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3. COMENIUS 2 - Violence in Schools Training Action –VISTA
(2004-2006)
In partnership with the University of
Surrey-UK, Catholic University
of Leuven, Belgium,
Trinity College-Dublin, Ireland,
University of Cordoba, Spain and
University of Stavanger, Norway
Coordinator- Prof. Helen Cowie, University of
Surrey
The
main aims of this project are to:
· develop a European training package on the topic of violence prevention in the whole school context;
· disseminate good practice through training at
European, national and local levels;
· provide active support to key police-makers and to
schools.
Meetings held:
2004: Guildford-UK, Dublin-
Ireland and Cordoba - Spain
2005: Sofia- Bulgaria and Stavanger - Norway (pilot training)
2006-Leuven- Belgium, Cumberland Lodge, UK, Final meeting
Expected outcomes: e-manual, to
be translated in Bulgarian, and a
hard-copy book
Website: www.vista-europe.org
VISTA
team
See our photo gallery
4. AGIS - Meeting the Challenges of
Introducing Victim - Offender Mediation in Central and Eastern Europe (2004-2005)
In
partnership with
organisations from 15 European countries
General objective of the project:
· to effectively
support the development of restorative justice in Central and Eastern
European countries;
Specific objectives:
· to study, at
the conceptual and practical levels, the possibilities for implementing
victim-offender mediation in Central and Eastern European countries given
their specific political, economical, cultural and legal background;
· to discuss the
ways in which the experience in Western European countries can inform and
support the development of victim-offender mediation in Central and Eastern
European countries;
· to prepare
strategies for the promotion of the development of an integrated policy
concerning victim-offender mediation in Central and Eastern European
countries.
Meetings held:
2004: Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary
2005: Chisinau, Moldova and Sofia, Bulgaria
The
project ended
successfully and its main
objectives were achieved. The Final
Report Conclusions and
Recommendations were sent to
the European Commission and to
the relevant Ministries of Justice.
See our
photo gallery
5.Tools In Network: An E-Net Approach
to Share Mediation Competences /TIN Project/ 2007-2009
The need to develop
and improve competences of practitioners and experts working in the field
of juvenile justice both in public institutions (local social services) and
private-non profit making organizations is the basis of such a proposal.
The key educational role of victim–offender mediation in the juvenile
justice system is underlined by international organization working in the
field of children’s rights and juvenile justice. Indeed the Council of
Europe recognizes the need to enhance active personal participation of the
victim in criminal proceedings and to promote more constructive and less
repressive criminal justice outcomes. But in doing so the Council of Europe
underlines that mediation requires specific skills and calls for codes of
practice and accredited training.
The project aims at supporting improvement in quality in vocational
education for practitioners and experts working in the field of juvenile
justice in public institutions (local social services), private and non
profit making organizations by developing competences and skills by means
of the on-line training programmes on Restorative Justice the Italian
Department of Juvenile Justice has developed in its everyday work. The
project addresses specific needs of practitioners and expert working with
minors in conflict with law meaning contribute to the development of common
strategies and approaches in victim – offender mediation. Moreover the
project takes into account the needs of practitioners asking for on line
training programmes in order to balance work and life long learning.
Partners:
Institutions and organizations from Italy, Germany,
Spain, Latvia,
Czech Republic and
Bulgaria.
The first
transnational meeting of
TIN project was held with
great success in Sofia
on 3rd and 4th March 2008.
See our photo gallery
On 1st and 2nd
December 2008 in Guadalajara,
Spain, the
second transnational meeting took place. TIN Project has been moved forward.
 
6. The School - a
Territory of
Tolerance
2008-2009
The project has
been launched by the “Public
Fund” Foundation- Pazardjik
and involves actively experts from
the Institute of
Conflict Resolution. In the
frameworks of the project training of
school staff from three schools in
the town of
Pazardjik on school
violence prevention is planned as well
as publication of
manual to combat school violence. Further training of teachers, students
and parents will
lead to multiplication of
initial training results.
The project is
based on VISTA
project methodology.
 
Fragments of education.
7. Consensus Project --
2009-2010
The project is in the frameworks of the
European Commission Program “Prevention and fight against crime”. The coordinator is
the Regional Government
of Calicia, Spain. Partners are the
Institute of Conflict
Resolution from Bulgaria
and organizations from the
UK, Italy,
Portugal and Finland.
