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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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