The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Nada Lazic stressed that the MPs and the relevant National Assembly working bodies had recognised the importance of children’s rights protection in Serbia and the need to improve their position years back. This is evidenced in the fact that sub-committees and working groups have been set up to tackle the status of children in Serbia.

The meeting also emphasised the importance of the efforts expended to make sure children suffer as little as possible if they cannot be completely exempt from the measures applied to deal with the economic crisis.

Deputy Ombudsperson Gordana Stevanovic said that the economic crisis may have hit children the worst. She also mentioned the worrying statistical data showing that the number of children in Serbia between two censuses (2002 and 2011) has dropped by 205,000 and that children make up just 17.2% of Serbia’s population.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gordana Comic told the ombudspersons that their job makes them the only bright spot in Serbia. She stressed that under the weight of the economic crisis the focus has shifted from human, and with them children’s rights, to the economy. That is why, she told the ombudspersons, she fully supports what they do.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Prof. Dr Vladimir Marinkovic also believes that the parliament should offer key support to the protection of children’s rights. He underlined the fact that in the last 25 years Serbia had no long-term strategic development plan nor any children’s rights development and improvement plan. He believes that the region suffers from the same and that all of its countries need a strategy which would help the ombudspersons do their job successfully.