site.btaRepresentatives of Relevant Institutions in Bulgaria, Norway Hold Consultations on Children's Rights

Sofia, July 16 (BTA) - Representatives of Bulgarian and Norwegian institutions have held bilateral consultations concerning the application of the effective international treaties and the applicable national legislation regulating children's rights and protection, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a press release Monday.

In the consultations in Oslo Bulgaria was represented by its Ambassador in Norway, Roumyana Mitreva, the Bulgarian consul, Nikolai Tsanev, the heads of the Consular Relations and Human Rights Directorates in the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Nikolai Vanchev and Maria Spassova, and representatives of the Justice Ministry and the State Agency for Child Protection.

The Norwegian institutions were represented by senior officials of the Department of Childhood, Youth and Family Affairs and diplomatic officials.

The meeting focused on issues relating to the access to information about concrete cases, the opportunities for involvement of representatives of diplomatic and consular missions accredited on the territory of Norway in meetings with the child protection services, attendance of court meetings, notification of the consular services about imposed child protection measures, how children in foster care or in an institution can be accessed and talked with, measure to preserve the child's mother tongue, as well as opportunities for access to children on the part of close relatives with whom the child keeps and has strong ties.

Clarification was offered to concrete questions raised by the Bulgarian side about Norway's rules and procedures about children and parents with foreign citizenship.

The consultations were the result of a meeting in early June in Sofia between Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and Norwegian Ambassador Lise Nicoline Kleven Grevstad, accredited to Bulgaria, occasioned by cases involving Bulgarian mothers resident in Norway whose children had been taken away by the Norwegian child welfare service.