The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Belgrade office called for an end to all forms of violence and abuse by and against children and commended the establishment of the Working Group for Prevention of Violence in the Education System.
A UNICEF press release said that Serbia has witnessed an increase in the reported number cases of peer violence and pupils’ violence against teachers. This indicates a readiness of victims, witnesses, and families to report this form of violence, as well as their expectation to get adequate support from institutions in charge, which is a good step in addressing this problem.
A young population of children and adolescents are a great resource for the country, now and in the future. Their needs, aspirations, wellbeing, and protection must be a priority under all circumstances, said UNICEF.
The agency further said that vulnerability to violence develops in complex socio-economic and cultural contexts engaging siblings, peers, parents, caregivers, the wider community, professionals, and authorities.
Noting that, since 2005, the Republic of Serbia has worked to establish an intersectoral network for the protection of children against abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence and that much has been done in setting up the mechanisms, especially in schools, UNICEF said that recent events have shown that there are challenges in implementation and accountabilities which should be urgently addressed.
It assessed that this can be achieved by setting up more effective prevention and response mechanisms between and within systems so that prevention leads to visible results and incidents are adequately and timely addressed, thereby reducing the rate of violence at all levels.
As with any other forms of violence, peer violence is a result of behavioural patterns that are learned or supported in other environments, primarily in the family but also in the community at large, said UNICEF, adding that children are often witnesses or victims of domestic violence.
Out of the total number of victims of domestic violence in 2021, as many as 8,146 were children. Moreover, 45% of children are still violently disciplined at home, said UNICEF, adding that the response to violence against children should be based on the adopted Strategy for the Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence for the Period 2020-2023.
UNICEF called on authorities to urgently set up a Working Group for guiding and monitoring the implementation of the Strategy to systematically address the problem of violence against children, stressing that addressing violence prevention must go hand in hand with the implementation of the Programme for Protection of Mental Health in the Republic of Serbia.
