The parliamentary group of Bulgarian New Democracy prepared a national children's ombudsman draft law, Bulgarian News Agency BTA said on December 14.

The draft law would be put forward in parliament in the beginning of 2008.

This was announced from the parliamentary tribune by Bulgarian New Democracy's chairman Borislav Ralchev. During the past several days we once again witnessed a series of acts of violence against Bulgarian youths with serious consequences, Ralchev said.

He went on to comment that recent years' statistics showed a considerable amount of violence-against-children registered, BTA said.

“The parliamentary group of Bulgarian New Democracy calls upon all competent state bodies and school authorities as well, to take all the necessary measures to prevent and reduce the number of this kind of acts,” Ralchev said.

The parliamentary group of Bulgarian New Democracy was committing itself to a series of initiatives to prevent and surmount the reasons that led to violence between young people, including between children, Ralchev said. “To realise these initiatives, we will draw in parents, teachers, as well as experts and media,” he added. “We are convinced that it is time that in Bulgaria a specialised institution is established – a national children's ombudsman.”

According to Ralchev, similar institutions worked effectively in 17 EU member states.