THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FROM ABUSE AND

NEGLECT IN SERBIAJasmina Ivanovic,

Head of Department for Development of Social ProtectionMinistry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy

September 2012, Sarajevo

Where is our data? Data systems

• Justice system: Republican Institute for Statistics (record on criminal offences and offenders)

• Police: Ministry of Interior, Analytical section• Social Welfare system: Republican Institute for

Social Protection (from centres for social work) and data system of Ministry

• Health system: (no national data; data available at level of health institution)

• Education system: – data available at “regional” level – level of Regional Education Offices

What does our data say?

Children victim of abuse and naglect

Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Total per year

2,275

2,771

2,260

3,158

3,321

3,341

3,392

Social Protection System

What does our data say? (Cont.)

Social Protection System

Dominantni oblik

zlostavljanja 2008 2009 2010 2011

Fizičko nasilje

914

878

828

837 Psihološko nasilje

1,307

1,381

1,433

1,041

Seksualno nasilje

100

92

122

87

Zanemarivanje

780

855

856

1,418

What does our data say? (Cont.)

• MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

Grupe krivičnih dela do 18 godinaPokrenuti postupci 2010 2011

Krivična dela protiv braka i porodice 567 475

Krivična dela protiv života i tela 471 406

Krivična dela protiv polne slobode 289 276

Pojedina krivična dela protiv čovečnosti 43 35

What does our data say? (Cont.)Education system (draft)

Nasilje III nivoaskolska 2010/2011 i 2011/2012

Ukupno 187

fizicko 113

verbalno 22

kombinovano 30

seksualno 4

psihicko 18

Types of abuse and neglect – The Institute of Mental Health

How does our system work?

Legislation: •The Constitution•Criminal Code•Family Law•Social Welfare Law •Law on Education System (and by-law on prot. of children from violence in schools)•Police: Instruction for conduct with children •Law on juvenile offenders and protection of minors in criminal justice proceedings

Strategies and Action Plans

• Strategy for Protection of Children from Violence with accompanying Action plan

(many other strategies have protection from violence integrated…)

How our system works? (or how it is suppose to work)

General Protocol for Protection of Children from Abuse and Neglect (2005)

Special protocols for:•Health•Education•Residential institutions in social welfare (needs to be revised…)•Police•Justice system

What does this mean in practice?

Some promising signals

• Court Decision: Penalize school for not implementing protocol

• Ombudsman recommendations to Centres for Social Work

• National Protocol for Protection of Women/Victims of Domestic Violence (child victim)

• National preventative mechanism • NGO independent monitoring • New by-law on prohibited conduct for all service

providers in social welfare and new system of evidence for all social providers

Challenges:

• No national coordination mechanism

• Protocols are no being implemented fully in all municipalities

• Cross sectoral cooperation

Opportunities:

• New Government in place • EU integrations • New and coordinated capacity building

approach – parallel capacity building in health, education and social welfare; bringing systems together in four towns