Zagreb - Members of Parliament on Monday warned about the need for a more active role of society in better protecting children's rights, agreeing that as the most vulnerable group, children were affected by poverty the most.
-The issue of poverty currently poses the biggest danger not only for children's rights but for human rights in general and poverty is a problem not only in Croatia, but in the more developed European countries as well, Social Democrat Dubravko Bilić said in a debate on the report for 2013 of the Office of Children's Ombudswoman. Labour Party member Nenad Pleše said he was appalled by the fact that a growing number of children went to school hungry and stole food from other children. He urged state institutions to show greater social sensitivity towards children.
The Office of the Children's Ombudswoman in 2013 received 2,659 new reports of possible violations of children's rights, 208 more than in 2012, which continued a trend of a growing number of such reports. As in the year before, most of the complaints referred to the right of children to live with and be cared for by their parents and to the right to protection against violence and neglect.
-One should take off rose-tinted glasses because children's rights are violated most frequently by parents, said Ombudswoman Ivana Milas Klarić, appointed to that post in April this year. She said that other frequent complaints concerned education, the right to health care, and poverty. (Hina)