Children's House will open soon in Podgorica

Today's session of the Council on Child Rights, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, discussed the possibilities of opening a Children's House.

The Children's House, modelled on Barnahus, would deal with cases of sexual trauma and child abuse, and would serve for parallel and coordinated work on criminal investigation, on the one hand, and interrogation conducted by the social welfare sector, on the other, while taking care that the service is provided in a safe environment adapted to the needs of the child.

In accordance with the Strategy for Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence for the period 2017-2021 and the priorities recognised by the Council on Child Rights, the UNICEF Office in Podgorica provided strong support to the process of establishing the Children's House (Barnahus). In this regard, the UNICEF Office expressed its readiness to provide the best expertise in the process of establishing the Children's House to ensure the application of international standards in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to draw on best practices from countries that have gone through a similar process.

UNICEF has agreed on future joint activities with the Council of Europe to jointly support and mobilize human and financial resources in establishing this service.

Head of UNICEF Office in Montenegro Juan Santander, Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Podgorica Office Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, and Senior Project Officer at the Council of Europe Children's Rights Division and a leading expert on Barnahus Zaruhi Gasparyan also participated in the session.