As early as the parliamentary discussion of annual reports in June 2001 the Human Rights Ombudsman Matjaž Hanžek set out his priorities, placing special emphasis on the intensification of efforts aimed at protecting and assisting children. Parliament endorsed his desire to increase the number of employees working largely with issues connected with children and other related social problems. Two experts in the sphere of social rights and children's rights have been newly employed by the office.
Following the decision to devote more attention to children's rights, the Ombudsman invited all children on 5 October, during Children's Week, to come to an Open Day for a short chat. He told them about his work and asked them to actively cooperate in raising the awareness of their rights and exercising them, as well as in formulating solutions when these rights are infringed. The children also called attention to some ambiguous points relating to the protection of their rights and enquired about how one appeals to the Ombudsman; they also put forward some concrete initiatives. They expressed a desire for more open days and expressed their desire to closely cooperate with the Ombudsman. The open day revealed that adults are also interested in the provision of guidance and education about the protection of children's rights.
He responded to the initiatives put forward by his young guests very enthusiastically. He succeeded to talk the children's newspapers Ciciban and Cicido into promoting and providing information on rights; in addition, a brief profile of the Ombudsman was published in a supplement to the January editions of these newspapers, called "For Parents". He spoke on the protection of the children and young people's rights during a speech at the 12th session of the children's parliament, organised at the end of January.