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Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman at meeting of children's ombudsmen in Warsaw

In cooperation with UNICEF, the Polish ombudsman for children held aseminar from 24 to 26 June for children's ombudsmen and therepresentatives of “general” ombudsmen covering the area of children’srights, from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The purposeof the meeting was to present the working methods in the participantcountries, to define key problems and define the possibility of further(co)operation. The meeting was also attended by the independent adviserand adviser to the ombudsman Dr. Polona Selič and Martina Jenkole, whoare empowered within the ombudsman’s office for children’s rights.

The Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman’s presentation attracted much attention.In comparison with other such institutions, which are entirelyindependent, the protection of children’s rights in Slovenia isincorporated under the aegis of the national Human Rights Ombudsman.All the children’s ombudsmen work to a great extent with a broad brief,and do not deal with individual complaints. They strive to inform thepublic, and they oversee the fulfilment of laws and cooperation withnon-governmental organisations.

In Europe there are independent children’s ombudsmen in Poland, France,Flanders, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, where there are fiveoffices operating on a trial basis. In Estonia, Czech Republic,Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Macedonia, the area of children’srights are covered by “general” ombudsmen and their offices. Inaddition to the above, there is a children’s ombudsman in Scandinaviaand Austria and three in Belgium.

UNICEF presented research as part of the review of the consequences of transition in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.It found that infant mortality had fallen, but the birth rate haddropped by 36 per cent. Health care (in terms of preventivevaccination) was extended to all children, malnutrition andundernourishment of children had dropped, the level of primaryeducation was high, but the mechanisms for monitoring the rights of thechild (in terms of the Convention) had not yet been set up. One keyproblem was the growing poverty, which was reflected in health care,the education system, the pre-school infant care system andinstitutional care (increasing numbers of children are in variousinstitutions).

Alongside poverty there was the appearance of social exclusion of children, while priority tasks aresupport for families (as a preventive measure beforeinstitutionalisation), reducing violence and sexual abuse, and greaterinclusion of children and adolescents in the processes of deciding onmatters that affect them.

Participants pointed to the priority goals for ombudsmen of urgentlyeducating all segments of society about children’s rights, and throughpublic appearances drawing attention continuously to the rights ofchildren and the need to respect them.

Participants became familiarised with the work of the European Networkof Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) and the Committee for Children’sRights at the UN, which are guided by the common conviction that thelevel of democracy and humanity of a society can be seen in the levelof respect for children's rights. Under the guiding idea of the meeting, Children cannot wait!three topics, the Use of international institutions and mechanisms forensuring children’s rights, Work with children and Deprivation ofparental care and institutionalisation were dealt with practically ingroup sessions. The aim was to answer the questions

    *how to bring the institution (humanrights/children’s rights ombudsman) closer to children, and especiallyto marginal groups, children in institutions, in hospitals etc,
    *how to promote fulfilment of Article 12 of theConvention on the Rights of the Child in organising the work of theinstitution itself (the ombudsman) and in deciding on matters affectingchildren and
    *how to make more accessible to children the available avenues of complaint.

The discussions touched upon the possibility and means of forming whatare termed “children’s councils”, consultative bodies run by theombudsmen. British experience has shown that following initialencouragement from adults, children and adolescents themselves findways of organising themselves and actually cooperating. The children’scouncil participates in all decisions (Flanders), although itscomposition is of course not representative in terms of the entirepopulation of children and adolescents, so on specific subjects theymake separate enquiries among children and adolescents that haveexperience of the specific issue (questionnaires).

More so than web sites, questionnaires at schools, and leaflets andmail boxes at schools have proved to be effective. Here it is essentialto differentiate between children and adolescents. In the title of theombudsman, too, the proposed usage followed the Scandinavian model ofOmbudsman for Children and Adolescents.

As part of the third topic, UNICEF presented a study showing that inEastern and Central Europe and the Baltic states, there were 1.5million children without parents, of which 900 000 were ininstitutions. Many of these children do have parents, but they do notcare for them primarily because of poverty. The key role of theombudsman should be:

    *striving for change (in cooperation with the UN)
    *participation in reforms directed especially at support/assistance for families
    *creating the conditions in which it will also be possible to “hear” the opinion of children
    *overseeing state bodies.

The Slovenian presentation of the legal framework for assistance tofamilies served as a model in that part of Europe. UNICEF expressedgreat interest in further cooperation with the Slovenian Human RightsOmbudsman.

Bosnia-Herzegovina presented projects being carried out in cooperationwith UNICEF. One of these is ensuring the rights to property(inheritance) for children from Srebrenica who were orphaned. InUkraine and Russia, apart from institutionalisation, internationaladoption was a problem, and in Georgia support for foster children oncethey had reached 18, when they had neither a job nor accommodation,while the foster families as a rule no longer wanted them.

At the close, the participants adopted a joint statement in five points as follows:

    *to strive for the creation andconsolidation of the work of independent children’s rightsombudsmen/departments for children’s rights with human rightsombudsmen, in line with the criteria of ENOC and with the possiblesolutions within each country
    *to define poverty and the absence ofparental care/protection and the associated growth of institutionalcare as key challenges/difficulties for children (in the majority ofparticipant countries)
    *to determine that the economic, socialand political effects of transition demand efforts especially in

        a)    ensuring the rights of children to appropriate living conditions

        b)     ensuring appropriate professional help to families in need

        c)    social care, where the placing of children in institutions must only bean extreme measure

        d)    ensuring equal opportunities for all children to receive a high-qualityeducation

        e)     ensuring appropriate health care for all children

        f)      prevention of all forms of violence, abuse and neglect of children

# to convey the importance of respecting the rights of all children (inparticipant countries), including children of foreigners and refugees,those belonging to ethnic minorities, the disabled and children ininstitutions
# to express their commitment to further cooperation and to strivingfor fulfilment of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of theChild.

 

SOURCE: from the report made by Dr. Polona Selič, prepared by Nataša Kuzmič

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