Free Legal Aid to Children during the War: Steps to Improvement. Strategic Forum

The aim of the event is to discuss with the key stakeholders and expert community the ideas for increasing the availability and quality of the free legal aid to children, as well as to develop the relevant proposals for improving services.    

The event will involve stakeholders in the field of protection of children’s rights and meeting their individual needs in the condition of martial law, in the system of social protection, system of justice and pre-trial investigation, enforcement of court decisions, implementation of supervisory and social-educational activities affecting the rights and interests of children; the staff of the free legal aid (FLA) system; advocates; investigators; prosecutors; judges; staff of the services for children; representatives of the bodies in the sphere of probation.

KEY QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED DURING THE FORUM:

• Strategic challenges and prospects in the field of children’s rights protection in the conditions of martial law and the role of free legal aid;
• The practice of free legal aid provision;
• Quality standards for providing free secondary legal aid to children;
• Increasing the professional level of free secondary legal aid provision (recommendations, training);
• Improving the processes of ensuring child-friendly mechanisms of the justice system through the system of free legal aid provision;
• Intersectoral interaction: ensuring access to free legal aid in cases of protection and restoration of rights, meeting the individual needs of children under martial law.

Experts wishing to participate in the Forum, need to fill out the registration form. Details on modalities of participation will be provided upon receipt of confirmation from the organisers.

The event will be streamed live on YouTube channel via the following links: https://youtube.com/live/C013C_5WhWg?feature=share.

For the OSCE SPU YouTube Channel it will be available here: 

• Day 1: https://youtube.com/live/eFDHWmPeTj4?feature=share
• Day 2: https://youtube.com/live/ayKECHnqT9w?feature=share

The event is held in the framework of the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine project “Enhancing Access to Justice through Free Legal Aid”, funded by the Governments of Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, full list of donors if available here.