E-ViVi webinar “A guidance for interviews with child suspects” 27.04.2026
Join this expert webinar to review and shape draft European guidance on interviewing child suspects, addressing their unique position at the intersection of fair trial rights, developmental vulnerability, and child protection within criminal justice processes.
- Criminal justice
- Event
- Exploitation of adolescents and children
- Victims of crime
The Barnahus Network and The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI), in collaboration with the Implemendez project, invite you to this webinar workshop to review a draft guidance for investigative interviews with child suspects. Child suspects occupy a uniquely vulnerable and legally sensitive position.
They are simultaneously:
- Holders of strong fair trial rights, including the right to silence and protection against self-incrimination;
- Developmentally vulnerable individuals at heightened risk of coercion, misunderstanding, and false confessions and with developing decision-making capacities, including possibly being coerced into committing the crime they are suspected of;
- Potentially in need of protection, welfare intervention, or therapeutic support;
- Required to take part in a criminal justice process which often mostly follow adult-oriented procedures.
This webinar will examine best-practice interviewing in the context of child suspects. This guidance has emerged also from networking activity of members from COST Action CA22128 (ImpleMéndez), supported by European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) and recommendations of best practice for interviewing child victims and witnesses. However, applying these recommendations requires careful consideration of the particular vulnerabilities of the group in questions, for instance:
- Tensions between rapport-building and social support vs preventing coercion;
- How to reconcile “accuracy” ground rules with the right not to self-incriminate;
- National practices;
- To what extent guidance for child suspects should differ structurally from victim protocols.
The discussions on the above will inform the drafting of a guidance for interviewing child suspects, to ensure it takes into consideration current law and practice, and can be adapted for use throughout Europe.
Date and time: 27 April 2026 at 10:00 CET to 12:00 CET