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In October 2004
several members and fellows of the
Institute participated in the Third conference of
the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice
“Restorative Justice in Europe: Where we are heading?”
in Budapest, Hungary
In
September 2005 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dobrinka Chankova took part
in the 5th Conference of the
World Mediation Forum in Crans-Montana,
Switzerland
Presentation of the conference paper,
Crans-Montana, 2005
Dobrinka Chankova and Katina
Kljavkova with the newly elected President
of the World Mediation Forum
Juan Tausk
In December
2006 on the invitation by the
Finish Ministry of
Justice Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dobrinka
Chankova took part in
the seminar “Restorative
Justice and Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe: Overcoming Obstacles
and Strengthening of Networking”. The seminar took place in Helsinki,
under the auspices of Finnish
Presidency of the EU.
Some important and
urgent issues of
RJ developments in Europe were discussed.
In May 2007 the ICR
Chair Assoc.Prof. Dr.
Dobrinka Chankova took part
in the conference “Young People in Eastern Europe and Central
Asia: From Policy to Action”, organized in Rome, Italy, by the World Bank. The results of VISTA Project have been
presented.
The Workshop and the
Round
table
discussion on perspectives of mediation in penal matters held in
Sofia on 13-14 December 2007 passed with a
great success. The two events
were a common project
of the National Association of
the Mediators- a
umbrella organization, the
Union of the
Bulgarian Jurists and
the Institute of Conflict Resolution. The fora
were sponsored by
the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX), DG Enlargement of
the European Commission
and the “Institut Francais”- Sofia. The project is a part of the campaign for restorative justice and
victim-offender mediation
promotion, in compliance with several instruments of the EU, Council of
Europe, UN etc. More
than 80 representatives from
the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of
Interior, judiciary, NGOs, practicing mediators, researchers from Bulgaria and
abroad took part
in both events.
A training
seminar on legal regulation of
victim-offender mediation
was organized on 13 December 2007. Leading experts from
abroad- Dr Martin Wright from
De Montfort University- Leicester, UK, Mr Julien Lhuillier from the University
of Nancy- France,
expert at the Council of Europe
and Mrs Veronique
Dandonneau from “Citoyens et Justice” (non-for-profit organization) - France did a
review of legislative provisions of mediation in penal matters in some European and other
countries as well as of the
strategies and approaches for legislative regulation of mediation in penal
matters.
A Round table
discussion was organised on
14 December 2007, with the involvement of
Deputy-minister of Justice
Mrs Sabrie Sapundjieva - a proved friend
of mediation. She cordially welcomed and stimulated participants for active work for
the establishment of mediation in penal
matters in the Bulgarian legal system. A key paper
on the International
Instruments on Restorative Justice was
presented by Assoc. Prof.
Dr Dobrinka Chankova from the Institute
of Conflict
Resolution. Mr George Bakalov-
attorney at law and
practicing mediator, from
the same Institute, commented
the findings of
several surveys on the
applicability of mediation
in penal matters in Bulgaria.
In the followed
lively discussion, skilfully moderated by
Mr Jossif Geron- Chair
of the Board of the National
Association of the Mediators, the
draft concept for legislative regulation of mediation
in penal matters in Bulgaria was presented
and discussed. The
concept was approved and will
be send to
the Ministry of Justice
and the National Assembly.
Both events marked positive
developments in the policy and professionals’ attitudes to mediation
in penal matters and
raised optimism for its
future in Bulgaria.
See our photo gallery:
On 20-21 May 2008 Bulgarian-German Mediation Conference took
place in Sofia.
The conference was organized by the
Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria
jointly with the Ministry of Justice of Rheinland-Pfalz
Province and the
National Association of Mediators.
The
first day of the
conference focused on mediation
in penal matters. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dobrinka
Chankova presented a key
paper on needs
and opportunities of restorative justice and
victim-offender mediation. Drafts for amendments to
the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code aiming
introducing of VOM in Bulgarian criminal
justice system were discussed
and received wide
support by the attending judges, lawyers, public
prosecutors and other professionals. The proposals de
lege ferenda were
developed by a Working group
affiliated to the National Association of Mediators and chaired
by the distinguished
university Professor Dr. Margarita Chinova.
Mr.
Klaus Puderbach - Chief Prosecutor of Mainz- spoke
about the best
German practices of VOM.
The possibilities of VOM in the
custodial settings were
discussed as well.
The second day
of the conference focused
on mediation in insurance.
See our
photo gallery:
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