Samenvatting

Recent research by the National Children’s Ombudsman shows that minors are, or at least feel, insufficiently heard in civil legal procedures such as divorce and guardianship procedures. In response, a conference about the role of minors in the often complex civil litigation was organized at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, on the 31^st of May 2013. Based on the results of this conference, this article identifies both bottlenecks and potential areas for improvement in providing minors with a voice during legal procedures. The main improvement areas include the communication process with minors, child hearings and the appointment of the guardian ad litem and awareness of his role. Specifically, more attention should be paid to the communication between legal professionals and minors. In addition, consensus should be achieved between the courts and tribunals about children’s hearings. The most crucial improvement area is to change the name ‘child hearing’ into ‘conversation with children’. This modification will reduce the associations with criminal law.