Standards of child-friendly interview room

A child interview room shall be run by an entity having the legal power to administer such a facility.

Such a facility shall have a comfortable room which ensures the feeling of privacy and meets children's needs, to make children feel physically and psychologically secure during the interview.

In particular, the facility:

• Ensures that the interview is conducted by the judge only, in the presence of a qualified psychologist, while other interested parties (the prosecutor, the defendant's lawyer, the assistant prosecutor, etc.) may attend to the interview staying in another room. This is enabled by a one-way mirror placed between two neighbouring rooms and/or by a live broadcast of the interview and the use of an electronic communication system.

• Ensures that the child may wait for the interview in a friendly place, unavailable for the defendant. The waiting room should be equipped with things enabling the child to spend the time in a active, enjoyable way (toys, books, magazines, coloured pencils, etc.), but there should be no educational or information resources on violence and sexual abuse.

• Ensures intimacy through sound-proof doors between the interview room and other rooms.

• Is decorated in soft, pastel colours.

• Is furnished comfortably for younger and older children (two sizes of tables and chairs, a sofa or an armchair, soft carpet, etc.).

• Is equipped with materials and objects helpful in obtaining information from children (coloured pencils, paper, dolls, glove puppets, etc.), which are not directly available to the child, and with few (!) easily available toys.

Interviewing children for the purposes of the justice system

The interview room should make it possible to record the interview so that the recorded material may be played back during the court trial. It should also make it possible for persons attending to the interview (such as the prosecutor or the defendant's legal representative) to communicate with the judge and the psychologist in order to convey questions to be asked to the child. To satisfy these requirements of the justice system, the interview room should be equipped with:

• A camera (or cameras) recording the interview (the whole room and the child's behaviours and responses);

• Microphone(s) for sound recording;

• Equipment for recording the interview on two carriers (two VHS cassettes; a cassette and a DVD);

• A microphone in the neighbouring room and headphones for the judge and the psychologist.

Providing the child's caregivers with comprehensive information on available psychological, treatment, medical, and legal help is an integral part of any Child-Friendly Interview Room's services. Such information should cover services provided by the centre or institution running the interview room and/or by other cooperating institutions. Each interviewed child's caregiver is provided with written information on such services.

These standards have been developed in Poland by the Nobody's Children Foundation in cooperation of Coalition for Child - Friendly Interviewing. The Coalition gathers organization, institutions and individual persons working with children participating in legal procedures. Currently country - wide promotion of standards takes place, with active support of the Ministry of Justice.

Below you can see child friendly-interview room situated in Child Advocacy Centre "Mazowiecka" in Warsaw run by the Nobody's Children Foundation.