Bulgaria Multi-stakeholders conference raises concerns on child protection

Project : MARIO 27 May 2010 | child exploitation protection systems sexual exploitation

Sofia, Bulgaria: In the framework of MARIO project, a national multi-stakeholders conference was held in Sofia where more than 40 participants gathered to discuss issues related to exploitation of children on May 19th.

Representatives from state police, child protection agency, different international organizations and embassies, local commissions and regional directorates could exchange on the future challenges faced by professionals in the fight against child exploitation. MARIO project fosters the participation of young people as demonstrated by the presence of a number of youth who attended the event in order to make their views heard and taken into account.

The national conference was also an occasion to present the key findings of two recent studies conducted by ECPAT-Bulgaria: a situational analysis on the actions taken against child sexual exploitation in Bulgaria and; a sociological survey on the level of awareness of children, students and experts on the problems of child prostitution and child trafficking for sexual purposes.

The Bulgarian delegation which took part in the training on investigative street observation in Thessaloniki in November 2009 in collaboration with the Greek NGO ARSIS also had the opportunity to present and share with participants their experience on detecting children exploited or at risk of exploitation or trafficking.

The participants to the national conference also actively discussed about the creation of a national advocacy coalition of Civil Society Organizations against child trafficking, one of the main goal of Mario project. Fruitful debates took place between participants discussing practical issues on how to build up the coalition, its mandate and the governance of the structure. Concrete propositions such as promoting the consultative role of the coalition towards the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and the State Agency for Child Protection were announced. Participants agreed that the coalition should tend to be an informal group working on a regular basis with a clear informative and advocacy orientation.

The building up of a national coalition, the dissemination of the two studies and the subsequent increase of the level of awareness of state authorities towards these sensitive issues will without doubt strengthen the fight against child exploitation and/or trafficking and the protection of (potential) child victims. [PC]

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