The new Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021) will be launched for the first time at a Council of Europe conference in Sofia on 5 and 6 April. The international high-level conference is titled Reaching the Heights for the Rights of the Child and will gather more than 250 ministers, experts and NGO representatives from all over the world.

The International Juvenile Justice Observatory (OJJI) will be represented at the high-level event by Prof. Nelly Petrova – Dimitrova, Chairperson of the Managing Board of the Social Activities and Practices Institute (SAPI).

The International Juvenile Justice Observatory is actively involved in the development of the Strategy’s draft, and in particular of the part concerning child-friendly justice. The Strategy (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 2 March this year) is developed by member states politicians and experts within a process which ensured the involvement of all parties interested, taking into account not only civil society’s point of view but also of children themselves.

The Social Activities and Practices Institute is a long time member of The International Juvenile Justice Observatory. In the past two years their joint efforts for establishment of child-friendly justice resulted in a partnership focused on the implementation of Listen to the Child – Justice Befriends the Child project, which introduces in Bulgaria the integrated multidisciplinary approach to hearings of child victims, the Methodology and Framework of the personalised assessment of child victims.