Children demand special attention during official proceedings and everything must be done so that they suffer the least possible trauma, as Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Public Administration and Justice emphasised in Kaposvár on Wednesday, on the occasion of handing over a child-friendly interview room at the police headquarters.
“By today, every county has a child-friendly interview room where children can be interviewed in humane circumstances whenever their testimony is required, whether as victims or perpetrators of crime”, the Minister of Public Administration and Justice highlighted. “As a result of the process that lasted over eighteen months, every county in Hungary now has an interview room like this, managed by the respective police headquarters, and there are counties where a second one is being created”, the minister said, adding that he believes the programme – launched in 2011, during Hungary’s EU Presidency – reached a turning point when the initial interview room network had been completed.
According to the minister, one of the greatest achievements of the previously launched child-friendly justice campaign was the successful adoption of an EU-level legal regulation which prescribed the mandatory penalisation of sexual crimes against children on the internet in all Member States.
“This is a process that can open a new chapter not only for the justice system, but also in terms of detection”, Tibor Navracsics said, adding that “we can guarantee a more humane treatment for the most vulnerable group, that is the children”.
“It is easier for children to feel more at ease in a child-friendly interview room and talk about the trauma they suffered, so we can obtain more accurate and more pieces of information about what happened to them”, the politician said, who also remarked that this is equally important for detectives, public prosecutors and judges alike. He stressed that “it is apparent that the child-friendly attitude is becoming more accepted and public opinion is also more sensitive to children’s problems”.
Tibor Navracsics recalled that Parliament has adopted several child-friendly legislative amendment packages and every party at the House has shown commitment to creating a child-friendly justice system and institutional environment. “As a result of the legislative changes we have more stringent statutory guarantees for children, as victims of crime, to survive this critical and tragic time in their lives with as little trauma as possible”, Tibor Navracsics explained.
(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)
