On September 25, at the Metropol Palace Hotel in Belgrade, a conference entitled “Rights of particularly vulnerable groups of children in the justice system of the Republic of Serbia” was held. The conference aimed to present the results of the project “Child Rights in Serbia – Improving Outcomes for Children in the Serbian Justice System (CRIS),” implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Child Rights Centre (CRC), and NGO ASTRA, with the support of the European Commission, through the program “Rights, Equality and Citizenship.”
At the official opening of the conference, the participants were addressed by Jovana Arsenijević, Director of IRC Balkans, Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs – Zoran Djordjević, Protector of Citizens / Ombudsman Zoran Pašalić, and Andrea Rajičić, representative of the DX club Child Rights Centre and UNICEF-Serbia.
In the first part of the conference, the results of the first six months of the project implementation were presented. This session was followed by a panel discussion on five very current topics with eminent experts. At the first panel discussion, Dr. Nevena Vuckovic Sahovic spoke of domestic and international child justice. The next panel was dedicated to the perspective of the existing normative and strategic framework of child-friendly justice, discussed by Assistant Professor Dr. Milica Kolaković Bojović.
During the following panel discussion, the long-term associate of ASTRA, lawyer Tanja Drobnjak, addressed the audience, talking about the normative and strategic framework of child-friendly justice in practice through the prism of the 2019 year cases. In continuation, another lawyer – Milena Banić from the CRC, spoke about the research on child-friendly justice and awareness of the children about their rights, carried out by the CRC.
Finally, the last panel discussion was dedicated to the role and activities carried out by the Protector of Citizens / Ombudsman, which are committed to the rights and protection of children’s rights, which was discussed by Jelena Stojanovic, Deputy Protector for Children’s Rights and Gender Equality.
At this conference, ASTRA was represented by Marija Andjelković and Srna Ignjatović.