European and EU Standards of Rights and Protection of Child Victims of Crime and Their Implementation in the Polish Criminal Process Through Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure in 2020–2023
Abstract
The basic assumption of the article is to examine to what extent the latest amendments to the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) are in line with international standards of rights and protection of child victims of crime. It should be noted that between 2020 and 2023, the Polish justice system has undergone significant evolution in this area, striving to meet the standards of child-friendly justice specified by legal acts of the Council of Europe and European Union legislation. The following acts were of particular importance here: of 13 January 2023, 7 July 2023, 27 July 2023 amending the provisions of CCP introducing, among others, the institution of individual assessment of the needs of victims (Article 52a), the legal representative of a minor victim (Article 51 § 2a) and amending the procedures for interviewing minor victims and witnesses specified in Articles 185a–185c and f of the Polish CCP. All these amendments will be assessed in the context of the standards set by the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against sexual exploitation of 25 October 2007 and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence of 11 May 2011. Regarding EU standards, it is necessary to examine the standards of rights and protection of child victims of crime contained in Directive 2011/93/EU of 13 December 2011 on combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and Directive 2012/29/EU of 25 October 2012 on minimum standards of protection, rights and support for victims of crime and the draft amendments to this directive of 23 July 2023. This article highlights the most important of the Polish CCP changes in 2020–2023 and presents the current state of implementation of the above mentioned European and EU standards into Polish criminal procedure.
Keywords:
European and EU standards, child victim, procedural rights, protection, Polish Code of Criminal ProcedureSupporting Agencies:
The article is financially supported by the Polish Minister of Science under the „Regional Initiative of Excellence” (RID) programme.References
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