Interviewing children for criminal proceedings: EU shares best practices with Ukrainian officials

The EU Advisory Mission in Ukraine (EUAM) last week organised a series of webinars for representatives of law enforcement in Ukraine on interviewing children as part of criminal proceedings.

Experts from the Finnish Police shared with their colleagues from Kharkiv region their approaches and techniques to help make such interviews less harmful for children and more informative for investigators.

To avoid the risk of potential ‘secondary victimisation’, the Nordic countries have developed their special Barnahus model (‘Children’s House model’) that implies that all services are delivered under one roof, including the forensic interview, medical examination, and child/family therapy. Under the Barnahus model, interviewing rooms have a child-friendly design and have no negative associations for kids, enabling victims to feel comfortable when interacting with professionals. The number of interviews is minimised in order to reduce re-traumatisation.

Another two webinars were delivered for prosecutors of Donetsk region and judges of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovograd and Zaporizhzhia regions.

EUAM plans to assist the National Police of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region in equipping a special room for conducting interviews with children in accordance with best international practices.

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Press release