On European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, Children's Ombudswoman Helenca Pirnat-Dragicevic on Thursday called on the government to introduce a leading European model of protection of the rights and interests of children who are victims of sexual abuse.

The model, called Barnahus (Children’s House), is about an interdisciplinary regional centre for child victims where children can be interviewed and medically examined for forensic purposes, comprehensively assessed and receive all relevant therapeutic services.

It is a place where experts visit children instead of making children visit experts at different locations to repeatedly describe and relive the violence inflicted on them, which additionally traumatises them, Pirnat-Dragicevic said.

Ensuring a judicial procedure adapted to the child, through this Scandinavian model, is the central theme of this year’s European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.

A model of protection of children like this one needs to be introduced in Croatia as soon as possible, Pirnat-Dragicevic said.

Each newly discovered case of sexual abuse of children reveals the weaknesses of the system of child protection, she said.

All children do not have equal access to programmes for the prevention of sexual abuse and there are no solid legislative solutions for the protection of children from contact with convicted perpetrators of sexual violence and from sexual harassment, she said.