Abstract
Considering that administrative law regulations cover a significant number of areas important for citizens’ lives, administrative procedures are the most common procedures in which citizens, including children, exercise their rights and impose obligations on them. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as General Comment No. 12 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the child’s right to be heard, determine the child as an active legal subject. This applies to all procedures in which the child participates, including administrative procedures. Due to legal and therefore procedural capacity, the child is represented by legal representatives in the administrative procedure, which does not reduce the active role of the child in the procedure, who has the right to be heard, that is, to express an opinion on issues related to him. Therefore, this paper aims to present the position of the child in the administrative procedure in the Republic of Croatia, that is, its procedural rights from the aspect of representation and the right to be heard. In the first part of the paper, the assumptions of the child’s party activity in the administrative procedure are analyzed, after which the representation of the child according to the Family Law Act and the General Administrative Procedure Act is presented. In the central part of the paper, de lege lata, the child’s right to be heard is analyzed in the context of international law and national regulations, in relation to administrative procedures. Taking into account the importance of the status law issues, the paper presents the position of the child in administrative procedures related to personal name, identity card, travel documents, Croatian citizenship, and residence, analyzing the legal arrangement of the child’s representation and its right to be heard, that is, to express its opinion.
Publisher
Faculty of Law Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek