During the month of June 2019, the team working within the project „MISTO AVILEAN!” visited eight educational institutions and met over 33 educational specialists (school directors, teachers, inspectors of minorities) from three counties (Dolj, Olt and Gorj).

They offered us details related to difficulties encountered by children of Roma ethnicity in school integration, especially in the context of the temporary migration of their parents in other countries. We found about problems, but especially about solutions, success stories and innovative methods of teaching, of motivating and promoting Roma children inside the school system.

To continue reading, please go here: 2019.07.08 – Focus groups – news_En

This project was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020

We are proud to announce that the prize for the social assistant of the year in the field of social inclusion – social economy was handed over to our colleague Mihai Enache at the National Gala of Excellence in Social Assistance in Romania, organized on 19^th of March 2019.

Organized to celebrate the World Social Work Day, the Gala is the event where social workers across the country, authorities, journalists celebrate the achievements of the social assistant profession to convey a message on awareness of social contributions and the need for further action, and for awarding the best social workers and supporters of social assistance from the previous year.

The Gala has been awarded prizes for several categories, including the Social Worker Prize for Homelessness, the Social Worker Award for Working with Elderly, the Social Assistant for Community Work Award and the Social Assistant Award in the Field Social Inclusion – Social Economy.

For the last category, 19 social workers were nominated from all over the country, the prize being awarded to our colleague, Mihai Enache.

Mihai has been a social worker since 2003, and his experience begins in the same year in the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Dolj county where he worked for 5 years focusing on maternal counseling and work with children in the adoption system. Since 2008, Mihai has started working at Terre des hommes in Craiova, where he works now. In his career at Terre des hommes, Mihai implemented projects in the field of child trafficking prevention, child psycho-social skills development, inclusion and social economy, child protection and juvenile justice.

Mihai impresses with his positive attitude, the belief that any problem has a solution and the desire to see the results of his work, especially by making good changes in the lives of children from disadvantaged communities where Terre des hommes work. But also through the energy and enthusiasm that he displays and puts them into professional work and in support of the team. In addition, Mihai has a lot of humor and is attentive to the needs of his colleagues, he offers support both professionally and personally.

Congratulations, Mihai, for this prize! Congratulations on your relentless work and all the efforts you make in your work to support and promote children’s rights within Terre des hommes Romania and beyond!

A child friendly brochure was created among AWAY project, entitled „Juvenile Justice from A to Z”. The content correspond to the level of child and youth understanding and it is adapted to the local legislation from Romania.

The thematic approaches the juvenile justice field, with a focus on diversion and it presents, the roles of different specialists and the youth rights, as suspects, victims or witnesses. 

We invite you to discover the electronic version of the Romanian brochure on here: Juvenile justice from A to Z.

– online professional training –

Over the past 20 years, the juvenile justice system has undergone significant changes, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Of course, these changes have affected the implementation of alternative measures, diversion, victim-aggressor mediation and other restorative techniques in most CEE countries.

Children need special treatment. Unlike adults, they are much more vulnerable being in the process of physical, emotional, but especially behavioural development. The best interests of the child must also be applied in the justice system taking into account their development needs in order to have young people integrated into society, future active citizens. 

The Project Alternative Ways to Address Youth (AWAY) aims to ensure that professionals from different multidisciplinary fields become more aware and better trained about diversion methods for suspected / investigated children benefiting from the procedural safeguards of EU Directives 2016/800, 2012/13 , 2012/29.

The AWAY project team has developed an on-line course for child protection and justice professionals on alternative division methods and court procedures for children. The course does not only provide alternative diversion methods but also the tools with which they can be handled by professionals in future work.

The participants have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of alternative methods of solving the criminal process (diversion) and its use, the psychology of young people in conflict with the law and juvenile justice, but also how to communicate with young people.

The online course is available by accessing the link on the Childhub platform.

https://academy.childhub.org/course/view.php?id=65

The Project Alternative Ways to Address Youth (AWAY) aims at raising public awareness of alternative diversion methods of solving the criminal trial and process and to ensure that professionals from different multidisciplinary fields become more aware and better trained about diversion methods for suspected /investigated children who benefits from the procedural guarantees of EU Directives 2016/800, 2012/13, 2012/29. AWAY is supported by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme and is active in five countries across Europe: Bulgaria through the involvement of the Judicial System Development Programme (PDSJ), Croatia through Brave Phone Croatia, Romania through Terre des Hommes-Switzerland , Belgium, through Defence for Children International (DCI) and the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), Hungary, under the coordination of the Terre des hommes Regional Office for Central and Southeast Europe (Applicant) and the Global Network for Public Interest Law – PILNET.

