Child’s Say: Integrating Children’s Voices in Custody Decision-Making

2026-07-22

CHILDSay is a pioneering, systemic intervention designed to embed children’s rights at the heart of Greek civil justice. The project brings together a powerful coalition of institutional actors—including the Ministry of Justice, the National School of the Judiciary, the Deputy Ombudswoman for Children’s Rights, local Bar Associations, and Social Services—to drive a lasting transformation toward a child-friendly system that meaningfully listens to and acts on children’s views, bringing policy- and decision-making in custody cases in full alignment with international and European standards. What makes CHILDSay stand out is its deep integration of child participation, not only as a principle but as a governing mechanism. Through the establishment of a Child Advisory Board and the implementation of participatory, rights-based research and assessment tools—including Child Rights Impact Evaluation (CRIE) and Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA)—the project operationalises key principles of children’s rights in an, often-overlooked by public policy, area. In addition to children, the project directly involves all critical actors in custody proceedings, including lawyers, judges, social workers, forensic experts, and parents in policy design, assessment and evaluation; institutional capacity building and training of professionals; cross-sectoral dialogue and policy building; awareness-raising and sensitisation. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive, testable and transferable framework that aspires to become good practice in its area of intervention and positively impact child-friendly justice in the EU. CHILDSay stands out as a targeted, holistic intervention that approaches an often-overlooked topic in public policy in an innovative, compassionate, yet practical way. It delivers the tools to uphold children’s best interests, actively combats gender stereotypes on parental responsibility and care, and mainstreams children’s rights into Justice-related policy.

Greece

2026-01-01