Speaking at the panel dedicated to the PABSEC recommendations on the improvement of the position of children and further reform of the child welfare system, Elvira Kovacs stressed that, by establishing the Committee on the Rights of the Child as a separate working body headed by the National Assembly Speaker, the National Assembly had shown its commitment to the protection of children’s rights. She also stressed that the Committee, in addition to its basic scope, in the previous legislature, operating as the Children’s Rights Working Group, had organised several visits to various institutions, elementary and high-schools to monitor the application and improvement of the implementation of laws to the children’s best interest.
Elvira Kovacs commended the adoption of the Law on the Basics of the System of Education and Upbringing and the Law on Social Care at the National Assembly, but also pointed out problems such as the lack of data on vulnerable categories of children, as well as services available to them at the local level. The lack of decentralisation in social care is also a problem, as is the continued institutionalisation of these children partially caused by the lack of local services to help their parents.
In the course of the panel, most countries of the Black Sea region were said to, so far, have few pre-school institutions for children with disabilities, that children living in rural areas are practically excluded from all services, while the number of special schools, concentrated in bigger towns, is insufficient.
The panel, comprising parliamentarians, PABSEC members from Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan and Romania, also discussed the PABSEC recommendations adopted in May 2012 which, among other things envisage the creation of a regional children’s trust fund, analysis of the child welfare reform in the countries of the Black Sea region and the use of best experiences in the development of child services. They also considered how these recommendations could be implemented through the cooperation of the parliaments and governments in the region.
The participants of the forum agreed on the necessity of a successful partnership between all the participants, while further specific steps would be discussed the PABSEC General Assembly to be held on 27 and 28 November in Baku, Azerbaijan.