Within the project “Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence in Sports“, which is funded by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) program, during July 2013 the Child Rights Centre has formed a Wworking group that will work on the preparation of the Model Protocol for the prevention and protection of children and youth from violence in sports.
The Republic of Serbia as the Convention on the Rights of the Child state party, assumed the obligation to take all measures to prevent and ensure the protection of children and youth from all forms of violence. During 2005 the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the General Protocol for Prevention of Children from Abuse and Neglect, as a comprehensive multi-sectoral mechanism for the protection and prevention of children from violence, in accordance with Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This document was the basis for the development of special protocols that clearly define the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders and provide mechanisms for cooperation among institutions from different systems. Following the adoption of the General Protocol relevant ministries have adopted the specific protocols as well: a protocol for social care institutions (2006), police (2006, amended in 2012), the educational system (2007), the health care system (2009) and justice (2009). However, the field of sport was not involved in the process from the beginning and so the formulation of comprehensive policies and mechanisms for the prevention and protection of youth athletes from violent behaviours that occur in this environment omitted.
To formulate the Model Protocol for the prevention and protection of children and youth from violence in sport, Child Rights Centre has formed a Working group which, in the period from July 2013 to February 2014, will work on the preparation of this document. Model Protocol will be based on a General protocol for the protection of children from abuse and neglect. The designed mechanism will create the preconditions for strengthening the preventive measures with the aim to raise the awareness of children and sports workers, as well as strengthening their capacity to respond to violence in this environment.
Members of the Working group are:
- Dragan Atanasov, Deputy Minister, Department of Sports, Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia
- Biljana Lajović, Coordinator of the Violence Prevention Unit, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia
- Olivera Zečević, Head of the Department for prevention and suppression of juvenile delinquency, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, a member of the Council for Child Rights of the Republic of Serbia Government and the Council for monitoring and improving the work of criminal procedure and criminal sanctions against minors
- Daniel Korica, the Secretary General of the Sports Federation of Serbia
- Zoran Sretenović, education advisor at the school administration Kragujevac, a former top athlete, basketball coach, author of the accredited program “My student, the victim, the perpetrator or an observer of violence” and the advisory coordinator for violence prevention in school administration Kragujevac
- Nenad Manojlović, former Yugoslav and Serbian water polo player, the national team of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro selector
- Ivana Stevanović, Coordinator of the Working Group, Research Associate, Institute for Sociological and Criminological Research, President of the Child Rights Centre, a member of the Council for Child Rights of the Republic of Serbia Government and the Council for monitoring and improving the work of criminal procedure and criminal sanctions against minors
- Marija Petrović, lawyer, a consultant in the field of child rights
- Milena Golić, Manager of the project “Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence in Sport”
