This year, in the spirit of the Year of Child-friendly Justice, a number of legislative changes concerning judicial procedures have been enacted to protect children. As a result of amendments to the Criminal Code children will receive greater protection, with the new Code containing heavy penalties for offences against children.

Furthermore, the Government also seeks to ensure a child-centred approach in authorities’ administrative proceedings: in child protection cases these can be accelerated to halve their length, and authorities will be required to provide information to children in a form which is appropriate to their level of maturity. The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice will submit these bills to the National Assembly in the near future.

After a number of amendments to the Act on Public Administration and Judicial Procedures, the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice is enforcing the basic rules of child-friendly public administration in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (opened for signature on 20 November 1989, New York). The aim of the legislative changes is to ensure that more attention is paid to the special needs of children in various judicial proceedings, and that the interests of children receive greater protection in the course of judicial proceedings.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice declared 2012 the Year of Child-friendly Justice. On Thursday a conference entitled ‘Child-friendly Justice in Hungry and Europe’ was held in Budapest, at which  minister of state Bence Rétvári said that every year thirty children die as a result of abuse, and six thousand young people under the age of fourteen are injured  as a result of criminal acts. He said that these traumas can affect young people in their development and later lives, citing the fact that this group accounts for 53 per cent more young offenders, and a third more adult offenders than the average. He went on to say that the aim is to amend the legal system and various procedures in order to minimize the trauma for children. As an example he mentioned that summonses and information on hearings is being translated into ‘the language of children’, and that hearings are to be held at the nearest possible location. Interview rooms designed for children – where young people’s testimonies are recorded to avoid potentially trauma-inducing repetition in later stages of proceedings – were described by him as an important step forward. He said that there would be such child-friendly rooms in every county by the end of 2014.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)