The Council of Europe Project “Protecting the rights of Ukrainian children and ensuring child-friendly justice” in cooperation with the Coordination Centre for Free Legal Aid organised the second Specialised training programme of mediators “Mediation in restorative justice involving minors” developed by the team of international and national experts of the Council of Europe in 2024. This training programme consists of 17 training sessions (at least 70 learning hours) and lasts from October 15 till December 4, 2025.

The methodology of the programme combines face-to-face and online work, the use of digital tools, as well as various formats of group and individual work, that ensures interactive and effective training aimed at deep assimilation of new knowledge and the development of professional competencies of mediators.

The face-to-face training session for the Specialised training programme of mediators was held from 17 November to 20 November 2025.

The training programme is being attended by 29 mediators who intend to cooperate with the free legal aid system, as well as mediators included in the Register of Mediators. The goal is provision of mediation services to resolve the conflict in criminal proceedings between the victim and the juvenile suspect (accused).

In the framework of the training programme, mediators undergo a mandatory confirmation of the acquired competencies (knowledge assessment). Based on the results, the Coordination Centre will decide on issuing a certificate of Specialised training programme to the mediator in accordance with the requirements of Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine "On Mediation".

The Council of Europe Project “Protecting the rights of Ukrainian children and ensuring child-friendly justice” is implemented by the Council of Europe within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine "Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction" for 2023-2026.