EU ACCESSION NEGOTIATIONS OF SERBIA AS A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION OF CHILD VICTIMS

Although the Serbian juvenile justice system used to be among the pioneers to introduce the most progressive approaches to addressing the specific needs of juveniles in contact with law 20 years ago, it hasn’t been continuously improved in line with the contemporary international standards in this field, especially when it comes to the position of child victims. The reforms already implemented in the justice system showed that the process of the accession negotiations to EU appears to be the most powerful pushing mechanism for the reform processes. Considering this, this paper analyses Chapter 23 requirements as the framework for further improvement of the position of child victims in the criminal justice system. It sheds light to recent achievements, the ongoing efforts, but also the remaining challenges, both from the perspective of the legislative reform, but also in terms of the capacities for efficient implementation of the legal provisions.