Children in conflict with the law are still children and need protection and support for reintegration and rehabilitation. This is the vision of the European Project AWAY (1) implemented in Romania by the Foundation Terre des hommes.  

Within the project a survey has been carried out analysing both the institutional structure and the legislation that regulates the juvenile justice system as well as the practices identified in the system. The study, conducted by Prof.Dr. Durnescu and Corina Popa present a critical perspective on the juvenile justice system in Romania, with a special focus on diversion measures.

The authors took into consideration the European Union and UN standards and studied the extent to which Romanian legislation, institutions and practices comply with these standards.

The most important principles pursued in the field of juvenile justice are similar to all the principles applicable to the field of child protection and the most important of them is that in all state interventions, the best interests of the child will be observed. Starting from this, rehabilitation and reintegration of juveniles in conflict with the law are measures that respond to the best interests of the child.

The juvenile who has reached the age of 16 is criminally liable. In the case of the juvenile who is criminally liable, it is possible to take a custodial or non-custodial educational measure. When choosing the educational measure, account is taken of the degree of social danger of the deed, the physical condition, the intellectual and moral development, his/her behaviour, the conditions in which the child has been raised and in which it has lived and any other elements capable of characterising the underage child.

In the case of juvenile criminally liable juveniles, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Criminal Code shall apply.

Once the minor arrives in front of the prosecutor, the prosecutor has a number of options depending on the nature of the deed, the manner of its commission, the degree of danger. He/she may abandon the prosecution, this being the first alternative measure to indictment, the first diversion measure, or the case is sent to court, and custodial or non-custodial educational measures are proposed. From this perspective, Romanian legislation is more progressive than others, because it no longer provides for the measure of detention.

The educational measures applicable to the criminally responsible uderage children are non-custodial measures (such as civic apprenticeship, supervision, weekend confinement, daily assistance. Such measures may be accompanied by obligations – not to attend certain places, not to meet certain persons, to follow a certain program) or custodial measures (admission to an educational centre or detention centre).

The educational activities focus on re-educating the minor (as a preventive measure) by appropriate means and his/her reintegration into the family and society. The results of these measures cannot be achieved without family support and therefore one of the recommendations of the survey ” Alternative Diversion Methods for the Juveniles in Romania” is that the link with the family should be one of the priorities of the specialists involved in the reintegration process of minors in conflict with the law.

In the case of the criminally responsible juveniles, the institutions involved are: the police, the prosecutor’s office, the courts of law (in Romania there is one Tribunal for Minors and Families in Brasov), 41 probation services on the national level, 2 educational centres (Buziaş and Târgu Ocna – with around 180 places each) and 2 detention centres (Craiova and Tichileşti – with about 150 places each).

It is important to know that juveniles have procedural guarantees and enjoy a special regime – they have free legal assistance, sessions are not public, participation of a representative of DGASPC at sessions is mandatory, they benefit from the halving of punishment limits and from the non-registration criminal record.

An integrated mechanism of communication and cooperation between all institutions working with juveniles in conflict with the law must be created. A holistic approach that puts the family at the core of attention as a social system should be the dominant theoretical model for these institutions, while the rights of the child and the superior interest of children should remain the basic principles of juvenile justice.

(1)The Project AWAY – „Alternative Ways to Address Youth” seeks to increase public awareness of alternative diversion methods when it comes to dealing with the criminal trial and process and to increase the level of information on the procedural safeguards of EU Directives 2016/800, 2012/13, 2012/29 applicable to minors in conflict with the law.

AWAY is coordinated by the Regional Office for Central and South-Eastern Europe of the Terre des hommes Foundation and implemented by organisations in Europe that are focused on juvenile justice. The project is supported by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme and is active in five countries across Europe: Bulgaria, through the involvement of the Judicial System Development Program (PDSJ), Croatia through Brave Phone Croatia, Romania through Terre des Hommes-Switzerland , Belgium, through Defence for Children International (DCI) and the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), Hungary, under the coordination of the Terre des hommes Regional Office for Central and Southeast Europe (Applicant) and the Global Network for Public Interest Law – PILNET.

The ICARUS movie created within the project.

The ICARUS poster.

ICARUS best practice booklet in EN.