The international conference in the residence of Her Excellency the ambassador of Kingdom of Norway took place on the 26th and 27th of May 2016. The conference was one of the activities from the project “Better protection of children and women against domestic violence and gender-based violence through sharing good practices between Norway and Bulgaria”, implemented by “Alliance for Protection against Gender-based Violence”, whose members are Bulgarian Fund for Women and HEDDA Foundation – Norway in the frameworks of the Fund for Bilateral Relations on National Level through the Finance Mechanism of The European Economic Area and the National Youth Forum 2009-2014.The conference was opened by Her Excellency Guro Katharina H. Vikør, ambassador of Kingdom of Norway in Bulgaria, who highlighted the need of constant work for eradication of violence and her satisfaction of the fact that the two countries have created good basis for cooperation among institutions and civil organizations.
Iliyana Stoycheva and Jorgen Lorentzen, coordinators of the project, presented the results of the research released among Bulgarian non-governmental organizations and institutions working on protection and prevention of violence against women and children. The results provoked a discussion among the participants, analysis of the problems and suggestions for changes aiming at a better and more effective protection against violence.
The following presentations of Line Nersen, expert in the Ministry of Justice of Kingdom of Norway, Morten Nilssen from the center for working with offenders “Alternative of Violence” and Inger Lise Larsen, director of a crisis center for victims of violence in Oslo, not only gave an opportunity from the Bulgarian side to meet the long-standing experience of Norway in this field, but also provoked comparative analysis and suggestions for legislative changes and development of new policies against domestic and gender-based violence.
The participants in the conference, the representatives of NGOs and the Ministry of Education and Science, Agency for Social Assistance, as well as the Directorates for Social Assistance in almost the whole country (Blagoevgrad, Dupnitsa, Silistra, Popovo, Turgovishte, Varna, Burgas, Pleven, Pernik, Haskovo, Dimitrovgrad and others) have expressed the need for regulation of consultative services for victims, effective emergency help for victims, reduction of the procedure for providing help. There were comments about the limited possibilities for accommodation in crisis centers in Bulgaria, lack of well-created structures in places for support and prevention on local level, the differences in regard to the multidisciplinary services in different regions in Bulgaria etc.
At the end of the conference, Hristina Georgieva from Women’s Association “Ekaterina Karavelova” –Silistra presented a summary of new proposals, which will be a part of the final report in the framework of the project.
