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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

In the first decade of the 21st Century                                                             gvnet.com/streetchildren/Croatia.htm

Republic of Croatia

Once one of the wealthiest of the Yugoslav republics, Croatia's economy suffered badly during the 1991-95 war as output collapsed and the country missed the early waves of investment in Central and Eastern Europe that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since 2000, however, Croatia's economic fortunes have begun to improve slowly, with moderate but steady GDP growth between 4% and 6% led by a rebound in tourism and credit-driven consumer spending. Inflation over the same period has remained tame and the currency, the kuna, stable. Nevertheless, difficult problems still remain, including a stubbornly high unemployment rate, a growing trade deficit and uneven regional development.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Croatia

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Croatia.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some manage to leave the street.  Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other.  Would you like to write about market children? homeless children?  Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc.  There is a lot to the subject of Street Children.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

*** ARCHIVES ***

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/croatia.htm

[accessed 30 January 2011]

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Statistics on the number of working children under age 15 in Croatia are unavailable.  There is also limited information on the nature of child labor in Croatia.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61642.htm

[accessed 7 February 2020]

CHILDREN - Education was free and mandatory through grade eight (generally age 14); boys and girls had equal access to education. The majority of students continued their education until the age of 18, with Roma being the only notable exception. Romani children faced serious obstacles to continuing their education, including discrimination in schools and a lack of family support. An estimated 10 percent of Romani children began primary school, and only approximately 10 percent of these went on to secondary school.

Concluding Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1 October 2004

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/croatia2004.html

[accessed 30 January 2011]

[17] The Committee is concerned about the absence of disaggregated statistical data and other information on the situation of children, especially those belonging to different ethnic groups and the most vulnerable groups. This type of information is lacking in particular with respect to girl children, street children, disabled children, displaced, refugees and asylum-seekers children, children from minority groups, Roma children.

[41] The Committee expresses its concern that quite a number of children without parental care or who have lost contact with their families are in institutions or in foster care and about the low quality of care and treatment provided to these children. The Committee is also concerned about the apparent insufficient monitoring of placements.

[57] While noting the efforts made by the State Party with regard to education - e.g. the 2001 Law on the Changes and Amendments of the Primary Education Law, it remains concerned about the different access to education of children belonging to minority and most vulnerable groups, including Roma children, children living in poverty, children with disabilities and foreign children which hampers the full enjoyment of a system of education adequate to their values and identity. The Committee is also concerned that the education system and its organization remain very centralized and that human rights education is not included in the curricula. Finally, the Committee is concerned about the shift system of instruction and the poor equipment and school facilities in many parts of the country.

Committee On Rights Of Child Concludes Thirty-Seventh Session

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, Press Release HR/4796, 1 October 2004

www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/hr4796.doc

[accessed 6 May 2011]

The Committee recommended that the State Party ensure the effective implementation of the new Asylum Law and that it ensure that refugee and asylum-seeking children had access to basic services such as education and health and that there was no discrimination in benefit entitlements for asylum-seeking families that could negatively affect children.  The Committee remained concerned about the lack of a systematic research on the situation of children affected by armed conflict, including follow-up monitoring measures, and recommended that the State party undertake a comprehensive study on children affected by armed conflict in order to assess the extent, scope and population affected and to identify its consequences and needed recovery and remedy.

The Committee recommended that the State party further strengthen its efforts to identify, prevent and combat trafficking in children for sexual and other exploitative purposes.  The Committee also remained concerned about the quality of institutions and the reports of incidents of violence in detention centres and that persons below 18 in detention or custody were placed with those up to the age of 27 years.  Consequently, it recommended that the State party protect the rights of children deprived of their liberty and improve their conditions of detention and imprisonment

The News Behind The News – Croatia

Relief for Oppressed People Everywhere ROPE, 2001

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 6 May 2011]

[04/01] We have urgent need to help one very poor family who was already described in report of the last year. Husband 35 (years) was as Croat prisoner in Serbia and torch and also was forced to dig trenchers for the army, and in the same time to be a live wall between Croat and Serb army. He suffered very much and is now sick. That family removed fifteen times because they are homeless. Now they illegally occupied government old damaged house, but with a big chance to get permission to live there. The house is empty, without nothing and they are without nothing because of the big misery of their life. There is need for beds, tables, kitchen equipment, restoration, reparations and so on. We will buy them the most necessary things.

Human Rights Reports » 2001 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 4, 2002

www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8240.htm

[accessed 6 May 2011]

NATIONAL/RACIAL/ETHNIC MINORITIES - In March two incidents of skinhead violence against Roma were reported: in Split, four skinheads assaulted a 9-year-old boy;  in Zagreb, a group of approximately 20 skinheads beat three teenage Romani boys outside a discotheque.  In April a gang of skinheads beat a teenage Romani boy at Zagreb's main railway station.  In late April, a group of approximately 30 non-Romani villagers reportedly harassed and beat five Roma with bludgeons in a town in Eastern Slavonia.

Access To Housing For Disadvantaged Categories Of Persons [DOC]

Group of Specialists on Access to Housing CS-LO (2001) 33, Strasbourg, 21 January 2002

www.coe.int/t/dg3/socialpolicies/socialrights/source/2001selected_en.doc

[accessed 6 May 2011]

2.3 Other Eastern - Central European countries - Croatia Caritas of Zagreb Archdiocese

Caritas assists vulnerable persons to find dwellings.  The projects encourage persons with various backgrounds to share residence with each other and try to avoid stigmatization and isolation.

o Youth who need special care, share flats with youths who do not need special care.
o Youth of different age and sex share a residence.
o Persons of different nationalities and religions share a residence.

All material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.  PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.  Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - Croatia", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Croatia.htm, [accessed <date>]