Coalition for child-friendly interviewing in Bulgaria and Poland

One of partner organisations in Childhood without Abuse Project - Social Activities and Practices Institute from Bulgaria - decided to become more involved in tackling the problem of children taking part in legal procedures.To increase cooperation between the Bulgarian organisation and the Nobody's Children Foundation from Poland, a new initiative - "Coalition for child-friendly interviewing" Project - was taken up.

Goals of the new project are:

• to provide protection for child victims participating in criminal procedures through promoting the idea of child-friendly interview rooms and thorough offering support to children and their caretakers;

• to improve competence among professionals involved in interviewing children and helping child victims of crime;

• to create interdisciplinary coalitions of institutions of justice system, NGO's and local agencies for protection of the rights of children participating in legal procedures.

The project is financed by Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe.

From 8th to 10th May 2008, first meeting in the frame of "Coalition for child-friendly interviewing" took place in Warsaw. This consultative meeting gathered Lidia Kołucka - Żuk, representing Trust for Civil Society for CEE in Warsaw, Nelli Petrova Dimitrowa and Dimitar Kacov from SAPI, Stoil Sotirov and Velichka Marinkova from Bulgarian Judges Association, as well as the Nobody's Children Foundation representatives.