The project aims at identifying good practices of Restorative Juvenile
Justice in order
their broader implementation in
Spain. International meetings
and publication of a book
are foreseen.
For more info: http://proyectoconsensus.blogspot.com
8.
Project „The 3E Model for a Restorative Justice Strategy in Europe” 2011-2013
A new
transnational project
entitled “The 3E Model for a Restorative Justice Strategy in Europe”
with the Institute
of Conflict
Resolution
involvement has been
launched. The
coordinator of the
project is the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and
the partners are
research institutions and
scholars from the United
Kingdom, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, Denmark
and Germany. The aim
of the project
is to develop a
model Strategy for
Restorative Justice establishment in
Europe.
The first
working meeting in the
frameworks of the
project took part on
31 October 2011 in
Thessaloniki, Greece.
The second
working meeting was held in Athens on 30-31 May 2012.
On 16 & 17
May 2013 in Thessaloniki the final conference took place, with Prof. Dr D. Chankova’s
participation. A Draft EU Directive
on Restorative Justice was discussed. The project publications are
forthcoming.
9. Project ARS - 2011-2013
The ICR is a
partner in ARS project, coordinated by FUNDACION CAMINA SOCIAL- Spain, jointly
with organizations from Italy, UK and Ireland.
The project
objectives are identification and dissemination of good practices for use
of art towards children at risk.
At the conference
held in A Coruna, Spain, on 7 May 2013, George Bakalov- vice-chair of ICR and Ralitsa Voynova- member of ICR,
took part.
Project’s
findings were published.
10.“Restorative Justice in Europe:
Safeguarding Victims & Empowering Professionals” -2012-2014
The Institute of
Conflict Resolution is a partner in
a new project entitled “Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding
Victims & Empowering Professionals”, funded by the EU. The coordinator of the
project is Independent
Academic Research Studies (IARS)-UK, and
the partners are
also: the University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration -
Bremen (Germany), Restorative Justice Netherlands (the Netherlands), the
European Public Law Organisation (Greece). Associate Partners from the USA, UK, Cyprus etc. are involved as well.
The project aims
acceleration of the implementation of the
new Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the
Council for establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and
protection of victims of crime, improving services to the victims and promotion of restorative justice.
So
far in the frameworks of
the project from Bulgarian side a review of the
specialized literature in
Bulgarian and a summary
in English was made, published on
the Project site.
Fieldwork among victims of
crime and professionals from
5 focus groups
was done. The findings are
published on the Project site.
Information campaign
have
been launched and the
following more significant activities have
been accomplished:
-Prof. Dr. Dobrinka Chankova participated in
a conference “Law, Policy, Change”, held on 25
April 2013 at South-West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, with
a paper “Who is
still afraid from RJ in Bulgaria?”
- Prof.
Dr. Dobrinka Chankova participated with
a presentation entitled
“Who is afraid
of Restorative Justice ?” in
the international conference ”Restorative Justice: Towards a new European Perspective”, 16-17 May 2013,
Thessaloniki, Greece ( final conference of the European funded
project 3E-RJ-MODEL ).
- The
article of Prof. Dr. Dobrinka
Chankova “The New European Standards
for Rights, Support and Protection of Crime
Victims” has been
published in Bulgarian law journal “Society and Law”, 2013, N 4.
- Prof. Dr. D. Chankova took
part in the
International Summer School
for PhD Students “The European Union and the Black Sea Region:
Challenges and Prospects” held in
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, from 17
till 19 September 2013. She
delivered a lecture
entitled “Restorative Justice – the
New Perspective of Criminal Justice in Europe”.
- A common article of Prof. Dr Theo Gavrielides and Prof. Dr Dobrinka Chankova entitled “New
Transnational Project for Accelerating Implementation of the new European
Standards for Victims” was published
in the European
Forum for Restorative Justice Newsflash September
2013, http://www.euforumrj.org//assets/upload/IARS.pdf
-During the Annual Conference
of the Law Faculty of the University of National and
World Economy – Sofia, held
on 17 October 2013, Prof. Dr.
Dobrinka Chankova made a
presentation entitled “Restorative Justice - a
Revival of Customary Law in Support
of Crime Victims”.
- During the celebration of
the European Day against Human Trafficking- 18 October, held at South-West University- Blagoevgrad, information
about new Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the
Council for establishing
minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime was distributed.
