Responsibility and obligation to ensure a happy and healthy childhood for children, safe and secure environment, quality education and a chance to realize their potentials is the most important task we have before us as a society, said the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Janković at the conference “Responsibility in protecting children’s rights“, which was organized by the Provincial Protector of Citizens on the International Children’s Day in Novi Sad.
Although in recent years, through the improvement of the legal framework, the position of children and the exercise of their rights have improved, discrimination is still present. Aware of the role and responsibilities we have as an institution for the protection of human rights, last year we drafted a Special Report on Discrimination against Children for the past seven years. The report showed that discrimination has not been eradicated and that children with disabilities, children living in institutions, in Roma settlements, in poverty, as well as those suffering from rare diseases are most often exposed to it, Janković pointed out.
The report also indicates that violence and intolerance among children and youth have been expressed and that they are becoming an acceptable pattern of behavior. Peer violence, which in addition to physical violence includes verbal violence, mockery, derogatory naming, spreading rumors, belittling, and even physical attacks, has taken on new and more sophisticated forms in the digital world. Social networks and numerous applications, the challenges that young people face, open up problems – from discrimination, through privacy violations, to security, warns Janković and points out that modern technologies must be used also to eliminate and prevent such risks.
Serbia does not have a law that refers exclusively to children, but their rights are regulated in a large number of regulations, the Commissioner reminded. However, declarative and legal support must be accompanied by application in practice, and this is where – in the field, in understanding the position of the child in the family, the school, the institutions or the media, problems arise. That is why it is important to insist on consistency in the application of regulations, but also on changing attitudes and stereotypes, which are the root of every discrimination, against children as well, concluded Janković.
In the introductory part of the conference in Novi Sad, the Provincial Protector of Citizens Zoran Pavlović, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Serbia Anika Ben David, the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Cassation Biljana Sinanović and the Director of the Judicial Academy Nenad Vujić also spoke.
