25-03-2024 11:23
In order to curb and eradicate the manifestation of domestic violence in Bulgarian society, it is necessary to implement a consistent state policy that coordinates and evaluates the activities of all those involved in addressing this problem. This was stated today by the Deputy Minister of Justice Georgi Nikolov, who opened a public discussion on the topic ‘Problems related to the implementation of specialized programs for social impact aimed at perpetrators of domestic violence and the possibilities of probation’.
The forum is held under the project ‘Prevention and Counteraction of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence’, implemented by the National Institute of Justice, with the financial support of the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.
Deputy Minister Nikolov was adamant that the state has recently undertaken serious actions in this direction and recalled the adopted substantial amendments to the Protection against Domestic Violence Act (PADVA), the developed in the Ministry of Justice National Coordination Mechanism, which sets out the specific commitments and the manner of interaction between the responsible institutions and the providers of specialized services, as well as the currently being developed new Regulations for the implementation of the PADVA.
Judges from district and county level, prosecutors, experts from the NGO sector participate in the discussion. Officers from the Probation Service in Agder, Kingdom of Norway presented programmes for working with offenders in the Norwegian Correctional Service. The experience of the probation services in Bulgaria and in particular the community impact programme ‘Anger Management in Domestic Violence’ were presented by probation officers from the General Directorate ‘Execution of Punishments’.
The aim of the discussion, which continues tomorrow, is to discuss the possibilities of specialized programs for overcoming aggression and dealing with anger for perpetrators of domestic violence, the practical problems related to their implementation at national level, as well as the necessary measures to overcome the identified difficulties in practice.