On March 13, the final conference of the European SUN project took place in Sofia, in which Nidos has been involved for the past two years. Colleagues Mascha van Lith and Germa Lourens attended on behalf of Nidos, along with a staff member from the Dublin unit of the IND, a state counselor from the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State, and an immigration lawyer from the Netherlands.
The SUN project has worked over the past two years to safeguard the rights of unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The focus was on raising awareness of the EU Charter among various professionals working with UASC through the development of a practitionar’s handbook and national training sessions.
During the final conference, held in the beautiful auditorium of the Faculty of Law at Sofia University, various topics were discussed related to the fundamental rights of UASC, as described in the EU Charter, and several interesting lectures were presented. For instance, the Dutch state councilor at the Council of State, gave an insightful lecture on the role of judges in protecting the rights of UASC, and Germa shared her work on how judges should engage more with UASC during the appeal phase of their asylum procedure. A pilot program on this is currently running at the court in Amsterdam. Other topics discussed included the protection and risks for UASC under the new European Asylum and Migration Pact, ensuring safety for UASC, the importance of considering the child’s perspective, and, as part of that, listening to the opinion of the child about their own situation.
All in all, it was a valuable conclusion to the project with a great contribution from Nidos!
