MiRI - Minor's Right to Information in EU civil actions

 

      

 

Minor’s Right to Information in civil actions (MiRI) – Improving children’s right to information in cross-border civil cases

Project co-funded by the European Union Justice Programme 2014-2020, JUST-JCOO-AG-2018, under Grant Agreement No 831608.

 

 

Participants

University of Genoa, Coordinator (Scientific Responsible Prof. Ilaria Queirolo); Universitat De Valencia; Institute of Private International Law Sofia; Sia Biznesa Augstskola Turiba (Latvia); Defence for Children International Italy; European Association For Family And Succession Law.

Duration: 1.1.2020 – 31.12.2021 (24 months)

 

The child’s fundamental right to participate and express his/her views in proceedings concerning him/her is one of the guiding principles of the 1989 United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (as stated in art. 12), and it consists in one of the main preconditions to ensure that the child’s best interests are taken in primary considerations in all cases concerning them. The right of children to be heard in legal proceedings is also granted by the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights (ECHR), as incorporated into art. 8 according to the interpretation given by the European Court of Human Rights. Accordingly, the same principles are contained in art. 24 of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, on the basis of which EU regulations, as Regulation (EC) No. 2201/2003, have explicitly stated that a child is to be given the opportunity to be heard in legal proceedings.

However, the child’s fundamental right to participate and express his/her views in the aforementioned proceedings cannot be effectively exercised (either directly or indirectly) if the child does not receive adequate knowledge and support. While EU regulations in matters of parental responsibility and other related matters introduced some important procedural changes that impact upon children involved in family proceedings, the very same instruments did not impose any change to domestic child consultation procedures. Whereas tools and practices diverge in different Member States to comply with local and international obligations, uniform EU law requires a shared approach to the matter, to ensure that EU law is consistency applied in all Member States.

The Project aims at identifying national current practices regarding the right of the child to be informed in civil proceedings, so as to identify common best practices and create guidelines that might or should be applied in all EU Member States, also with the objective of harmonizing and integrating their national systems, both form a procedural and substantive perspective, as much as possible.

This webpage hosts the e-deliverables of the project, which will be freely accessible online.

 

In particular, this webpage hosts the database of domestic provisions, case law, best practices, and case studies.

Click here to visit the MiRI database: Database. To enter the database as guest and access all decisions, use the following password: miri (you may simply copy and paste it). Once you access the database, you will see some instructions and access all decisions, or be able to “search” through the collected data using different keywords and label entries.
To access the Database, you can also go on https://2020.aulaweb.unige.it/ > type 'MiRI Database' in the search bar > insert the password 'miri’ and enjoy the content.

 

Main activities and deliverables:

1) Collection of relevant domestic and supranational provisions, case law and practices. Development of National Reports on Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Bulgaria. Development of a specific report dedicated to social workers and psychosocial practitioners in Italy.

Consult the document section at the bottom of this page to find out the National Reports.

 

2) Organization of best practices exchange conferences: n. 5 at local level in Italy (Defence for Children and Unige), Bulgaria, Spain, and Latvia; n. 1 final event at the international level (EFL).

All conferences’ materials are available in the document section at the bottom of this page.

 

*Local exchange conference in Italy (online) - TEORIA E PRASSI DELLA PROCEDURA CIVILE INTERNAZIONALE DI DERIVAZIONE EUROPEA: LA RICOMPOSIZIONE ED IL COORDINAMENTO DI UN QUADRO NORMATIVO “FALSAMENTE UNITARIO”

29 January, 5 and 12 February 2021

* Local exchange conference in Italy for social workers and psychosocial practitioners (online) - IL DIRITTO DEL MINORENNE AD ESSERE INFORMATO NELL’AMBITO DEI PROCEDIMENTI CIVILI

25 and 26 February 2021

*Local exchange conference in Spain (online) - NUEVOS DESAFÍOS Y OPORTUNIDADES DE LOS DERECHOS DEL MENOR EN ASUNTOS TRANSFRONTERIZOS

28 January 2021

* Local exchange conference in Bulgaria (online) - ПРАВО НА ДЕТЕТО НА ИНФОРМАЦИЯ ПО ВЪТРЕШНИ И МЕЖДУНАРОДНИ ГРАЖДАНСКИ СЛУЧАИ

29 January 2021

* Local exchange conference in Latvia (online) - “BĒRNU TIESĪBAS UZ INFORMĀCIJU LIETĀS, KAS SKAR BĒRNU INTERESES

19 February 2021, h. 10.00 – 13.00

 

3) MiRI final conference (online) – 17 and 18 June 2021

Conference programme with link for subscriptions: click here

Conference’s materials are available in the document section at the bottom of this page.

4) *NEW* - the Guidelines on cross-border best practices on children’s right to information in cross-border civil proceedings are now available!

Click below to find:

·      The Guidelines on the right of the child to information - English version with comments

·      The Guidelines on the right of the child to information - MULTILINGUAL version

·      Children’s Right to Information in EU Civil Actions – Improving Children’s Right to Information in Cross-Border Civil Cases
This is the final publication of the project (open access) with national reports and commented Guidelines.

 

Additional events and dissemination:

·      Child participation between past research results and new perspectives: the VOICE project and the MiRI project (17 December 2020)
Presentation at the online expert seminar series “New rules for international families –revised Brussels II-ter regime

·      Dialogare con i bambini nella crisi della famiglia – La partecipazione dei minori al percorso di mediazione e al processo civile (9 October 2021)
Event in collaboration with “Il Metalogo – Scuola Genovese di Mediazione e Consuelling Sistemico”
Click here for the programme and seminar’s materials

·      Presentazione del Progetto MIRI - Norme internazionali e nazionali sull’ascolto minore e diritto all’informazione sui procedimenti che lo riguardano, con analisi della posizione CEDU (29 October 2021)
Presentation at the AIAF Lombardia seminar “L’avvocato a misura di bambino
Click here for the programme and presentation’s materials

·      Conference “Il diritto fondamentale all’ascolto del minore nei procedimenti civili a carattere transfrontaliero” (University of Genoa, 10 November 2021)
Click here for the programme and conference’s materials

·      EU diplomacy and children’s rights: the dialogue with regional and global organizations for the promotion of a child-friendly justice (19 November 2021), within the EUDIPLO Jean Monnet Doctoral Workshop “The Law and Practice of EU Diplomacy in Regional and Global Organizations”
Click here for the programme and the presentation’s materials

·      Le controversie familiari transfrontaliere: profili giuridici e mediazione (17 December 2021), event organized by the University of Genoa within the CODEMAL project
Click here for the presentations’ materials

 

 

 
Disclaimer excluding Commission responsibility

The content of the MiRI Project (JUST-JCOO-AG-2018-831608), and its deliverables, amongst which this webpage, represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

Ultimo aggiornamento 28 Febbraio 2022