Our Action aims to create a transnational platform to raise awareness and develop knowledge and tools to address the human rights challenges stemming from the lack of policies and appropriate language assessments for young people involved in justice services. The Action will provide a roadmap to identify the language needs of children in contact with the law across Europe and beyond, develop a blueprint for assessment tools that measure language abilities, and raise awareness among stakeholders (health professionals, police, legal and criminology professionals, educators, and children’s services) about the importance of early identification.

The Action will also make evidence-based recommendations on linguistic structures used in justice systems that create comprehension barriers for young people, and will highlight critical points in the justice process where language abilities must be assessed.