Protection of the rights of minor suspects and accused persons by expanding the list of their legal representatives

Introduction: the proceedings in cases against minors have a number of features due to the physical, mental, and social immaturity of juvenile suspects and accused persons. These participants in the criminal process exercise their rights by participating in the proceedings of their legal representatives. At the same time, in the current criminal procedure legislation, the list of persons who can be endowed with the specified procedural status, according to the author, is subject to expansion. Such a reform will create the possibility of real protection of the rights of juvenile suspects and accused persons in accordance with generally recognized international norms and the concept of child-friendly justice. Materials and Methods: during the research, general scientific and private scientific methods were used: comparative legal, formal logical, and other methods of system analysis. The materials of the study were the norms of international documents in the field of protection of the rights of minors against whom criminal proceedings are carried out, the relevant norms of various branches of Russian legislation that protect the rights of the child, as well as the opinions of procedural scientists on this topic. The results of the study: a systematic analysis of the norms of international acts in the field of ensuring the rights of minor suspects, accused persons and the norms of Russian legislation allows us to identify gaps in the legal regulation of the status of a legal representative, its qualitative and quantitative criteria, the procedure for studying the personality of a future legal representative. The list of persons capable of representing the interests of minor suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings is insufficient, which negatively affects the provision of their protection. An important aspect of the effectiveness of the legal representative's participation in the case is the family ties with the minor and the interest in his fate. The participation of representatives of the guardianship and guardianship authorities as legal representatives cannot adequately ensure the right to protection of minor suspects and accused persons. Discussion and Conclusions: in the course of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to expand the list of persons who can be allowed to participate in a criminal case as legal representatives of a minor suspect, accused, the need for a comprehensive study of the identity of future legal representatives, reflection of this information in the materials of the criminal case, as well as the need to allow more than one legal representative to protect the rights of a minor.