European Arrest Warrant, adopted in January 2014 and in its mid-term review of the Stockholm Programme, adopted in March 2014.

This new report is an opportunity to examine local and regional use of pre-trial detention, judicial decision-making, and the use of alternatives. Fair Trials will continue to campaign to end excessive and arbitrary pre-trial detention, using our clients’ shocking first-hand accounts of their detention to highlight the effects it can have. In our major report – published in March 2014 – Stockholm’s Sunset: New horizons for Justice in Europe – the adoption of EU-wide minimum standards on pre-trial detention was highlighted as a key priority for EU justice policy.

Read entire study made by Romanian Helsinki Committee in this project here: Pre-trial detention in Romania – by APADOR-CH

Fair Trials International training

17/06/2014/in Finalizate /by Rasista

During the period May 2014 – April 2016 APADOR-CH is running a project coordinated by the Fair Trials International, an NGO based in London.

The project is called „Practitioner Training on Roadmap Directive” and is funded by the European Commission.

Other partners in this project are: the Helsinki Committee in Poland, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights Monitoring Institute in Lithuania and the Centre for European Constitutional Law in Greece.

The project aims to better inform the lawyers on the EU directives that establish the procedural rights of the defendant. Within this project there will be created a series of informative materials with respect to this goal. Also, within the scope of this project several training sessions will be organized on the applicability of this Directive.

Lawyers in Romania will be able to participate in such a training session in the second half of 2015. We will offer more details on the matter in due time. We will also help distribute informative materials as they are made.

You can find here information on EU directives that establish procedural rights for defendants.

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