The participants in the round table, organized by the committee on Interaction with Non-Governmental Organizations and Citizens’ Complaints and the National Network for Children have decided to set up a working group, the task of which will be to review the existing legislation related to the violence among and against children.

The group will propose better mechanisms for interaction between the institutions in charge of child protection. The group is to include representatives of all authorities and NGOs engaged with these problems.

The Chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Ms Boyka Marinska, underscored the seriousness of the problem concerning the violence occurring between and against children. She said the incidence of such cases had tripled in the last year alone. She called on the experts participating in the round table to outline steps and measures – legislative, as well as social and educational – to tackle this extremely difficult problem.

Marinska asked for reinstatement of the unified information system for registration of the cases of violence against children and for reinstatement of the mobile support group operating in schools in such cases. She insisted on establishing more centers, specialized in working with the victims of aggression, on increasing the number of school psychologists and on the elaboration of a National program for prevention of violence.  

Among the participants in the round table were lawmakers, the Deputy Minister of Justice, Ms Virginia Micheva, representatives from the Ministry of Education, from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the ombudsman Ms Maya Manolova, the head of the State Agency for Child Protection, Ms Eva Zhecheva, and from the Agency for Social Assistance.

The round table has started a discussion between the legislative, executive and local authorities, and civil organizations working with children and families. It aims at outlining the challenges faced by the NGOs and the specialists in the field, at sharing the good practices, the resources and possible solutions and steps to overcoming the problem and to improving the current situation.