“Medjashi” workshop on interviewing children witnesses Children witnesses should get maximum protection in court The First Children Embassy in the World “Medjashi”, which is part of the regional programme “Childhood without violence – towards better children protection system in Easter Europe”, is organizing a workshop on “Interviewing children witnesses”. The goal of the workshop was exchanging experiences and acquiring new knowledge and approach when interviewing children witnesses. Participants at the workshop were investigative judges who interview children witnesses, police inspectors that deal with the same matter and Maria Keller Hamella, child psychologist and international expert on interviewing children witnesses. “Children have to be dealt with highly professionally, they need to be interviewed in a friendly environment and they must not be faced with the perpetrator. The interview has to be conducted by a child-loving person and it has to be done according to certain rules which do not allow the child to be approached by a person considered by him/her to be a high authority so as not to scare them, thus influencing the answers they provide. It has to be done by a professional in that field. Children are usually victims of family violence, or have been sexually abused. However, some of them may appear as witnesses of some other crime, like theft or murder”, says Maria Keller Hamella Vasilka Bozinovska, a judge at the magistrates court Skopje 1, says that the Ministry of Justice should consider employing sociologists, psychologists, defectologists and other specialists that will work with children. According to her, the preparations for applying the Law on juvenile justice are going too slowly. Two more one-day workshops for police inspectors and another one for judges are to follow as part of the same programme, which is also implemented in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria. A brochure called “I’m going to court” is to be published as well. It is aimed for children and its goal is to introduce the children to the court procedures so that they can be better prepared to when appearing as witnesses in the courts.   S.N.