DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL (DCI) - Belgium | Practical Guide ʺʺ To receive confidential correspondence from children deprived of their liberty and to follow them up; ʺʺ To follow up (themselves or to refer to the competence authorities) on allegations of abuse or violation of children’s rights; ʺʺ To produce, disseminate and take all the necessary follow-up measures of the report including recommendations of improvement. INTERVIEWS WITH CHILDREN Every monitoring visit should include interviews with children deprived of their liberty as the expression of their right to participate. These interviews can give valuable insights into a closed facility regime and provide monitors with qualitative data to report on. However, interviewing children is really delicate and is a process that needs specific training or experience in communication with children, proper preparation, adequate implementation and should be conducted sensitively and with flexibility. Monitors could be confronted to challenging ethical issues while interviewing children. They should always refer to an ethical Guidelines See – Section 4.1. / G. – p.56 & Annex 2. – p.158 for details of all the principles to be respected while interviewing children deprived of liberty See – Section 3.3. – p.32, a specific methodology on how to interview and how to address common problems See – Section 4.3. / D. – p.73. In any case, interviews of children must always be conducted on a voluntary, confidential basis and with a child-sensitive approach, with or without the presences of a third person of the child’s choice See – Section 3.3. – p.32. Children should be offered the right to be informed of the result of the monitoring process. 34