Infancia y Justicia: Una cuestión de derechos. Los niños y las niñas ante la administración de justicia española

Infancia y Justicia: Una cuestión de derechos. Los niños y las niñas ante la administración de justicia española (Childhood and Justice: Rights of the child in the course of the administration of juvenile justice in Spain).
Whether children come into contact with the law as victims, witnesses, offenders or complainants, it is equally important that they are met with a system that understands and respects both their rights and their unique vulnerability. Legal systems must take special care to respect the rights of all children they encounter and provide children with the means to understand legal proceedings, to defend their rights, and to make their voices heard.
This report, commissioned by Save the Children and written by Virginia Rodríguez, Yolanda Román and Almudena Escorial, assesses the compliance of juvenile justice systems in Spain with international standards and instruments. The report finds that children entering the juvenile justice system are not always accorded treatment appropriate to their age and the confusing, intimidating and overwhelming nature of court proceedings can make it difficult for many young people to participate or give proper expression to their views. The report further warns of the difficulties that children and adolescents experience in providing their testimony in court during the investigative and trial phases and the need to improve the practices for taking children’s testimony in the justice process in order to prevent further psychosocial impairment and revictimization.