Croatian program to protection children from sexual abuse
Updated: Oct 20
By: Republic of Croatia: Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation
The event brought together the first group of twenty experts, including advisers, judges and state attorneys at county and municipal levels throughout Croatia.
This guided training is adapted to the Croatian legal framework and aims to strengthen the capacity of professionals working for and with children, and it contributes to Croatia's commitment to implementing the Barnahus model. It is a leading European model of response to child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse that seeks to coordinate criminal investigations, with all relevant services under one roof, in order to prevent secondary victimisation of children.
This group will undergo a three-month personalised training run by tutor Lara Barberic and supported by High Criminal Court Judge Lana Petö Kujundžić and Zagreb County Court Judge Dijana Rizvić. The programme combines international and national standards with practical Croatian case studies.
The objectives of the training are to:
Improve the skills and competencies of professionals for detecting, responding to and preventing child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive and rights-based manner.
Promote better coordination between institutions involved in child protection - ensuring that legal, medical and social welfare responses are coherent and mutually reinforcing.
Encourage consistent and effective application of international standards, in particular those established by the Lanzarote Convention, in all relevant institutions in Croatia.
Foster a professional culture that does not see children as passive beneficiaries of protection, but as rights holders whose voices and best interests must be at the heart of any decision and intervention.
In her introductory speech, Project Manager of the project ‘Implementing the Barnahus Model in Croatia’ Ana Kordej reiterated and highlighted the Croatian commitment to establishing Barnahus units. She was joined by Tomislav Briški, Secretary General of the Croatian Judicial Academy, and Zaruhi Gasparyan, Head of Cooperation and Capacity Building Unit at the Children's Rights Division of the Council of Europe, who emphasized the importance of training in the protection of children's rights.
Marlena Jukić, Croatian representative in the Committee of States Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Committee) gave a keynote presentation on the Lanzarote Convention, highlighting the various monitoring rounds in which Croatia participated and country-specific recommendations issued.
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