In 2023, 307 children aged 14 to 18 were sentenced. Compared to 2022, the number of children committing crimes has decreased by 8,5 percent, but the data that the number of convicted children has increased by 17,2 percent is worrying. Statistics show that a large number of children who have grown up in Penitentiary Homes have a low level of education. According to the same 21-year-old boy who has been in the home for many years, he only finished the second grade. And this striking example is not unique.

Dr. Mimoza Saltirova, attorney and licensed children's justice trainer, trainer of children's justice lawyers, for Free Press says that the state must focus more seriously on implementing European standards and directives on children's rights.

- Deprivation of liberty in the first stage is identical for every person as stipulated by the law. But after those persons are taken to the police, they are identified and then if it is established that one of those persons is a minor, they are taken to a special ward for minors. Here they meet with specialized inspectors who work with minors - says Saltirova.

She clarifies that the specificity is observed in the additional trainings and trainings of the lawyer, judge and prosecutor who specialize in working with children.

- Not everyone can work with children and our legislation provides for that. We have children's lawyers, children's judges, the Children's Criminal Council, the Court of Appeal and the Children's Council. The procedure is complex, bearing in mind that the protection of the child is always in the foreground. I followed an extensive training in juvenile justice, where I obtained a certificate and was given the opportunity to be in our state a trainer of fellow attorneys regarding this specific area, juvenile justice. Our system lacks lawyers trained to work with children - says our interlocutor.

The overall course of court proceedings for a child differs from that for an adult defendant. Saltirova notes that a lot of work needs to be done to improve standards in Macedonia.

- Unfortunately, the European directives and standards on how the procedure for child offenders should look like have not been properly implemented in our country. Access to the authorities, the way the child will be brought to court, that is very specific. When I say, I don't just mean to the courthouse, but through the corridors, to the courtroom where the child is to be questioned. Whether perpetrator or victim, this is the treatment for a child. We must not forget that this is a person who does not have sufficiently developed awareness, does not have sufficiently developed defense mechanisms and an image of social phenomena or what exactly happened - she said.

According to Saltirova, the state must work on implementing those directives, have separate spaces, separate entrances, where the children will be conducted.

- We, as lawyers, meet daily with persons who are deprived of liberty or serving a sentence, who are brought to court in a van, with handcuffs, with representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, armed, with masks. It is a stressful image for anyone, and imagine it in the eyes of a child - she explains.

Saltirova adds that all actors involved in the procedure should have special communication skills with the child offender, wear more casual clothes, judges are not allowed to wear togas. An atmosphere is created, as she says, so that the child does not know who is a lawyer, who is a judge, who is a prosecutor.

– I want to share an example from a court procedure in Germany. She got a call from the mother's court to tell her that her child would be dressed in a costume of a favorite cartoon character. The child chose to be a witch. When entering the court building, the child did not know where he was entering, all the sensors started beeping because the broom activated them, but none of the employees reacted officially to it. Everyone made a rumor that a heroine was entering. The courtroom was turned into a playroom, those involved in the fight were dressed in fun costumes, sitting on the ground on cushions - says Saltirova.