On 1 September 2026, Equilibrium participated in the 53rd meeting of the National Council for Child Protection under the State Agency for Child Protection. The meeting was held in Hall 5 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and was opened by Natalia Efremova, Minister of Labour and Social Policy.
Equilibrium has been a member of the National Council for Child Protection for a third consecutive term.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy Nadya Klisurska, Dr. Teodora Ivanova, Chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection, as well as representatives of institutions and civil society organisations that are members of the Council.
Violence Has Many Faces
The main focus of the meeting was on the implementation of the National Programme for the Prevention of Violence and Abuse against Children 2023–2026 and the adoption of the report on its implementation.
The discussion was particularly timely against the background of the increasingly visible cases of violence against and among children. We spoke not only about the manifestations of violence that we see, but also about what lies behind them – what children experience, what places them at risk, and where the system still fails to respond early enough.
It was precisely in this context that Equilibrium raised an issue which, in our view, needs to have a much more prominent place in future policies for the prevention of violence:
What happens to children who are turned into weapons in the conflict between their parents?
Separation and divorce do not in themselves necessarily mean trauma for a child. However, severe and prolonged conflicts between parents can place a child in an extremely destructive situation.
When one parent uses the child as a tool against the other, when the child is forced to take sides, or when their love for one parent is turned into evidence of disloyalty towards the other, the child is no longer simply “going through a difficult divorce”.
They are placed in a conflict of loyalty that they cannot resolve.
A child loves both parents. When they are forced to reject one in order to be loyal to the other, they pay a price that is not theirs to pay.
Feelings of guilt, fear of losing one of their parents, the need to take sides, and constant emotional pressure can have serious consequences for their development and behaviour.
Therefore, according to Equilibrium, children involved in severe parental conflicts and cases of parental alienation should also be recognised as children who need protection and support.
The issue of the professionals who make decisions in these situations is particularly important.
Judges, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and all professionals who work with children and families during separation and divorce need to have the necessary training to recognise the dynamics of severe parental conflict and its impact on the child.
“The best interests of the child” cannot be merely a legal term. It must be a genuine criterion through which every decision affecting a child’s life is considered.
Because sometimes behind the behaviour of a child who appears “problematic”, “aggressive” or “disobedient” there is a story that adults have failed to hear.
And here is an important question that deserves serious analysis: how many of the children who later display aggression, violence, antisocial behaviour or become subject to radicalisation have previously been victims of severe family conflicts and other forms of violence?
We cannot assume that problematic behaviour begins out of nowhere.
During the meeting, one of the system’s longstanding problems was also discussed – the lack of the necessary reform in child justice.
The way in which society responds to children who engage in antisocial behaviour or come into conflict with the law is directly linked to our understanding of the causes that have led to this behaviour.
Prevention cannot be limited to responding after something has already happened.
If we want less violence, we need to be able to identify children at risk in time – including children who live in destructive family conflicts.
During the meeting, Minister Natalia Efremova made an important statement, categorically declaring that the adoption of a Strategy for the Child is included in the Government’s programme.
Bulgaria has not had an effective national Strategy for the Child since 2018.
For the civil society sector, this is important news. The need for a clear strategic framework for child policies is an issue that organisations have been working on and advocating for years.
We hope that the forthcoming development of the Strategy will provide an opportunity for a genuine discussion about the kind of child protection and support system we want to build – not only in terms of institutions and services, but as an environment in which children are truly heard and protected.
The 53rd meeting of the National Council for Child Protection concluded with a decision to develop a new National Programme for the Prevention of Violence and Abuse against Children for the period 2027–2030.
This is precisely the time to include those forms of violence that often remain hidden behind words such as “family conflict”, “a difficult divorce” or “a dispute between parents”.
Our responsibility as professionals and as a society is to recognise the signs in time, to listen to the child, and not to allow their childhood to become the price of the war between adults.