Access to Legal Aid and Pro Bono Assistance for Children in Conflict with the Law in Europe

The main objective of the CLEAR-Rights project is to enhance legal assistance for children, more precisely to improve equal access to a lawyer for children suspected or accused of crime, through strengthening access to quality and specialised government-funded legal aid and pro bono legal assistance, in line with the Directive 2016/800/EU on procedural safeguards for children who are suspects or accused persons in criminal proceedings. This project builds upon the right to legal assistance/aid of children involved in criminal proceedings as suspects or accused persons, with a focus on 5 European countries: Belgium, France, Hungary, Romania and the Netherlands and aims to support the overall effort of the European Commission to achieve a European area implementing child-friendly justice and to coherently implement the EU legislation.