CRC Management Board

Ines Cerovic is a human rights lawyer working as an independent consultant on children’s rights. She obtained her undergraduate degree in law from Law School, University of Belgrade, and postgraduate degree in human rights law from Law School, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She used to be director of the Child Rights Centre from 2017 to 2019.

During her professional work in Serbia, after passing bar examination, she gained experience in different
settings, from working in district court and Ministry of Justice to international organizations, such as
UNICEF, USAID, World Bank and OSCE. Ines participated in designing and implementing key reform
projects in the areas of access to justice for children and protection of the most vulnerable children such as children deprived of liberty, children without parental care, children with disabilities, children on the move and other groups of children who need additional support.

At international level, Ines used to work as a consultant with UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Italy
and in UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) in Switzerland, on the projects that
included reform of legislation and policy and introducing measures of protection of children from all forms of violence, with particular emphasis on sexual exploitation of children. In 2022 she worked as a consultant with UNICEF ECARO in Slovakia in the context of Ukraine Refugee Response and with UNICEF Liberia on improving access to justice for children in one of the most challenging contexts where children suffer from multiple child rights violations and deprivations, including extreme poverty, violence and exploitation.

Ines speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian.

Nevenka Žegarac works as a Full Professor and Director of MA Social Work program at the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. She was engaged ad a social worker, activist, lecturer, researcher and consultant in the field of child protection policy, social service development, development and evaluation of child and family services. She has extensive experience in development and delivery of trainings for front line practitioners and training of trainers. She was engageds on various consultancy position in West Balkan region with a number of governments, and international organisations such as UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, Save the Children, IOM, DFID i Terre des Hommes. 

Her areas of interests are related for childs righta and child protection, case management, child abuse and neglect, children on alternative care, family support, child trafficking, child labour, children in migration. child’s participation and professional development of social service workforce. 

She has participated and led a number of nationaland international policy and research projects, published more than 60 scientific and professional articles, chapters in handbooks, monographs and practical manuals. Since 2014, she served as a member of the Council for the Rights of the Child of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in several terms. She is a member of the European Family Support Network and the European Social Work Research Association, and since 2019 she has been engaged as a member of the supervisory board of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance. Prof Zegarac has been an associate of the (Yugoslav) Center for the Rights of the Child since 1997.

Nevena Petrušić, PhD, is a full professor at the Faculty of Law in Niš, where she teaches Civil Procedure Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Child Rights, and Gender Equality and Gender-Based Violence in all three cycles of study. She is the founder and long-term coordinator of the Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law, University of Niš. She has been a visiting lecturer at many faculties of law in the region and participated in numerous scientific and professional conferences in the country and abroad.

Ms. Petrušić has authored or co-authored over 40 monographs and more than 200 articles in various areas of civil law and civil procedure law, human rights, child rights, mediation, anti-discrimination, etc. She participated in more than 40 research projects. Nevena was the editor-in-chief of scientific journal Temida, a member of the Journal Council, and an editor of a large number of scientific conference proceedings. She is an activist of the women’s movement in Serbia and the president of the NGO Women’s Research Center from Niš. She is a licenced mediator and lecturer at the Judicial Academy.

Nevena participated in working groups for drafting numerous laws and strategic and other planning documents. She was a member of the working groups for the preparation of the Draft Law on Gender Equality, the Draft Law on Child Rights, the Draft Law on Mediation, etc. She was engaged as an expert on the projects of international organisations OSCE, USAID, UNICEF and UNDP.

Nevena was the first Commissioner for Protection of Equality in Serbia. She received the Plaque of the Faculty of Law, University of Niš (1995), the Certificate of Appreciation of the City Municipality of Medijana (2008) and the OSCE Person of the Year Award in 2009 and 2011.

Biljana Lajović je diplomirala psihologiju na Filozofskom fakultetu Univerziteta u Beogradu. Specijalista je školske psihologije. Završila je obuku za psihoterapeuta – REBT Centar, Beograd,  Albert Ellis Institute, Nеw Yоrk.

Preko 20 godina radila je u školama, neposredno sa učenicima, nastavnicima, stručnim saradnicima i roditeljima, prvo kao nastavnica psihologije, a zatim i kao stručna saradnica, psihološkinja u osnovnoj školi u Beogradu.

 
Oko 20 godina, radila je na različitim strateškim pitanjima razvoja sistema obrazovanja i vaspitanja. U Ministartsvu prosvete Republike Srbije, bila je deo tima koji je u saradnji sa Švajcarskom agencijom za podršku i razvoj (SDC) radio na uspostavljanju sistema profesionalnog razvoja zaposlenih u obrazovanju, izradi standarada kompetencija nastavničke profesije, formiranju centara za profesionalni razvoj. Vodila je proces izrade  različitih priručnika u ovoj oblasti.

Radila je na uspostavljanju sistema zaštite dece i mladih od nasilja i u saradnji sa UNICEF-om bila koordinatorka Jedinice za zaštitu od nasilja u Ministarstvu prosvete. Vodila je program „Škola bez nasilja”, i učestvovala u vođenju i realiziji projekata „Psihološke krizne intervencije u obrazovno-vaspitnim ustanovama”, ”Zaštita od digitalnog nasilja”, „Zaštita od rodno zasnovanog nasilja”, „Zaštita dece i mladih u obrazovnom sistemu od trgovine ljudima”, „Razvoj kulturno kompetentne prakse“ i drugim.

Učestvovala je u izradi Zakona o osnovama sistema obrazovanja i vaspitanja, i različitih pravilnika koji regulišu oblast profesionalnog razvoja zaposlenih u obrazovanju kao i zaštitu prava dece i učenika i vaspitni rad sa njima.

Autorka je i realizatorka nekoliko akreditovanih programa obuka. Održala je brojne obuke i treninge i evaluirala mnoge projekte.

Učestvovala je na brojnim konferencijima i stručnim skupovima u Srbiji i inostranstvu. Bila je  predavač/izlagač, i sarađivala je sa nevladinim organizacijama (Centar za prava deteta, Hajde da…, Nansen dijalog centar Srbija, KOMS i druge) i međunarodnim organizacijama (UNICEF, SDC, UNESCO, GIZ i druge).

Olga Dević is an activist in the field of protection and promotion of human and children’s rights. She has also been engaged in the youth policy and public advocacy with a special focus on capacity building of young people and children and their empowerment to actively participate in socio-political processes.

She has been participating in the work of the Child Rights Center since her early teens, primarily within the Children’s Information and Cultural Service – Club DX, as a peer educator. She has been advocating for children’s rights in politics and practice with special emphasis on participation and protection of children from all forms of violence and abuse. She has actively participated in the consultative process of reporting on the status of children’s rights in Serbia to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Also, she was involved in the drafting process of the Children’s Report to Lanzarot Committee of the Council of Europe on the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, She  has continued to actively advocate for the establishment of national policies for children in order to improve the overall status of children’s rights in Serbia.

In addition to her active involvement within the Child Rights Center, she has collaborated with many local, national and international bodies and organizations on programs specialized for youth and children. These organizations have included UNICEF (Youth Advisory Board, previously U-report Steering Committee), UNESCO, Council of Europe as a youth delegate, European Union, National Youth Council of Serbia in a capacity of the youngest member ever elected for Governing Board 2018-2019, the European Youth Parliament, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and its youth related bodies etc. Furthermore, Olga is the initiator of numerous initiatives and projects for young people, and as a trainer she has conducted so far more than 350 trainings and workshops for children and youth in Serbia and abroad.