14 May 2024 – A little over a month ago, the closing conference of the Children’s House (Barnahus) project, organised by the Ministry of Justice and co-financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism under the Education, Scholarships, Apprenticeship and Youth Entrepreneurship programme, took place in Terme Zreče.
The Children’s House is a child-friendly and safe place where children who are witnesses or victims of crime are offered help and support. Representatives of the Public Institution Children’s House presented to the participants of the conference how the holistic treatment of the child is carried out. They carry out interviews with these children for court proceedings and provide crisis support and psychosocial support to traumatised children and families.
At the closing conference, the project partners presented the importance of projects such as the Children’s House project for society, as well as for the justice system. They also presented the achievements of the project, which paved the way for the development of efficient measures to create a child-friendly justice system.
The participants of the conference were addressed by mag. Andreja Kokalj, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Dr Jože Ruparčič, Deputy Human Rights Ombudsman of the RS, and Regina Jensdottir, Head of the Children’s Rights Division and CoE Coordinator for the Rights of the Child at the Council of Europe.
In a video welcoming address, Regina Jensdottir, Head of the Children’s Rights Division and CoE Coordinator for the Rights of the Child at the Council of Europe, welcomed Slovenia’s decision to take such a comprehensive approach to improving the lives of children, and stressed that she “looks forward to a continued cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Slovenian Ministry of Justice in working towards an environment where a child victim of violence is not afraid or ashamed to turn to the justice system.”
The representative of the project Children’s House, mag. Andrej Del Fabro pointed out that “since February 2021, the premises have been renovated and furnished, and almost 800 professionals have been trained – social workers, primary school teachers and experts, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and court experts, as well as the personnel of the Public institution Children’s House.”
Mirjam Kline, Supreme State Prosecutor and Deputy State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia, also spoke at the closing conference, emphasising that “the Children’s House allows for a more authentic, less burdensome communication to the child that is a victim of crime about what happened to him or her.” She also underlined that in the past, they repeatedly addressed the issue of how to approach children who are victims of crime in the least burdensome way, to interrogate them in a way that would cause the least trauma and to understand as much as possible the consequences that the child is experiencing.
The project Children’s House (Barnahus) involves the project promoter, the Ministry of Justice, and the project partner, the Public Institution Children’s House.
SOURCE: Children’s House (Barnahus)