Submitted by jonas on
[6 Oct 2014]
On 2 October 2014, the Chairman of "The Smile of the Child" and Board Member of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), Costas Yannopoulos met with the Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights in Greece, Charalambos Athanasiou. This meeting attended also the former Deputy Attorney of the Hellenic Supreme Court, Vasileios Markis, the former Attorney for Minors, Chrysoula Papataksiarchi and the Head of National Advocacy Children Center in the United States, Chris Newlin, as well as members of the team of "The Smile of the Child".
"The Smile of the Child" recognizing the needs for support to children victims of abuse and through its 20 years work on child abuse cases informed the Minister and the participants of this meeting on its intention to establish a Child Advocacy Center in Greece. More specifically, the Greek non-profit organization has put at the Ministry’s and competent authorities’ disposal the appropriate infrastructure required to host in full protection children who have been victims abuse and have to participate to legal procedures necessary as victims or witnesses.
The establishment of the particular infrastructure bases on the utilization of international good practices and the ultimate goal is to create a similar model in Greece, appropriate for implementation across the country. Within this framework, "The Smile of the Child" with the support of the US Embassy in Greece hosted a training seminar that was provided by the Head of US National Advocacy Children Center, Chris Newlin and focused on the multi-
disciplinary approach of child abuse and exploitation cases.
The Greek Minister of Justice had the opportunity to discuss on the multi-disciplinary method of work of the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in the United States. The function of CAC was also presented during the two-day training that was held in Athens and whose participants were among others Attorneys, professionals in the judiciary, law enforcement professionals, guardians and healthcare professionals. The main aim of Child Advocacy Centers is the cooperation of all competent actors in order to ensure that all services to children are provided in coordination and in a child friendly environment where the child most importantly is not re-victimized.
Both the Minister and its team agreed on the need to establish this kind of structure in Greece and committed hemselves to proceed with the necessary steps.
For more information on this press release, please come in contact with the press team:
at [email protected] or +30 210 33 06 140.
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