Friday, 27 May 2011

Public Discussion Held on Parliamentary Dialogue on Children

The National Assembly’s Children’s Rights Working Group and the Association for Development of Children and Youth – Open Club organised a public discussion today on Parliamentary Dialogue on Children at the National Assembly building.
The public discussion was opened by Nikola Novakovic, member of the Children’s Rights Working Group and National Assembly Deputy Speaker, while Ferenc Simon, Head of Operations of the European Union Delegation to Serbia, Tanja Fajon, European Parliament Member and Lesley Miller, Deputy Director of the UNICEF Office in Serbia, also gave an opening address.


In his address, Deputy Speaker Nikola Novakovic stressed that the National Assembly’s interest in improving children’s right was raised to the highest level by the foundation of the Children’s Rights Working Group in 2009, adding that a political consensus was reached on it. In addition, starting from the next National Assembly convocation, according to the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, a Committee on the Rights of the Child will be formed. Deputy Speaker Novakovic presented the Working Group’s numerous activities ranging from the analysis of bills and budget proposals in assembly procedure from the children’s rights perspective, strengthening the Working Group’s supervisory function over the implementation of adopted laws and strategies, to the organisation of public debates and seminars relating to children’s rights. The Working Group has also established cooperation with the competent ministries, Ombudsman, local self-governments in Serbia, non-governmental organisations, as well as inter-parliamentary cooperation on children’s rights.

Ferenc Simon stressed that the European Union is not just a political and economic union, but also a union of values among which human rights and children’s rights in particular occupy a key place. The European Union supports the social inclusion and child protection projects in Serbia, particularly in the case of sensitive categories of children – Roma children and children from rural areas.

Tanja Fajon pointed out that children are a vulnerable group and in the European Union as much as 20% of children live in poverty. She stressed that the European Parliament deals with children’s rights in several of its committees and enjoys close cooperation with UNICEF and other non-governmental organisations, but the fact that children are mostly ignorant of their rights and institutions they can approach for help is a big problem in European Union states and they should be educated about it.
Lesley Miller said that in the past ten years Serbia has done a lot to improve the position of children - as regards education, the falling rate of mortality in Roma children and the number of children housed in institutions providing assistance to fostering and adoption has also fallen. In the institutional sense, the creation of the Children’s Rights Working Group at the National Assembly, Ombudsman and creation of the network of civil organisation dealing with children’s rights is undeniably important.


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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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