Study on children's involvement in judicial proceedings : contextual overview for the criminal justice phase : Hungary

In Hungary specialised prosecutors and judges deal with cases involving children defendants. However there is no specialised court or prosecution service dealing exclusively with cases involving children. Police officers who deal with children as victims, witnesses and defendants do not receive specialised training. In accordance with the current Criminal Code (see above for information on July 2013 changes), the minimum age of criminal liability is 14 years. Children who are less than 14 years old at the time of the commission of the crime can be subject to child protection measures imposed by the Guardian's Court. Children who are at least 14 years old, but not more than 18 years old on the day of the commission of the crime are considered as children under Hungarian law. Most of the specific measures that protect child suspects and defendants are set out in Chapter 7 of the Criminal Code and Chapter 21 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Rules specific to child victims and witnesses are not contained in separate chapters, but can be found in different chapters of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. The Hungarian system provides protected status to children regardless of their role in the criminal proceedings. The effective functioning of the current system is hindered in that children are not always provided with a sufficient level of information about their rights and obligations. It is also a weakness that police officers involved in the interrogation of children do not possess specialised knowledge.