Juvenile Victims as the Participants of the Criminal Proceeding

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of the juveniles rights and interests protection in the judicial proceedings. In the focus of attention is the analysis of the criminal proceeding status of the juveniles, representing a special social group, which implies both legal restrictions and introducing additional legal tools of protecting rights and legal interests of such individuals. The practice of using the criminal proceeding code in Ukraine revealed the need to improve several provisions of the Criminal Code relating to the protection of rights and interests of juveniles. The emphasis is laid on the proposals relating to: the improvement of the system of guarantees for protection of the rights and interests of juvenile victims at the stage of case hearing; mandatory representation of victim under eighteen in the court by a person who, according to the criminal proceeding, has the right to be a defender; possibility to adopt the decision to transfer to separate proceeding the juvenile victim case and possibility to exercise closed court hearing.