PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW • The currently existing institutions – CBS and SPBS – do not meet children’s needs and are unable to correct their behaviours. Nor do they facilitate their subsequent socialization, successful rehabilitation, and social reintegration. • The concurrent existence of two competing systems – a punitive system and a protection system, contradicts contemporary views of child and juvenile justice. It is the children who experience the negative effects of the unreformed system. • Urgent actions are needed to enact a new Juvenile Criminal Justice Act, which would protect the interests of children and adolescents with the focus of criminal proceedings shifting from punishment to child-sensitive alternatives. ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE RESPECTIVE INSTITUTIONS FOLLOWING THE RECOMMENDATIONS ADDRESSED TO THEM BY THE NPM In 2015, the NPM continued to emphasize the problems of children in conflict with the law placed in Social and Pedagogical Boarding Schools (SPBS) and in Correctional Boarding Schools (CBS). As a follow up to the inspections conducted in November and December of 2015, the NPM published and publicized a thematic report on the treatment of and conditions for children in CBS and SPBS.5 The report was based on the 2014 thematic report on the same subject6, which discussed in detail the legal characteristics of the CBS and SPBS in terms of international and domestic law, the profile of children placed there, the living conditions, the quality of education and extracurricular activities, the treatment of children and the child protection measures in place, the quality of health services, and the administrative and technical capacity. In response to the findings and recommendations of the NPM, the competent institutions provided the Ombudsman with the following information: The Ministry of Education and Science undertook to strengthen the control exercised by its regional inspectorates over the institutions in question, as well as to set up an interinstitutional working group tasked with the implementation of the commitments under the Concept Paper on the Government Policy in the Field of Juvenile Justice (Концепция за държавна политика в областта на правосъдието за детето) and the Roadmap for its implementation. Furthermore, actions have been taken to close down the SPBS in the town of Straldzha (in the Yambol Province). The Social Assistance Agency informed the Ombudsman that social workers from its Child Protection Departments at the local Social Assistance Directorates had been working with the children and their families. Furthermore, an interinstitutional working group had been set up as per MoJ Order No. LS-04-883/27.05.2014 tasked with initiating amendments to the CPC concerning the interrogation and court hearings of minors. It had been suggested also that the Roadmap timeframes be reviewed. According to the information from the SAA, the MoES had The full text of the report ‘On Children in Conflict with the Law’ („За децата в конфликт със закона“) is available in Bulgarian at http://www.ombudsman.bg/pictures/VUI_SPI_final(2).pdf 6 Report Describing the Results of the Inspections Carried out and an Assessment of the Condition and Respect for the Rights of the Children Placed in the Social and Pedagogical Boarding Schools and in the Correctional Boarding Schools in the Republic of Bulgaria, March, 2014 („Доклад от извършени проверки и оценка на състоянието и спазването на правата на децата, настанени в социално-педагогическите интернати и възпитателните училища–интернати в Република България“), avaialbale in Bulgarian at http://www.ombudsman.bg/documents/report%20npm%2003.2014.pdf 5 46