World News from Serbia

"A society where everyone, regardless of background or disability, feels welcome, included and supported"

(By Michael Roberts, 15.02.11) Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabic met on Monday with a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss the current economic situation in Serbia and implementation of reformed Law on pension and disability insurance.

Head of the IMF Mission for Serbia Albert Jaeger, who is heading the IMF delegation, pointed out to the consistency of the Deputy Prime Minister in the implementation of this law and the preservation of the agreed principles of the pension reform.

The two officials pointed to the necessity of establishing strong fiscal discipline, which would provide stability of economic system as well as sustainable system of pension and disability insurance, making the strongest barrier against creation of new social cases produced by non-compliance to fiscal obligations.

The talks were also themed with the possibility of extending the arrangement with this international financial institution.

Source Serbian Government.

Source: http://www.balkans.com/

Promoting take-up of ICT among persons with disability

(BELGRADE) Serbia is working to reform its childcare system, and a report by a U.S.-based human rights group on conditions for the country's mentally disabled adds urgency to the efforts, the United Nations Children's Fund said Saturday.

UNICEF said in a statement that it has been working with the Serbian government for the past few years to help reform the country's old-era childcare system from a network of institutions into community-based services respecting basic children's rights.

"The transformation ... is progressing but at (a) slow pace," UNICEF said. "Among first measurable results are a number of day-care centers, including for children at risk and with special needs, that have been established at the local level across the country."

A report by the U.S.-based human rights group Mental Disability Rights International alleged earlier this week that Serbia neglects and mistreats its mentally disabled, including children. It said the most extreme human rights violations in Serbian mental institutions "are tantamount to torture."

The report said that some children and adults with disabilities never leave their beds or cribs and some are tied down to keep them from harming themselves.

The Serbian government has rejected the accusations, calling the report political.

On Friday, Social Affairs Minister Rasim Ljajic said "no one is denying that the situation is hard because of poor economic conditions and problems left over from the past, but this should not be used for politics."

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Thursday that the report was "fabricated" and "malicious."

He said the government would form a commission on the subject and that it would report on the "real" state of the psychiatric hospitals and care institutions listed in the report.

Kostunica said the government would insist on "clarifying all facts about the actual conditions."

"Especially biased and malicious were allegations that the children were tortured rather than treated, and that those were children's camps not social institutions," the prime minister said.

UNICEF said Saturday that "many of the concerns articulated in the report are actually the main reasons for the reform of the childcare system."

The UNICEF statement said children with severe mental disability are "in any society very seldom the priority group for services reform ... and Serbia is no exception."

The MDRI report, it said, has "one more time brought ... visibility to the situation of children with disabilities in residential institutions."

The U.N. agency said it was committed to strengthening its support for "the Serbian government's efforts in reforming the child-care system, making sure that institutions for children with disabilities become a priority for transformation."

Source www.iht.com