-During the scientific session “Trends and Perspectives of Public
Administration in Bulgaria”
held at Law
and History Faculty at SWU “N. Rilski” information about Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the
Council for establishing
minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime
was disseminated.
-The International RJ week
was celebrated in November with students
from Law and History Faculty
at SWU “N. Rilski” and during
the
training of new mediators by ICR experts.
-At the
official opening of Mediation
centre at Blagoevgrad on 10 December 2013 Prof. Dr D. Chankova spoke
about RJ and the new EU Victims
Directive.
- 41 meetings with university professors and
other researchers and practitioners about how
to include Restorative
Justice and the new Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the
Council for establishing
minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime
in the education and social
and legal practice
have been organized.
-The IARS Press
release about the first year of the project was translated and distributed broadly.
It was published in Bulgarian
on-line newsletter and in the on-line scientific journal “Law, Politics,
Administration”. In the same journal the article of Prof. Chankova “Who is still
afraid from Restorative
Justice in Bulgaria?”,
presented as a paper in the conference “Law, Policy, Change”,
hold on 25 April
2013, appeared (www.lpajournal.com).
-Prof.
Chankova’s article “Crime Victims:
the new “icon“ of Bulgarian penal policy?” was published in Karaganda University Journal, 2013 N 4(72).
-The ICR
took part in
the public debate
about the new Draft
Penal Code. Five meetings
with university
professors and members of the working group
who developed the Draft
were organized and a
written statement was
prepared and sent. The possibilities for legal
regulation of Restorative justice were explored. Meetings with two NGO
representatives were organized.
-Prof. D.
Chankova attended the conference “European perspectives for development of
penal legislation”, organized by Sofia University on 27 January 2014. She made a presentation entitled
“Restorative justice - a new type of criminal justice in Europe, oriented
towards crime victim” which was very well received.
-Prof. D.
Chankova wrote a
new article about RJ
potential in Bulgaria,
to be published
in a Festschrift.
-On
18.02.2014 Prof. D. Chankova
was interviewed by
a journalist of
the Bulgarian National
Radio about the interim
results and the
expected outcomes of
RJE project. Here is the interview: http://bnr.bg/euranetplus/post/100310395/ochakvat-se-rezultatite-ot-proekt-vazstanovitelno-pravosadie-v-evropa-zashtita-na-jertvite-i-upalnomoshtavane-na-profesionalistite
The
European Day of Crime victims (22 February) was celebrated with students from South- West
University. Information about
the Victims’ Directive was
distributed.
11.04. 2014 A scientific session “Right to
nondiscrimination -
private law and
public law aspects”
was held at
Law and History
Faculty at South-West University-Blagoevgrad. Prof. D. Chankova made a presentation entitled “Pro or
contra victim’s positive
discrimination?”
07.04.2014 Prof. Chankova’s article
“Restorative Justice - a Revival of Customary Law in Support of Crime Victims”, presented as
a paper at
a conference, was
published in Bobchev’s
Readings: Law Science in Honour of Prof. Stefan Bobchev, University of
National and World Economy, Sofia, 2014
During the
Spring semester 2013/2014
recent information about
Victim’s Directive and
Victims’ rights was spread among
students studying “Alternative dispute resolution” at
SWU and students studying
“Mediation in civil and penal matters”
at New Bulgarian
University as well as among
new mediators’ training
Two articles of Prof. Chankova
were published in Greece
in the frameworks of
“The 3E Model for a
Restorative Justice Strategy in Europe”:
“Restorative Justice in Bulgaria”, In: Pitsela,
A. and Symeonidou-Kastanidou (Eds.) Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters: Towards a New European
Perspective. Comparative Research in 11 Countries, Sakkloulas
Publications: Athens -Thessaloniki, 2013, p. 23-43,
and
“Who is Afraid of Restorative Justice?” In: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Pitsela, A. and
Symeonidou-Kastanidou (Eds.) Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters: Towards a New European
Perspective. International Conference, 16-17 May 2013, Thessaloniki,
Greece, Sakkloulas Publications: Athens-Thessaloniki, 2013, p.277-280
The
Faculty of
Law and History
at South-West University “N. Rilski” hosted training
on protection of crime victims’ rights and restorative justice in the
frames of RJE project. Guest-lecturers were
Ben Lyon и Grace
Loseby from Independent Academic Research Studies-London. The training
was very successful and was
positively evaluated by the
participants who received
certificates. Similar training
was organized on 16.06.
