A/RES/69/194 United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (e) To ensure that the child victim’s parents or legal guardian and, where appropriate, a child protection professional accompany the child during interviews conducted as part of the investigation and during trial proceedings, inter alia, while testifying as a witness, except in the following circumstances, as dictated by the best interests of the child: (i) The parent(s) or the legal guardian are the alleged perpetrator(s) of the offence committed against the child; (ii) The court deems that it is not in the best interests of the child to be accompanied by his or her parent(s) or legal guardian, including on the basis of credible concern expressed by the child; (f) To ensure that proceedings relevant to the testimony of the child are explained to the child and conducted in language that is simple and comprehensible to the child and that interpretation into language that the child understands is made available; (g) To protect the privacy of child victims of violence as a matter of primary importance, to protect them from undue exposure to the public, for example by excluding the public and the media from the courtroom during the child’s testimony, and to protect information relating to a child’s involvement in the justice process by maintaining confidentiality and restricting disclosure of information that may lead to identification of the child; (h) To ensure, within the framework of national legal systems, that criminal proceedings involving child victims take place as soon as possible, unless delays are in the child’s best interest; (i) To provide for the use of child-sensitive procedures, including interview rooms designed for children, interdisciplinary services for child victims integrated within the same location, modified court environments that take child witnesses into consideration, recesses during a child’s testimony, hearings scheduled at times of day appropriate to the age and maturity of the child, an appropriate notification system to ensure that the child goes to court only when necessary and other appropriate measures to facilitate the child’s testimony; (j) To ensure that, when child victims of violence may be the subject of intimidation, threats or harm, appropriate conditions are put in place to ensure their safety and that protective measures are taken, such as: (i) Preventing direct contact between a child victim and the accused at any point during the criminal justice process; (ii) Requesting restraining orders from a competent court, supported by a registry system; (iii) Requesting a pretrial detention order for the accused from a competent court, with “no contact” bail conditions; (iv) Requesting an order from a competent court to place the accused under house arrest if necessary; (v) Requesting protection for a child victim by the police or other relevant agencies and safeguarding the whereabouts of the child from disclosure. 25. Recognizing the serious nature of violence against children and taking into account the severity of the physical and psychological harm caused to child victims, Member States are urged, as appropriate and while taking into consideration relevant 18/29