At its fourth sitting, held on 16 July, the Children’s Rights Working Group discussed the Bill on the Bases of the System of Education and Upbringing and Bill on Textbooks and Other Teaching Aids, currently in assembly procedure.

Minister of Education Zarko Obradovic and associates participated in the work of the Working Group. He pointed out that the Bill shall raise the level and quality of education in Serbia and emphasised the proposed innovations, such as availability of education for all, strengthening children’s rights, banning discrimination, violence, abuse and neglect in schools.

The Working Group members believe that the Bill offers good solutions regarding children’s rights. They particularly emphasised the importance of the monitoring function over the implementation of the law, stating it would be good to launch an initiative for the formation of a standing assembly body to monitor its implementation. The proposal that the new National Assembly Act introduces the formation of a Children’s Rights Committee as a separate working body dealing with the protection of children’s rights, was also endorsed.

The Working Group’s activities in the past six months were discussed in the continuation of the sitting. It was noted that the majority of planned tasks had been realised, regardless of the National Assembly’s heightened activities. The officials restated the need of instituting a standing working body in charge of children’s rights at the National Assembly. It was also agreed that Snezana Stojanovic-Plavsic coordinates the Working Group’s activities when the National Assembly Speaker is prevented, so as to enable a more operational and efficient functioning of the Children’s Rights Working Group.

At the end of the sitting, the officials agreed to visit the local self-government of Pirot on 23 and 24 July 2009.

The sitting was chaired by Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, National Assembly Speaker.