What is the project?

The European Union - Council of Europe Joint Project “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff" aims to support the Slovenian authorities in their efforts to improve the juvenile justice and penitentiary systems in line with the latest European and international standards and good practices. 

The project responds to the objectives set in the 2020 European Semester Country Report for Slovenia through country-specific recommendations in relation to improving the efficiency and the quality of justice, including by reducing the backlog in criminal courts and the average length of time of criminal proceedings.

The project consists of two components and is implemented transversally and jointly by the Council of Europe's Children's Rights Division, Directorate General of Democracy (Component I), and by the Law Co-operation Unit, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law (Component II):

  • Component I: reform of the juvenile justice system - aims at supporting the Slovenian authorities to pursue a comprehensive review of the national legal framework on juvenile justice, in order to harmonise it with the latest European and international standards and good practices.
  • Component II: reform of the penitentiary system and human resources of penitentiary staff - aims at improving the penitentiary system through enhanced training capacities of the prison administration and better human resources policy applied to the prison staff by the Slovenian Prison Administration.

The project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission, over a period of 28 months (1 September 2021 - 31 December 2023).

 Project news

 What do we aim to achieve?

Strengthening of legal and policy frameworks

Research and gap analysis report

The project will support the preparation of a comprehensive report to identify any gaps in the current juvenile justice system in order to adapt it to the needs of juveniles, including vulnerable juveniles (e.g. those with mental health problems, emotional and behavioural problems and mental development problems).

Analysis report of the juvenile justice case-law

The project will conduct a separate and in-depth analysis of relevant court cases and practices in the field of juvenile justice. The focus will be on juvenile offenders. This analysis will be carried out with a view to identifying solutions to the gaps identified in the analysis conducted at the beginning of the project (gap analysis).

Comparative study of European standards and promising practices

The project will conduct a comparative analysis of legal provisions and their implementation in other European countries. The research will examine the different experiences and challenges in comparable systems, especially with regard to measures and sanctions for juvenile offenders, and will formulate targeted recommendations for the Slovenian juvenile justice system. To this end, visits will be organised to several European countries.

Recommendations and roadmap for their implementation

The different studies and analyses that will be carried out throughout the project will allow the formulation of recommendations for solutions at normative, policy and operational levels. These recommendations and the roadmap for their implementation will focus on the functioning of juvenile justice infrastructures and institutions, as well as on the existing needs in the field of training and capacity building of justice professionals and competent administrations and authorities.

Capacity building

Training and capacity building sessions and workshops will be conducted by local and international experts in the field. These will focus on European standards, instruments and practices in terms of juvenile justice and children's rights and will include peer-to-peer training. They will aim to support the formulation of the project recommendations and their implementation.

 What are the main project deliverables?

National Research and Gap Analysis (English)

International Research and Gap Analysis (English and Slovenian)

Case Law analysis (English and Slovenian)

Comparative Study of European Standards and promising practices (English and Slovenian)

Roadmap for the implementation of recommendations (English and Slovenian)

 Who will benefit from the project?

  • The Directorate for Criminal Law and Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia;
  • Justice professionals;
  • Children in conflict with the law and society at large (or general public) as final beneficiaries.

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