On 8 November 2013, Office of Human and Minority Rights, in cooperation with the Child Rights Centre and the Council for improving the work of the criminal proceedings and the enforcement of criminal sanctions against juveniles organised the conference entitled “How to prevent violence among children”.
A support to this event was provided by a large number of representatives of state institutions, international organisations, embassies and local governments.
The number of conference participants indicated that the issues of prevention of violence against children, prevention of violence among children, working on emphasising family values, areas that attract attention present an important task and demand the accountability of all relevant representatives in the struggle and efforts provide a safe growing up of all children in Serbia.
The conference is intended to encourage the relevant institutions in their efforts to break the cycle of violence against children and to create awareness of a common, social responsibility which will provide stable conditions for children’s growing up.
They exchanged a professional experience from different sectors with a focus on children and youth, and made joint plans for further work on the issue of prevention of violence against children.
Participants rated the conference as very important for continuing the work on child rights and initiating development of prevention programs and procedures to protect children, starting from introducing legal regulations to children and parents, the definition of the responsibilities of all relevant institutions and stakeholders in violence prevention procedures, developing the skills of children in terms of constructive conflict resolution in nonviolent way, all the way to strengthening the multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach at the local level in response to violence against and among children.
Ivana Stevanovic, president of the Child Rights Centre said at the end of the Conference that we have to deal more with improving the accuracy, reliability and comparability of data, as well as with creating a balance between prevention and intervention .
