Social Rights

The decision of the European Committee of Social Rights on the merits in International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) v. Czech Republic, Complaint No. 148/2017, became public on 17 March 2021.

In its complaint, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) alleged that the situation in the Czech Republic amounts to a violation of Article 17, either alone or in light of the non-discrimination clause of the Preamble to the 1961 Charter, on the grounds that the Czech Republic has failed to ensure equal legal protection for and participation of children below the age of criminal responsibility in the pre-trial stage of juvenile justice procedures, and to ensure alternatives to formal trials.

The ICJ claimed that during the pre-trial stage, children below the age of criminal responsibility do not benefit from specific procedural rights such as the right to mandatory legal assistance, the right to access their police file, the right to be served with the final resolution of the police authority in their case or the right to file an appeal against the resolution of the police authority. In addition, the ICJ asserted that children below the age of criminal responsibility are subject to formal trials without any possibility of benefitting from alternatives (diversions).

The European Committee of Social Rights adopted its decision on the merits on 20 October 2020.

In its decision on the merits, the Committee concluded:

• unanimously that there is a violation of Article 17 of the 1961 Charter due to the failure to ensure mandatory legal assistance for children below the age of criminal responsibility in the pretrial stage of proceedings;
• unanimously that there is no violation of Article 17 of the 1961 Charter due to the failure to ensure access to the police file in the pretrial stage of proceedings for children below the age of criminal responsibility;
• unanimously that there is no violation of Article 17 of the 1961 Charter due to the failure to ensure that children below the age of criminal responsibility are served with the final resolution of the police authority in their case and have the right to appeal against that resolution;
• unanimously that there is a violation of Article 17 of the 1961 Charter due to the failure to provide alternatives (diversion) to formal judicial proceedings for children below the age of criminal responsibility.