The EU is by far Serbia’s biggest donor regarding protection of all rights of the child and will continue supporting initiatives for support and protection based on child rights and in their best interest in the future,Yolanda San Jose, head of Operations 1 at the EU Delegation to Serbia, said at the public hearing of Serbia’s Parliamentary Committee on rights of the child.
“Some of the projects are developing community based services for children with disabilities, re-structuring the network of residential institutions for children, making Serbian education system more accessible for the marginalized groups, strengthening the justice and social welfare systems to advance the protection of children in Serbia,” she said.
When it comes to children’s rights, Serbia has made some progress and the EU has welcomed re-establishment of the governmental council of children in charge of monitoring children’s rights, but Roma children and children with disabilities remain the most discriminated against, San Jose said.
“Roma children face many problems, like lack of registration immediately after birth that leads to other problems especially in access to the right to social protection, access to education and health care,” she added.
“Additionally, problems such as inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools, improvement of community-based services, preparation of a new national strategy for the prevention of and protection from violence against children, improvement of alternative sanctions for juvenile offenders and measures aimed at their reintegration, are those that should be closely followed,” San Jose said.
She urged Serbia to invest efforts in order to improve the legal and instutitional framework that would improve position of the street children, “who are the most vulnerable group a society might have,” and who “are facing unequal chances and limited opportunities in life, largely due to social exclusion.”
