Comment, Empowering Voices: Working Toward a Children’s Right to Participatory Agency in Their Courtroom Experience

The number of child witness cases has increased dramatically over the past two decades due to enhanced child abuse awareness, mandatory reporting laws, and specialized teams. Yet the American legal system, adversarial in design and not crafted for children's needs, places young witnesses at severe disadvantage. Children lack understanding of legal procedures and face anxiety, trauma, and cross-examination challenges that impede accurate testimony and psychological wellbeing. Till argues that the current framework treats children as passive objects subject to legal proceedings rather than empowered participants. She examines Confrontation Clause jurisprudence, state shielding statutes, and prosecutorial discretion, demonstrating how current protections inadequately address children's interests. Till proposes a paradigm shift from third-party protection to first-party agency, grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which the U.S. has not ratified. She explores how implementing the CRC through innovative preparatory practices, child witness attorneys, and specialized courts could enhance child testimony while respecting due process. Till contends that combining multiple approaches—court schools, closed-circuit testimony, ombudsman mechanisms—within a comprehensive children's rights framework would better protect children's dignity and voice in courtroom proceedings.

Topics: Family Law · Civil Rights

Keywords: child witnesses · Confrontation Clause · United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child · courtroom procedures · trauma · participatory agency