Centre for European Constitutional Law – Tsatsos Foundation and the Society for Social Psychiatry P. Sakellaropoulos successfully organised an online roundtable on Monday, March 30, 2026 on the topic: “Intersection of Civil and Criminal Proceedings: Challenges for Child-Friendly Justice,”.
A total of 38 legal professionals, representatives of public authorities, and child protection professionals participated, indicating the keen interest in and importance of the dialogue on a critical issue for children involved in criminal and civil court proceedings.
The presentations highlighted critical issues such as the establishment of family courts in other European legal frameworks, the need for specialised judges and prosecutors handling cases involving children, interdisciplinary approach and involvement of mental health professionals in court procedures, expert testimony in parallel criminal and civil proceedings and the need for coordination in the best interests of the child, while ensuring the independence and distinct nature and subject matter of the individual proceedings. The topics were examined through existing case law and issues that have emerged in practice.
Special thanks to the outstanding speakers and the event coordinator for their valuable contributions:
- Mr. Ioannis Valmantonis, Judge of the Athens Court of Appeals
- Ms. Anastasia Vezirtzi, Attorney, Ph.D. in Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- Ms. Katerina Angelopoulou, Attorney – LLM, Legal Advisor to SOS Children’s Villages Greece
- Mr. Konstantinos Panagos, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Penology, Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The roundtable was organised as part of the European project FOSTER
– Fostering Child-Friendly Legal Environments through collaborative networks, whose primary objective is to strengthen lawyers’ skills in child-friendly justice, with an emphasis on the effective representation of child victims of criminal acts.
