Government of the Republic of Serbia
The Roma children and children with disabilities are mostly exposed to discrimination in kindergarten and schools in Serbia. The greatest problems are segregation of the Roma children as well as the lack, and sometimes also the resistance, to inclusive education, said Brankica Janković, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, on September 12.
Having participated in the international conference on the rights of children in Belgrade, Janković pointed out that the field of the rights and protection of the child is the priority of every society.
“One third of the complaints the Commissioner received in 2015 referred to children and their rights. In spite of improvements which have been realized, two problems have remained, segregation of the Roma children, where in some schools there are special Roma classes and the lack of understanding and sometimes even resistance of local authorities to inclusive education of children with special needs”, said Janković.
According to her, there are the examples of good practice when the local authorities did as recommended by the Commissioner in order to provide transportation or personal assistance service for children with special needs.
Speaking of general measures for conducting the rights of the child, the Professor of the Union Unversity Nevena Vučković Šahović said there was the lack of the permanent coordination body that would adopt joint decisions in the field of the rights of the child in Serbia.
The International Conference on the Rights of the Child was organized by the Centre for the Advancement of Legal Studies (CUPS) in cooperation with AIRE centre from London.
Source: Beta, downloaded from www.euractiv.rs
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