Fifth International Conference on Integrated Approach for Fair Justice:
Is Bulgarian justice child-friendly to victims of abuse? Is it adapted to the needs of child victims and witnesses of crime? Have we managed to develop co-operation between the institutions which are expected to unite efforts in pursuit of child protection; and how to implement an effective integrated approach in the interest of the child and justice?
These are some of the questions we sought an answer to during the Fifth International Conference on Integrated Approach for Fair Justice, organised by the Social Activities and Practices Institute, which took place on 26 and 27 April in Sofia.
The Conference brought together nearly 200 professionals from the social, judicial and police systems, NGOs, Bulgarian and foreign experts. In the course of the plenary sessions, the participants had the opportunity to learn about the experience of the countries partners to the project on the transposition of Directive 2012/20/EU. Successful practices from Italy, France, Belgium and Sweden were presented. The professional community had the opportunity to discuss the recommendations made by the project experts, concerning the introduction of minimum standards for child victims of abuse. The recommendations have been developed on the basis of the implementation of Listen to the Child – Justice Befriends the Child project. They provide guidance on how to improve justice for child victims of abuse by implementing an integrated approach, by introducing interaction protocols, training standards, sharing of good practices, etc. The Social Activities and Practices Institute and the project partners hope that those will contribute also to quality changes in the field of child justice both at national and European level.
The Social Activities and Practices Institute is aiming at putting together the pieces of the child victim’s life. The idea is to build the whole picture, based on information obtained through an integrated assessment of the child victim so that their needs are met and a secure living environment is ensured.
The institutions that normally engage with the child victim of abuse involve various law enforcement and judicial authorities, health care establishments, sometimes crisis centres, residential services, foster families, reintegration in the birth family. All of this is possible only if there is inter-institutional interaction in place. Child-friendly hearings of children in the specialised premises (Blue Rooms) is still underused even though there are 15 Blue Rooms available in Bulgaria.
The practice of child-friendly hearing/interviewing of a child victim of crime in a Blue Room was introduced in Bulgaria by the Social Activities and Practices Institute as early as 2008. The institute established 9 more rooms at a later stage and assists municipalities and NGOs in providing methodological support to the teams running the rooms in the various towns across the country. So far, 204 children have used the Blue Rooms available at the services managed by the Institute: 40 of them were involved in civil cases and 164 in criminal cases. The youngest client of the service was a 4-year old child - under a criminal case. The Institute’s teams use the rooms also for psychological assessments, hearing of children requested by Child Paedagogical Rooms (CPR) and Child Protection Department (CPD) in cases of alleged child abuse, interviews of the children by CPR inspectors to establish the circumstances, opportunity for mediated meetings between children and parents, etc.
The idea behind the integrated approach is that trained professionals not merely consult the child and their family but that there is interaction among all institutions engaged with the child, while taking into account their health and educational needs. The child should be prepared for participation and accompanying in legal procedures; they should receive psycho-social support and recovery, so that they feel protected by the institutions that are to provide them with care.
