The Senior Court of Arrecife has prepared a Guide to good practices in dealing with children, which is aimed at the courts of the judicial district of Arrecife, although with the intention of being taken as a reference in its operation, by the remaining bodies based in the judicial building.
With this initiative, in compliance with national and international regulations on the matter and following the example of other senior courts such as that of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the courts of Lanzarote are joining the promotion of various actions aimed at establishing a model of good practices with minors who have to go to court.
The guide pronounces on the management and form of use of the means provided by the Ministry of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, such as the Gesell room and the children's waiting room that the Arrecife judicial building now has.
The Gesell room consists of two rooms separated by a wall that has a glass that allows the vision and hearing of what happens in one of them from the other, but not the other way around. It is a room that improves the protection and privacy of victims, as it is specially designed for cases involving minors. It enables "an environment of privacy that avoids secondary victimization, the loss of evidence and the negative consequences that this entails for especially vulnerable people, such as minors", as stated by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
Their testimony is now collected "with the appropriate tranquility, serenity and protection, modulating their interrogation before the judge or the public prosecutor in the terms provided for in the Victim's Statute, avoiding the emotional impact involved, as well as the traumatizing effect of the memory aggravated by the visual confrontation with the persons under investigation, accused, prosecuted or charged".
Equipped with a recording system and guaranteeing the possibility of interventions telematically or by videoconference, its design and configuration has taken into account the evolution of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court regarding the exploration of minors.
It facilitates that their testimony is used as pre-constituted evidence, or, if the court so deems, as anticipated evidence, avoiding the "pernicious effects" of successive appearances in the court or tribunal, the visual confrontation and guaranteeing at the same time the judicial presence and control, the principle of contradiction and the right of defense.
For its part, the children's waiting room available in the judicial building of Arrecife has been built evaluating its impact on children. It has been adapted (through its adapted decoration or provision of toys) to guarantee the rights of minors and allow them to feel in a welcoming and safe environment when they have to go to court and while they wait to be attended to.
Avoid visual confrontation
The guide prepared by the Senior Court of Arrecife also has an action protocol for the case of victims or minor witnesses who go to the courts of instruction and criminal courts, promoting the guidelines for receiving minors in judicial dependencies that begin from the arrival at the judicial headquarters and include their accompaniment by personnel inside the headquarters, enabling their immediate passage, without undergoing security controls, avoiding any possibility of visual confrontation between the parties, being accompanied to the appropriate waiting room (a welcoming and safe environment) and thus be able to address with better prospects the practice of diligence to the minor victim of the crime or witness.
The principles of action also extend to the remaining cases in which minors go to the judicial headquarters, either before criminal courts or civil or labor courts, where the use of the children's waiting room is promoted.
All of the above, with a commitment by the Senior Court of Arrecife, always from respect for the independence and jurisdictional power of the judges/magistrates, to monitor the application of the guide and attention to proposals for improvement that come from the different operators involved in the public service of justice, achieving among all an improvement in the quality of the same and the necessary protection and treatment due to minors.
The guide is one of the projects in which the Senior Court of Arrecife has been working in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, along with others already in force such as the implementation of the Public Family Meeting Point of Arrecife or the upcoming activation in the Family Courts of Lanzarote of the public family mediation service by judicial referral.
