Round table: "Necessity of introducing Children's Ombudsman
in Serbia" / June, 2004
Children's Cultural Centre Belgrade in cooperation with the Embassy
of Sweden and the Swedish Institute have been implementing programmes
focused on children's rights. These programmes have resulted from
one another, and jointly make up a process that represents a particular
support in the domain of promotion, realization and protection
of children’s rights.
The mentioned cooperation also resulted in a three-day visit of
Swedish Children's Ombudsman Ms Lena Nyberg from 8-10 June 2004.
The importance of this visit, among other things, is reflected
in the fact that it was the reason for organizing a Round Table
on the "Necessity of introducing Children's Ombudsman
in Serbia", with participation of all institutions,
organizations, and state bodies who are to make a decision on
the necessity of introducing the Children's Ombudsman institution,
as well as representatives of children themselves. The representative
status of the participants, the entire duration of the Round Table,
and its conclusion, have provided conditions for renewal of the
idea of introducing the Children's Ombudsman as an independent
institution, and to finally start the process of broadly promoting
this idea.
Serbia is the only country in the region, which does not have
a general Human Rights Ombudsman institution and the Children's
Ombudsman has not been discussed since the end of 2002, even though
many analyses, especially the most recent ones referring to the
preparation of the National Action Plan for Children, reflected
a critical state of children’s rights. Consequently, the process
of introducing European standards in this area was nonexistent.
On the other hand, there are currently 18 offices of Children's
Ombudsman functioning in Europe, which all comprise the European
Network of Children's Ombudsman (ENOC). Owing to the continuous
communication with the Children's Ombudsman of Sweden, the Children's
Culture Centre Belgrade has the opportunity to follow the work
of the Network, which contributes to the high quality of our approach
in the promotion of the idea of establishing the institution of
Children's Ombudsman in Serbia.
As a result of the Round Table, we have formed a Taskforce that
would work on the preparation of the proposal of a normative act,
which establishes the institution of Children's Ombudsman in Serbia,
and in 2005 we also plan to organize an international
conference on the "Experiences of Ombudsmen for children
and how to gain them".
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