Procedural Safeguards for Juvenile Suspects in Interrogations: A Look at the Commission's Proposal in Light of an EU Comparative Study
| Author | Michele Panzavolta,Miet Vanderhallen,Dorris De Vocht,Marc Van Oosterhout |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/203228441400500405 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
480 Intersentia
PROCEDURAL SAFEGUARDS FOR JUVENILE
SUSPECTS IN INTERROGATIONS
A Look at the Commission’s Proposal in Light
of an EU Comparative Study
D D V, M P, M V
and M V O*
ABSTRACT
is article discusse s the recent European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on
procedural safeguards for children suspected and accused in criminal proceedings and
the protection that it o ers to juvenile suspects during interrogations. Given the
importance of the interrogations for the outcome of a case and its sensitivity for the
personality of vulnerable susp ects, understanding how the Proposal protects children in
this stage of proceedings seems a required step in th e overall assessment of the quality of
the proposed legislation. e Proposal’s evaluation is conducted in light of the
preliminary ndings of an on-going EU funded research project that the authors are
currently coordinating. A er a critical assessment of the scope and rele vant de nitions
of the Proposal, the attention will tur n to some speci c safeguards related to (pre-trial)
interrogations such as the rig ht to legal assistance, the right to an appropriate a dult and
the right to an individual assessment. By referring to the current legal status quo in a
selection of EU Member States, the article ch allenges some aspects of the Proposal such
as it s relati vely nar row sco pe, the l ack of d e nition s of certain concepts and the fact that
the complexity of the vulnerability of juvenile suspects is not adequately taken into
acco unt by some of the pro posed rule s. With this c ritic al eva luati on and b y emph asizi ng
the importance of taking full account of th e complexity of the matter, the authors hope
* Univers ity of Maa stricht. e authors are c oordinators of the project “Protec ting Young Suspects in
Interrogations: a st udy on safegua rds and best pract ice”. is pr ojec t is fun ded by th e Eu rope an U nion
(JUST/2011-2012/JPEN/AG/2909). e content of this publicat ion is the sole responsibi lity of the
project team and c an in no way be ta ken to re ect t he views of the Europ ean Commis sion. Suggestions
and feedbacks on t he topic of this artic le are welcome at: ysi.maas trichtuniversit y@gmail.com.
Procedural S afeguards for Juveni le Suspects in Interrogat ions
New Journal of Eu ropean Crimina l Law, Vol. 5, Issue 4, 2014 481
to o er a contribution to the future debate and negotiations on how to e ectively
strengthen the protection of juvenil e suspects.
Keywords: juvenile justice; rig ht to a lawyer; right to information; safegu ards; suspect
interrogation
1. INTRODUCTION
As part of a larger package aimed at strengthening the procedural rights of suspec ts
and defendants, the European Commission tabled on 27November 2013 a Proposal
on procedural safegua rds for children suspected or accused in criminal proceedings
(hereina er: the Proposal).1 is Proposal is an i mplementation of ‘measure E’ of the
so-called ‘Roadmap for strengthening procedura l rights’2 and deals w ith the largest
and most important categor y of vulnerable suspects: juveniles. It does not address t he
topic of adult vulnerable defendants, which i s covered by a separate recommendation,
accompanying the Proposa l.3
With this Proposal the Commission pursues two goa ls. On the one hand, it aims
at ensuring a more homogeneous protection of children’s rights within t he European
Union (hereina er: EU) with a view to improving mutual recognition and judicial
cooperation.4 On the other hand, the Commission intends to promote greater
protection of the rights of child ren in criminal proceedings , particularly duri ng those
phases where they are more exposed to the risk of harm, undue su ering or to
detrimental consequence s for the outcome of their ca se. e Proposal covers s ome of
the most signi cant rights of juvenile suspects and defendants during criminal
proceedings such as the right to be informed of procedural r ights, the right to be
assisted by an appropriate adult and a law yer, the right to an individual assessment
and an appropriate treatment, the protect ion of privacy, the right to liberty and the
right to be present in person at tria l.
e discussion on procedural rights for juvenile suspects and defendants must
take international legislation into account. ere are various supranational norms
1 European Commis sion, “Proposal for a Direc tive of the European Parliament a nd the Council on
procedural s afeguards for c hildren suspe cted or accuse d in crimina l proceedin gs”, COM (2013) 822/2.
As a result of a DROIPEN meet ing on 5May 2014 the text of the Proposa l was amended on several
points. See for th e changed text: C ouncil of the Europe an Union, “Proposal for a Di rective of the
European Parl iament and the Council on pro cedural safegua rds for children or accuse d in criminal
proceedings – G eneral approach” (2013/0408 (COD)), Brussels, 12 May 2014. is contribut ion was
nalised be fore the adoption of these cha nges and therefore refers to t he original tex t of the Proposal.
2 Resolution of the Counci l of 30November 2009 on a Roadmap for s trengthening pro cedural rights
of suspected or acc used persons in cri minal proceedi ng [2009] OJ C295/01.
3 European Commis sion, “Commission Recommendation on pro cedural safeguard s for vulnerable
persons suspec ted or accused in cri minal proceed ings”, C (2013) 8178/2.
4 As provided by Article82 Treat y on the Functioning of t he European Union.
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