About Us
The Child-Friendly Justice European Network (CFJ-EN) was officially launched in April 2019 by Defence for Children International Belgium (DCI-Belgium), as an informal Network. Its founding Members were the European Sections of Defence for Children International. In 2022, thanks to the financial support of the European Commission, through an Operating Grant, it was officially launched as a fully operational formal Network. Established through DCI-Belgium, which was created in 1991 under Belgian law with the aim of promoting children’s rights as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the idea to set up a European Network specialised on child friendly justice came as a direct response to the numerous observations and needs assessments made by various lead European organisations active in the field of child friendly justice.
Because there are no children's rights without child friendly justice, we, as child friendly justice experts, consider that it is necessary to adapt justice systems to the specifities of children, their particular needs and their vulnerabilities. Each of our members is already making a change in the field but we felt that it was essential to coordinate our actions across Europe to widen our impact and harmonise practices.
Our work is grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the Guidelines for a child friendly justice developed by the Council of Europe.
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Working together as a network enables us to:
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GATHER OUR FORCES & EXPERTISE
EXCHANGE OUR EXPERIENCES: INSPIRE & GET INSPIRED
COOPERATE ON LARGE-SCALE PROGRAMMES
As a joint force, our objective is to accelerate the concrete and effective adaptation of justice systems to children at local, national and European level
