The Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, said today that the position of children in the Republic of Serbia has been improved in comparison to previous years, but that the children who belong to sensitive social groups are still at risk of having their rights violated and highlighted that their protection might be improved through coordinated cooperation of all social factors.
“Children with disabilities, children from LGBT community, Roma children, children migrants and the ones who have come unaccompanied to our country, as well as the children who live and work on the streets are still at the risk from different abuses which violate their rights”, Pašalić said on 1 June - International Children’s Day.
Pašalić has emphasized that family, relatives, teachers, and especially competent bodies need to make additional efforts for children from vulnerable social categories to exercise all the rights that belong to them and react efficiently and coordinately if the violation of their rights happens.
On the International Children’s Day, the Sector for Child Rights of the Protector of Citizens has launched a three-day training for the members of the Youth Advisory Panel of the Protector of Citizens for surveying peer violence in schools and marginalized groups, after which the Protector of Citizens’ young panelists will conduct a survey in their schools, and the Protector of Citizens will draft a Special Report. The training is conducted with the support of the EU and the Council of Europe.
The Deputy Protector of Citizens, Jelena Stojanović, said at the beginning of the training that it was important to recognize and note all forms of peer violence and that the obtained results would be compared to the data obtained from the survey of the Protector of Citizens that had been carried out 10 years ago.