On 29 October 2024, Irish judges of the District Court and representatives from the Irish Department of Justice, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), and the Courts Service attended a workshop on how the Barnahus model can be implemented in both adversarial and continental systems. The workshop was organised as part of the joint European Union-Council of Europe “Supporting the implementation of the Barnahus in Ireland” project and included presentations from three judges: Ms Elena Efrem, Judge of the Supreme Court of Cyprus, Coordinator for Monitoring the EU’s Strategy on the Rights of Victims and Trainer at the Cyprus Judicial School, Ms Lana Peto Kujundžić, Judge of the High Criminal Court of the Republic of Croatia, and Lord Beckett, Inner House (appeal) Judge of the Court of Session (the Supreme Courts of Scotland).

The workshop started with a presentation on international and European standards on Barnahus and child-friendly justice, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention, 2007), and the Council of Europe Guidelines on Child-friendly Justice  (2010). The workshop continued with presentations on the implementation of the Barnahus model in Cyprus, Scotland, and Croatia, followed by discussions amongst the Irish participants and the visiting judges on the challenges and opportunities of implementing child-friendly measures in a common Law system.

The workshop offered a space to exchange good practices on how to improve justice systems to ensure the best interests of the child and how to avoid re-victimisation.