Hybrid event: What is next for protecting child rights in digital justice?
An expert dialogue on how to protect procedural rights of children in the digital age across the European Union
Date and time: 10 November 2026, 09:30–16:30 CET
Venue: Baker & McKenzie offices in Brussels: Bolwerklaan 21 Avenue du Boulevard, 1210 Brussels, Belgium Online participation: Via Zoom, register here.
Interpretation: Simultaneous interpretation Spanish–English (plenary sessions)
Background
Across Europe, justice systems are moving or have moved online. Remote hearings, often with the child appearing by video from a detention centre or prison, promise efficiency, but safeguards designed for the courtroom do not translate easily to a screen. Children can struggle to understand what is happening, to speak privately with their lawyer and to take part effectively in decisions that affect their lives.
The Protecting the Procedural Rights of Children in the Digital Age (PPRO-Child) project (2024–2026), funded by the European Union, set out to understand these risks and to build practical solutions. It was implemented by Penal Reform International (PRI) with Terre des Hommes Hungary, Terre des Hommes Romania and Tierra de Hombres España, in Ireland, Romania, Spain and Ukraine. Over two years, the project:
- Listened to children and professionals. Child-participatory research captured the experience of children who had taken part in remote hearings, alongside judges, lawyers, detention staff, social workers and psychologists.
- Co-designed solutions. Workshops in all four countries brought children and professionals together to design practical fixes.
- Put them into practice. Ireland: a remote hearings operating procedure for Oberstown Children Detention Campus, approved by its Board, and a redesign of the remote hearing room by DLR Group, now with the Irish Government for costing. Romania: a checklist and training for new magistrates with the National Institute of Magistracy. Spain: a rights-based checklist and user guide. Ukraine: practical memos for practitioners.
- Set out what good practice looks like. A 10-point plan on remote hearings sets out core safeguards. The new toolkit (guidelines for practitioners, civil society, and children and young people) and an EU policy paper will be launched at this event.
Purpose of this expert dialogue: looking ahead
We now have findings, guidelines and tested tools. This event uses them as a starting point rather than an end point, asking what it will take for children’s rights to keep pace as justice goes digital. Together, we will:
- Reflect honestly on what worked, how to ensure scale up and also ask what could be improved in similar initiatives in future.
- Connect the results to new standards and policy, including the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s newly adopted General Comment No. 27 on access to justice and effective remedies, and the European Commission’s priorities.
- Look over the horizon at the challenges coming next, from children accused of online offending to AI, neurotechnology and ‘smart prisons’.
- Agree what happens next: where advocacy should focus, which gaps need further work, and who is best placed to take the guidelines forward.
This dialogue brings together judges, lawyers, prison and detention staff, children’s rights experts, UN and EU representatives, and NGOs from Ireland, Romania, Spain and Ukraine.
In addition to the practitioners and NGO partners who were part of the project we will be joined by Benoit Van Keirsbilck, Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers – who will be key note speakers – as well as Kate Fox of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Tania Schroeter, Deputy Head of Unit for Procedural Criminal Law at DG JUSTICE, European Commission. They will be joined by Cedric Foussard of the Child Friendly Justice Network, children’s rights expert Mariana Pérez-Cruz, and Pia Puolakka of MindTech, who will bring a perspective on emerging technologies.
View the flyer: Event flyer-What is next for protecting child rights in digital justice
Register here for online participation.
Special thanks to Baker McKenzie for generously hosting the event.
