The Supreme Court published ‘A guide to listening to opinion of a party who is a minor in family cases’ (hereinafter ‘the guide’) which illustrates various ways to listen to opinions of minors in family proceedings and distributed them to family courts nationwide in order to present how to listen to opinions of minors depending on age and developmental stages of a minor and by the types of family cases, and to help the parties understand the existence of relevant provisions and the purpose.

Publishing the guide is meaningful in the sense that family courts aim to comply with the principle of the best interests of the child (Article 3) and protect the right for children’s views to be given due weight (Article 12) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child where the Republic of Korea joined and ratified in 1991, and also to realize the best interests of the child.

The guide is designed to help to ensure children’s participation in the proceedings and their clear expression of opinions, at the same time minimizing negative impacts which may occur while a member of family courts such as judge or family fact-finding officer is listening to opinion of a minor.

It is expected that this guide will become a trigger to minimize the negative impacts on children. Family courts, in listening to a party’s opinion who is a minor, will respect the right of participation in the proceedings and the right to express to the maximum, take various situations that a party faces into consideration depending on the types of cases, and operate general procedures in a children-centered way reflecting children’s unique characteristics such as maturity and development stages.