The formation and functioning of the institution of the ombudsman for children in the context of the juvenilisation of constitutional law

The article examines topical issues of constitutional law and constitutionalism in terms of ensuring children’s rights. It is noted that children’s rights occupy an important place among fundamental constitutional values at the current stage of constitutionalism development. It is argued that the issues of juvenile policy, the establishment of juvenile justice and the functioning of the state in the field of child rights protection are of particular importance in today’s world. Under the influence of this, the modern constitutions of most countries have recently begun to comprehensively enshrine not only children’s rights, but also the general principles of juvenile policy. The emergence of constitutional provisions on children’s rights and the constitutionalisation of their legal capacity, including in terms of future generations from the perspective of ecology, economics, digitalisation, medicine, bioethics, etc., indicates a kind of juvenilisation of constitutional law. In the author’s view, this trend consists in the state’s increased attention to the constitutional rights, interests and needs of children and young people through the institutional, regulatory and practical formalisation of relevant guarantees in the system of constitutional regulation. This phenomenon reflects a global humanistic trend focused on recognising children not only as objects of care, but also as subjects of law – full participants in public life. In this context, there is no doubt that the protection of children’s rights is one of the main directions of the state’s juvenile policy, which is understood as the activities of state and non-state institutions aimed at creating conditions for the comprehensive development of children and their social integration as full members of civil society. At the same time, the content of the juvenile policy of a democratic state is manifested in the systematic unity of a number of normatively defined and organisationally supported types and directions of its activities regarding the protection and defence of children’s rights. The experience of democratic states shows that the purposeful and effective implementation of policies in the field of child rights protection is ensured by a comprehensive mechanism – a system of competent state bodies that create appropriate conditions for the implementation, protection and defence of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of children in the forms provided for by law, using appropriate means and methods to prevent or eliminate violations thereof. In the field of child rights protection, there are both general and specialised authorities. Among such services, the institution of the children’s ombudsman plays an important role. The article analyses foreign experience in applying the ombudsman concept to influence juvenile relations with the aim of representing the interests and protecting the rights of children. It considers the factors that determine the creation and functioning of the institution of the children’s ombudsman, as well as the main trends in its development in the modern world.