(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
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