2014 in Sofia Bar Association with active involvement of
the ICR members.
During the
conference “Children in
conflict with law. Reform of child
justice system in compliance
with the international standards and
the best interest of the
child” Prof Dr. Dobrinka Chankova spoke about
restorative justice potential. The
conference took place in Sofia and
was organized by UNICEF
jointly with the
National Assembly and
Ministry of Justice
of the Republic of Bulgaria.
During the
round table discussion “Forming of
long-term policies for improving crime victims standing”
Prof Dr D. Chankova presented
the project “Restorative
Justice in Europe: Safeguarding Victims and Empowering Professionals”.
Prof. Chankova’s presentation on RJ during
January 2014 high level
conference appeared in
a very nice compendium as
well as a paper
on RJ was posted on http://e-learning.vddlegal.com/course/view.php?id=4.
Prof. D. Chankova has
participated in the Final
Justice Cooperation Network Conference “Re-integration of High Risk Offenders”, 3-5 September 2014, Rostock-Warnemunde,
Germany, with a poster
presentation “RESTORATIVE
JUSTICE AND HIGH-RISK OFFENDERS:
CONTRADICTIOUS OR RECONCILABLE CATEGORIES?” and
promoted RJE Project.
Information about
RJE e-courses for victims
and professionals and
for the Final conference
was widely spread.
During the
period 15.09.- 02.10. 2014 Prof.
D. Chankova delivered course
of lectures on Restorative
Justice in Karaganda State University “Acad. E. Buketov”- Kazakhstan
Prof.
Chankova’s article “Restorative Justice Potential in Bulgaria” was
published in the Festschrift for 85th anniversary of Prof. Dr Dobri
Dimitrov, Sofia University Publishing house, 2014.
Prof. Chankova has written an
article "Is time for Restorative Justice in Bulgaria
coming?" to be published soon in Bulgarian Judge Journal.
Prof. Chankova reviewed the book of David Cornwell, John Blad and Martin
Wright (eds.) (2013). Civilising Criminal Justice. An International
Restorative Agenda for Penal Reform. With a Foreword by John Braithwaite.
Sherfield Gables: Waterside Press. The review was published In Internet
Journal of Restorative Justice, October 2014
Prof. D.
Chankova took part in the final RJE conference which was held at the
Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in London on 19-20th November.
Prof. Chankova presented the final report regarding RJE
project in Bulgaria. She attended the launch of RJE book:
Gavrielides, T. (ed.) A victim-led criminal justice system:
Addressing the paradox , London, 2014, in which she
has a chapter "More justice for crime victims
in Bulgaria".
RJ week
2014 was celebrated with new mediators.
11. "New European
Standards for Application of Alternatives to Imprisonment" 2015-2016
Starting
from 12 March 2015, the Association "Bulgarian-Romanian
Trans-border Mediation
Institute" starts the
implementation of the project "New European Standards for
Application of Alternatives to
Imprisonment",
funded according to contract № 93-00-133/12.03.2015,
Small Grants Scheme
of the Programme BG15
"Correction services including without detention measures"
under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. The Institute of
Conflict Resolution is a partner. The total
amount of the project is
113 237,50 BGN, from which 101 913,75 BGN is the
gratuitous aid from the
Programme Operator, and
11 323,75 BGN is the contribution of
the Beneficiary. The project
will be accomplished in 12 months.
 
18-19.03.2015 A working meeting was held in
Blagoevgrad.
28.04. 2015 A press-conference was launched in
BTA- Sofia.
6-10.07.2015 The
first working visit
to Budapest aimed to
explore the Hungarian experience in the alternatives to imprisonment took
place. The meetings with
the representatives of
various institutions were extremely useful.
 
 
10-14.08.2015
The second working
visit to Oslo aimed
to explore the
Norwegian experience in
the alternatives to imprisonment took
place.
 
6.10.2015
Today in Sofia
a conference entitled "Hungarian and
Norwegian experience for
application of
non-custodial sanctions
- new horizons
facing criminal justice" in
the framework of the project "New European Standards for Application
of Alternatives to
Imprisonment" was held.
5.12.2015 Prof. Dr. Dobrinka Chankova and Elina Popova were lecturing
during the trainings
of judges, public prosecutors and probation officers in
the frames of
the Project “New European
Standards for Application of
Alternatives to Imprisonment” held in
Blagoevgrad and Rousse in November
and December 2015.
  
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