EVERY SECOND CHILD IN BOSNIA DOES NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 6,2007) – Every fourth child in Bosnia is a victim of some form of violence. About 60 per cent of this population, which makes 1/3 of the total population in Bosnia, belongs to a category which has a right to claim social protection. This was emphasized in Sarajevo at a two-day conference on the topic “Children and NGOs Talk about the Human Rights of Children”.

According to the data presented, every second child in Bosnia does now have health insurance. Between 5 and 6 per cent of the children’s population does not attend primary schools and about 18 per cent of the children is involved in some king of heavy labor.

The conference was organized by the Bosnian Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees and the Bosnian Council for Children, for the purpose of analyzing the activities in the sector of protection of rights of children and for the purpose of seeing what kinds of activities can the Bosnian authorities take to make the situation better.

Safet Halilovic, the Bosnian Minister of Human Rights and Refugees, emohasized the efforts Bosnia has made in order to implement the obligations arising from the Convention on Rights of Children and the protocols that have followed it, especially the revision of legislature related to children in Bosnia.

One of such documents is the Bosnian State Plan of Activities for Children for the Period until 2010, as well as the mid-term Development Strategy and Action Policy in Special social sectors.

Addressing the participants at the session, Halilovic stated that the funds intended for children are not enough to ensure efficient protection of children.

”We want to contribute the rights of children”, Halilovic said and added that it is imperative to improve the living conditions of children.

Slavko Marin, Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Refugees greeted the session. He said he hoped that the issues related to human rights of children will be solved.

Models of NGOs’ engagement in the sector have also been discussed. Two prominent NGOs dealing with the rights of children are “Our Children” from Sarajevo and “Healthy You Stay” from Banja Luka.