The Protector of Citizens set-up an emergency meeting with the competent authorities in order to resolve the problem of day care of children and youth with autism who frequented the day care institutions until the proclamation of the state of emergency in Serbia this March.
This is just one of the activities of the Protector of Citizens which the Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights Ms. Jelena Stojanović listed in relation to child rights protection and promotion in an online meeting "Sharing best practices and instruments to protect children and adolescents in emergency situations - Focus on containment measures and related side effects in the Adriatic Ionian area”.
The meeting was organized on 24 August 2020 by the Marche region, in cooperation with the Permanent Secretariat of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative and that region’s Ombudsman, within the initiatives to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Ancona Charter and the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative.
The participants in the meeting, the ombudsmen for the rights of minors in the Adriatic-Ionian region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia) and the Italian children’s authority, agreed that countries from this region should hold meetings, and that similar challenges regarding child rights protection await them amid Covid 19 pandemic.
The meeting also discussed the challenges related to the beginning of the school year and the organization of classes, as well as the problems faced by children with autism and their families.