ZAGREB, April 23 (Hina) - Children's ombudsman Ljubica Matijevic Vrsaljko submitted a report in Parliament on Friday on the work of her office in 2003, citing a series of examples of emotional and physical abuse of children.
ZAGREB, April 23 (Hina) - Children's ombudsman Ljubica Matijevic
Vrsaljko submitted a report in Parliament on Friday on the work of her
office in 2003, citing a series of examples of emotional and physical
abuse of children.#L#
Matijevic Vrsaljko called on state institutions to establish an
efficient system of protection of children and their rights.
The report received support from all parliamentary parties, with
deputies putting forward a number of proposals to improve education
about children's rights and introduce harsher penalties for child
abusers.
Marin Jurjevic of the Social Democratic Party proposed that the crime
of sexual abuse of children be treated equally as the crime of murder
and that it carry a minimum prison sentence of 15 years, because
sexually abused children "were in a way deprived of life".
Also discussed was a report submitted by ombudsman for gender equality
Gordana Lukac-Koritnik, who said that she had been informally
contacted by several persons and civil organisations over cases of
domestic violence and sexual harassment at work, but that no legal
action was taken because victims feared loss of job or even more
harassment.
During the debate, deputies drew attention to the inequality of women
in areas such as the media, labour market and politics.
At the end of the session, Parliament ratified a social insurance
agreement with Bulgaria without discussion.
Parliament will continue its sixth session on Monday.
(Hina) vm