Justice in Zurich: a milestone for children's rights
On 20 May 2025 at the Walcheturm media centre, a significant milestone was achieved for children's rights within the Zurich justice system. The Department of Justice and Home Affairs of the Canton of Zurich presented a clear message in favour of child-friendly procedures and processes with the comprehensive report on a child-friendly justice in the Canton of Zurich («Kindgerechte Zürcher Justiz»). Cantonal Councillor Jacqueline Fehr, chief juvenile prosecutor Roland Zurkirchen and our CEO Irène Inderbitzin outlined the most important findings and put forward the ambitious goals set out in the report.
Cantonal Councillor Jacqueline Fehr opened the press conference with a clear appeal: promoting participation, protecting children, reinforcing children's rights and devising child-friendly judicial proceedings are top priorities. The forward-looking “Child-friendly Justice” project was launched back in 2021. Four years later, the present report not only documents the progress made but also unambiguously identifies the challenges that remain. Central to this is the social participation of everyone: «Our declared goal is that all people in our society – and this applies especially to children – are taken seriously and feel they are being heard», Fehr emphasised. For the relevant authorities, this means being particularly attentive to vulnerable individuals, such as children, who often face major challenges. Judicial proceedings always represent such a challenge – regardless of whether a child is involved in a highly contentious divorce process or in criminal proceedings as a defendant, victim, witness or relative.
Progress and challenges in detail
Cantonal Councillor Fehr went on to explain the concrete progress towards a more child-friendly justice system. These positive developments have taken place in five key departmental units. At the same time, she pointed out the remaining challenges to be addressed in the coming years. Here is a detailed overview from her report:
- Public prosecutor: sensitive questioning becomes standard
- Progress: The public prosecutor provides children with a protected environment in which to make their statements. They are supported by qualified specialists in a professional manner.
- Challenge: A central challenge remains completing proceedings swiftly and efficiently despite often complex circumstances and a high case load.
- Juvenile justice system: active participation and successful mediation
- Progress: Chief juvenile prosecutor Roland Zurkirchen highlighted that proceedings within the juvenile justice system are designed to be understandable to young people and to actively involve them in the process. The mediation procedure proves particularly valuable as it enables genuine participation.
- Next step: A promising pilot project to introduce a child-friendly feedback system is currently in progress.
- Correctional system: visiting arrangements significantly improved
- Progress: Children of incarcerated parents now benefit from significantly extended visiting hours. In addition, child-friendly facilities with diverse play opportunities have been created.
- Accompanying measure: Trained staff are attentive in accompanying visits in order to effectively prevent potential traumatisation.
- Municipal office (Child and Adult Protection Authority – CAPA): more prominent involvement of children
- Progress: The Child and Adult Protection Authority (CAPA) involves children more actively in important decisions and informs them about their rights in understandable language.
- Impact: These measures strengthen children's self-efficacy and contribute significantly to their protection.
- Cantonal victim support office: low-threshold and barrier-free access to help
- Progress: Psychological and legal support for children who have become victims of crime is now considerably easier to access and has been designed to be barrier-free.
The economic significance of child-friendly justice
During the press conference, our CEO, Irène Inderbitzin, emphasised the immense importance of the consistent implementation of children's rights in the canton of Zurich and throughout Switzerland. She offered a heartfelt thanks to the Canton for its great commitment in this important area. Although Switzerland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child back in 1997, children are still not always sufficiently heard and involved in decision-making processes, she explained.
For the media present, Irène Inderbitzin outlined the important role of the independent Ombuds Office. It informs children about their rights and acts as an intermediary in exchanges between children and professionals. It actively supports them in difficult life situations. She also addressed the current situation the Ombuds Office finds itself in: at present, it operates as a model project funded by charitable foundations, the federal government and individual cantons like Zurich. However, the goal is to establish a national, public-law solution to ensure independence and sustainability in the long term.
Another important point that Irène Inderbitzin highlighted was the clear financial benefits of an early-intervening Ombuds Office. According to the well-founded impact analysis by INTERFACE Politikstudien Forschung Beratung (which we have already reported on in our blog), the Ombuds Office's advisory and intermediary activities result in an impressive average saving of 170,000 Swiss francs per child. This means that, if the desired impact is achieved with a minimum of just six children and young people, the benefits offset the investment in the Ombuds Office of 1 million Swiss francs per year. Six children correspond to just 2% of the children and young people reached by the Ombuds Office in 2023. Our legal advisory and intermediary activities have positively impacted over 1,200 family situations since 2021. Furthermore, our estimates suggest that, through our work and the scaling effects seen with professionals who go on to contribute to upholding children's rights through their activities, we have positively influenced the lives of over 100,000 children.
To ensure the sustainable development of child-friendly justice, the Ombuds Office will in future annually review the progress of Zurich's justice system and issue concrete, implementation-oriented recommendations for further optimisation. The aim here is to continuously increase the quality of the child-friendly measures introduced.
A significant milestone for Zurich – a continuous path forward
In conclusion, Cantonal Councillor Jacqueline Fehr emphasised once again that Zurich is taking an important pioneering role in Switzerland with the consistent implementation of child-friendly justice. At the same time, she made it clear: «We have not yet reached the goal of our efforts».
The continuous and high-quality further training of the professionals involved, improved and more efficient networking between the various authorities involved and the acceleration of procedural processes remain central challenges that we must continue to address in the coming years as part of intensive efforts.
