Building a Europe for and with children


NATIONAL POLICY REVIEWS
 

The action programme "Children and violence" is conducting a pilot scheme with four member states - Italy,  Norway, Portugal and Romania - in which each country is reviewing its national  prevention policies aimed at children. The review follows a bottom-up approach, and includes all relevant stakeholders, such as national governments, local authorities, ombudspersons, social workers, child-care professionals, specialised agencies, NGOs and so forth.

Initial preliminary data have been gathered by national experts, with input from international experts, using a questionnaire inspired by the 12 Oslo principles. These principles for forming and assessing integrated violence prevention strategies were developed by the Council of Europe's integrated project "Responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society" and adopted by ministers responsible for violence prevention in 2004 (see final report). The principles, listed below, are flexible and allow leeway for national differences in legal and institutional frameworks:

An integrated approach
 Systematic reliance on partnerships
 Democratic accountability and participation of civil society
 Preventive approach
 Victim-oriented approach
 Offender-oriented prevention
 Developing the use of mediation
 Giving priority to local prevention programmes
 Planning and continuous evaluation
 Sustainability
 Training for all partners
 Interdisciplinary research policy

The review protocol is designed to identify existing structures and working methods, emerging trends and changes in public perception of issues, and what works and what does not. The preliminary findings, in the form of national reports, have been  discussed at national seminars, bringing together all relevant actors.

Recommendations and guidelines have been extracted from each of the national reports to prepare a document proposing European policy guidelines for integrated strategies against violence (see below). These will be officially endorsed by the Council of Europe in the course of 2009. At individual country level, the guidelines will enable authorities to adjust existing policies or set up new ones. At European level, the guidelines will contribute to the realisation of the recommendations included in the UN Secretary-General's study on violence against children.

European guidelines for integrated strategies against violence

National reports:

Italy: (please note there are three documents to download)
        Contents for both documents
        First document: Parts I-II
        Second document:  Parts III-IV
Norway
Portugal
Romania