In Rogaška Slatina, today and tomorrow, 3 and 4 April 2008, a consultation entitled Violence, what else can we do? is taking place, which is organised every year by the Criminal Police Directorate at the General Police Directorate and the State Prosecutors' Association of Slovenia.

At the opening, the participants were welcomed by Director General of the Police Jože Romšek, Human Rights Ombudsman Dr Zdenka Čebašek Travnik, and Slavica Pureber from the Office of the State Prosecutor General. On behalf of the organiser, Boštjan Škerlec, President of the State Prosecutors' Association, and Aleksander Jevšek, Director of the Criminal Police Directorate at the General Police Directorate, greeted the participants in the consultation.

Jože Romšek, Director General of the Police

At the consultation, judges, prosecutors and criminal investigators discussed the issue of domestic violence, in which children and minors are victims. They considered legal and other perspectives, for example psychological and social viewpoints, and thereby gained new knowledge and an exchange of experiences and good practices.

At the consultation, Aleksander Jevšek, Director of the Criminal Police Directorate at the GPD, underlined: "Violence in intimate relations is extremely difficult to uncover, discuss and examine. It goes on far from the eyes and ears of investigators. Victims of violence and the offenders do not like to talk about it, especially to unknown persons. Undeniably, the merit for the 'discovery' of previously invisible victims in the private sphere, especially of victimised children and women, goes to the professionals and the civil society."

This time, the newly adopted Domestic Violence Prevention Act will be presented at the consultation, and participants will be informed on the work of experts in procedures involving children, on the organisational and substantive scheme of the Advocate - Voice of the Child project and the existing experience on the pilot project, on the investigation of child pornography in Croatia, on the relations of family courts of justice in processes between parents and children, and on other topics that will also be discussed.

Dr Zdenka Čebašek Travnik, Human Rights Ombudsman

Great interest on the part of earlier participants encouraged the organisation of the consultation. This year as well, more than 170 participants from the Police, the Office of the Prosecutor and the courts, as well as representatives of children, will participate in the seminar, now in its seventh year.