With over 15 years of dedicated experience in advocating for access to justice for children, within various UN bodies, European institutions, and global NGOs, I bring a a lot of valuable expertise. I’m an active member of the Child-friendly Justice European Network (CFJ-EN) and currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Youth Criminology, showcasing my commitment to advancing children’s access to justice.
My research, at academic and professional level, focuses on identifying and removing barriers hindering access to justice for children, either victims, suspects, accused, or convicted of a crime. I strive to identifying and promoting practices that ensure just and equitable access to justice and remedies for all children. This includes individual assessments, integrated child protection, age-appropriate information, legal assistance, restorative justice, and child-centered procedures.
-
PhD on diversion practices in child justice systems across Europe
My PhD research aims to explore in depth and systematically the gaps that exist between the normative ‘description’ of diversion and its reality in practice, shedding a light on what diversion is, as opposed to what it should be.
-
UNODC – Global Programme to End Violence against Children
September 2022- ongoing | I provided support in the implementation of the EU-UNODC Strive Juvenile Project in Nigeria and carried out a technical assistance needs assessment on child justice in Punjab, Pakistan.
-
MOSAIC: Monitoring safety of children in detention in the EU
2023 – I lead the European research and analysis activities aimed at mapping the current situation of data collection on violence against children (VAC) in criminal justice detention facilities for children in EU member states, identifying good practices as well as structural problems gaps, needs and barriers in existing data…
-
CoE – Improving the child justice system in Slovenia
2022- 2023 | I collaborate as a child justice international expert, providing research, technical and methodological advice, and co-drafted the methodology for the Comparative study of European standards and promising practices with targeted recommendations for the Slovenian context, as well as the questionnaire to collect promising practices among CoE member…
-
UNICEF Georgia – International Conference on Restorative Justice
October 2023 | I joined the International Conference on the Role of Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters to share my expertise and to present on the main findings of my PhD research on diversion across Europe
-
Towards LGBTI+ sensitive justice system for children in Europe
2022 | For CFJ-EN I led the research and drafted the challenge paper “Towards LGBTI+ sensitive justice system for children in Europe”, a Glossary of terms and an Executive Summary, as well as contribute to their presentation and dissemination, joining the related events as speaker and moderator.
-
i-RESTORE 2.0: Accessible Quality Restorative Justice processes for children in contact with the law in Europe
2012-2023 | Coordination, communication and administration tasks for the EFRJ. I compiled a training manual for multidisciplinary professionals on basic and advanced skills on restorative justice with children; and coordinated the drafting of a train-the-trainer manual for professionals on how to conduct training on restorative justice with children.
-
Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption
2023 | For the OSCE project “Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption”, I conducted a needs assessment study on youth crime prevention in Moldova, including development of the research methodology and data collection tools, desk…
-
CLEAR-RIGHTS: ENHANCING LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW IN EUROPE
As Terre des hommes in-house consultant, I provided technical guidance and quality assurance for methodology, review of practices of legal aids in Europe, and the development of a child-led digital legal assessment tool. T
-
FOCUS ON MY NEEDS: WORKING TOGETHER FOR CHILDREN IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
2020-2022 | As Terre des hommes in-house consultant, I supported the FOCUS core team of experts to provide technical guidance and quality assurance for the research and capacity building activities.
-
PROGRAMME“ENFANCE SANS BARREAUX” (2018 – 2021) IN WESTERN AFRICA
December 2021 I provided expertise on restorative justice with children for the evaluation of the second phase of the programme“Enfance sans Barreaux” (2018 – 2021) in Western Africa and drafted an in-depth note to the technical evaluation report, on restorative justice with children with key recommendations for the next phase of the programme.
-
I-RESTORE: PROTECTING CHILD VICTIMS THROUGH RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
2019-2021 | As independent consultant on child justice, I was member of the Restorative Justice Advisory Board, that provides feedback on the materials produced and ensure quality throughout. I provided feedback on the methodology used for the European research and on the training handbook and materials developed by the experts from…
-
TRAINING TRAINERS IN MEDIATION AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE – THE TOOLKIT OF THE ERASMUS+ PROJECT MEDIAREJ
I co-authored the article in the toolkit on “Restorative justice with children and young people in relation to criminal behaviour“. This toolkit is a collection of articles that focus on different areas of application for mediation and restorative justice and that present each area with practical implications and suggestions aimed at supporting…
-
PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH ON RESTORATIVE JUSTICE WITH CHILDREN
2018-2020 | As lead consultant in a team of researchers, I harmonised and consolidated data on diversion and restorative justice with child offenders, collected from six African countries: Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia and Kenya.
-
UN GLOBAL STUDY ON CHILDREN DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY
2018- 2019 | I was part of the team leading the research and drafting of chapter 5 – Children deprived of liberty in the Administration of Justice for the UN Global Study on children deprived of liberty.
-
AWAY: ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO ADDRESS YOUTH
2017 – 2019 | The EU funded project AWAY aimed to ensure that multidisciplinary professionals are more aware and better equipped concerning diversion for arrested/suspected children. As an independent consultant for Terre des hommes, I compiled and drafted the final report of the project.
-
Advancing Defence Children Rights
2017-2018 | Coordination of the project for IJJO; contributing to the “Advancing the Defence Rights of Children Manual for Practitioners”
-
The prevention of Juvenile Radicalisation:promoting the use to alternatives to detention
2017-2018 | Coordination of the project for IJJO; co-authoring the manual “Prevention of Juvenile radicalisation”
-
STRENGTHENING HUMAN RIGHTS IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES IN KENYA
2012-2016 I conducted research on human rights in the criminal justice and correctional system in Kenya using primary data – collected through direct observation and face to face semistructured interviews to inmates and prisons’ officers – and secondary data gathered from desk review of the legal framework, statistics, reports from state and non-state actors who…
-
Improving Kenya Juvenile Justice System
2014-2016 | Project coordination, human resources management, monitoring and reporting, communication and fundraising tasks for the overall Child Protection Programme; contributed to the publication “Guidelines Manual on Juvenile Justice Practices”
-
KEEPING YOUTH AWAY FROM CRIME: SEARCHING FOR BEST EUROPEAN PRACTICES
2013- 2015 | As independent research consultant for IJJO, I contributed to the European study of good practices collected from Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, Italy, Scotland, Sweden, in the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
-
Child friendly justice – Perspectives and experiences of children involved in judicial proceedings as victims, witnesses or parties in nine eU member states
2013 | As a research assistant in the Rights of the Child Team at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, I had the privilege to support the research for the child-friendly Justice project and the report about the perspectives of professionals.
-
RESEARCH ON SCHOOL BULLYING AND ON ORGANISED CRIME
2008-2010 | At the Transcrime Research Centre at the Università Cattolica, in Milan, as research assistant, I contributed to the research projects: “Bullying: between reality and social representation” and “Criminal geography of public contracts: the organised crime’s infiltrations in public tenders in Southern Italy”.
Silvia Randazzo consulting 