The Protector of Citizens, on his own initiative, based on information from the media that a man was arrested who forced his child to beg and punished him by stripping him naked and leaving him in a fountain in New Belgrade, launched an investigation to control the legality and regularity of work of the City Centre for Social Work Belgrade.
The Protector of Citizens learned from the media that a child (9) was found naked and in a very poor state of health in a fountain in New Belgrade, as well as that his father often abducted him from the Home for Children Without Parental Care, forced him to beg and beat him when would not bring him enough money.
The Protector of Citizens requested from the City Centre for Social Work Belgrade to submit a detailed report within 15 days on the actions of the competent department of the Centre for Social Work in the specific case, along with relevant documentation.
In the context of the proceedings, and in the spirit of good cooperation, bearing in mind the common interest and obligation of all state authorities of the Republic of Serbia to undertake activities and exchange information with the aim of protecting human rights, especially children's rights, the Protector of Citizens asked the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings to submit information on its possible actions in this case within 15 days.
Also, in the spirit of good cooperation, the Protector of Citizens asked the Second Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade to inform him as soon as possible about all the circumstances of the child's father's deprivation of liberty, about whether criminal proceedings had been conducted against him before and for which crime, as well as what the eventual outcome of those proceedings was.