ZAGREB, May 18, 2019 - There are 1,398 foster carers in Croatia and 67 children under the age of three in children's homes, it was said in downtown Zagreb on Saturday at an event marking the International Day of Families and promoting UNICEF's "Every Child Needs a Family" campaign.

"The aim of the drive is to promote foster carers, to encourage people to become foster carers... because the family is the pillar of every society," Romana Galić of the City Social Protection Office said at the event, attended by many foster carers.

According to Zagreb's Welfare Centre, there are 239 foster families in the capital, 221 children are in the care of foster families in Zagreb and 101 in foster families outside Zagreb.

The International Day of Families is a reminder of the importance that every child has a safe and warm home and parents who support them, said Đurđica Ivković, deputy head of UNICEF Croatia.

She recalled that last year the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy launched the "Every Child Needs a Family" in cooperation with UNICEF.

"We still think there are families willing to open their hearts," she said, adding that 2,107 children are in foster families in Croatia, including 121 who are under three.

She said that when the biological family could not provide for a child, every state had the duty to provide an alternative family.

More news about children can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 10, 2019 - Children's ombudswoman Helenca Pirnat Dragičević on Friday called on all Croatian candidates running in the forthcoming European Parliament elections to advocate children's rights in their future work and to formally become child rights champions.

The ombudswoman's office has joined the international campaign "Vote for Children" together with many international organisations for the protection of children's rights and interests, such as Eurochild, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes and UNICEF.

The campaign seeks to ensure that issues of interest to children are given priority in election programmes of future members of the European Parliament, calling on election candidates to become child rights champions. It says that children in Europe and the world are facing numerous threats, such as poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and violence.

About 100 million children live in the European Union today, of whom over 25 million are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The ombudswoman says that particularly vulnerable are children of migrants and refugees, hundreds of thousands of children are still institutionalised rather than living in a domestic environment, and that children in Europe are also threatened by climate change.

The ombudswoman called on Croatian candidates for members of the European Parliament to help break the cycle of poverty, inequality and conflict for future generations, invest in children inside and outside Europe, listen to children's voices, involve them in decisions affecting them and act on children's views.

More news about children issues in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 9, 2019 - Children's ombudswoman Helenca Pirnat Dragičević said in parliament on Thursday that inequality was one of the key challenges in the exercise of children's rights, that their quality of life depended on the place of residence or birth, and that Roma children were the most deprived group.

Roma children have no access to a broad range of services, mostly because their families are poor, yet positive examples from some communities show that their lives can be changed, she said.

Submitting a report on the work of her office in 2018, i.e. on the rights of 800,000 children in Croatia, she warned about a high poverty risk and unequal availability of services, for example healthcare, which she said created big differences between children already from birth.

As for the most frequent violations of children's rights, the ombudswoman said children in institutions were especially vulnerable, followed by violations of their rights in education and violence against children.

"Children in Croatia suffer violence and neglect at home, in school, in the community and the digital environment," she said, adding that one in four children under 16 had been physically or psychologically punished, or witnessed violence between their parents.

Saša Đujić of the opposition Social Democratic Party asked if it was abuse of children's rights or normal when a politician, for example, visited a school and took pictures with children, read them stories and gave them candy.

The ombudswoman said it was "certainly not" normal but that headmasters were also responsible as "they must see to the best interest of the children."

More news about the Roma in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, March 23, 2019 - Mistrust in Croatian institutions and politics, insecure employment and passivity of young people are some of the problems that scientists, professors and politically active youth identified at a roundtable for youth on Friday, entitled "To be young, politically educated and to live in Croatia," organised by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's Youth Council to motivate dialogue and critical thinking among young people and restore their trust in politics.

President Grabar-Kitarović underscored that she advocates including young people in social and political processes because she sees in young people potential for social change. She believes that it is important to develop critical thinking among young people and that they need to be more involved in global topics and local topics too.

She underscored that the round table was organised due to the lack of interest by young people in politics and said that a survey conducted last year among young people in Croatia showed that they are not interested in politics because they do not trust institutions, political, local and state government.

The results of the survey were presented by an associate at the Institute for Social Research, Vlasta Ilišin, who explained that the survey showed that there isn't any great difference between generations and that the stance of young people is similar to that of their parents.

Young people are more inclined to political abstinence, are not prepared to take on political responsibility and politically tend to be centre-oriented, slightly to the right. They are very closely tied to their families, very mistrusting of people who have different political views, while showing a greater trust in international institutions, Ilišin said and added that this could be described as "underdeveloped democratic culture" and that everyone was to blame, parents, political stakeholders, the media and the education system.

President Grabar-Kitarović concluded that the biggest problem with regard to young people staying in Croatia is that they do not have a secure and permanent job. "Young people aren't interested in ideological issues but questions of livelihood," she underscored and added that it was because society is focused on ideology that young people are losing their trust in politics and politicians.

"They don't have a secure and permanent job, on average work longer hours than the law prescribes and are on average paid less than the average wage. That is tragic data as far as motivating them to stay in Croatia," she said.

She added that the biggest fear young people have is of unemployment, which is related to "deeply embedded social anomalies of clientelism, nepotism and corruption," which is the second most prevalent reason why young people are emigrating.

More political news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, March 16, 2019 - About a thousand students from several secondary schools in Zagreb rallied in the city's centre on Friday afternoon to protest against climate change, chanting "We need change, we need it now" and "Let's save the planet."

They joined students in over 2,000 cities across the globe as part of the global movement "Fridays for the future."

"There is no planet B" and "What I stand for is what I stand on" were just some of the messages written on placards carried by the demonstrators.

"Those who do nothing have no right to complain, and we have a lot of things to complain about and that's why we are here," a student called Erika said, while her colleague Igor was filming the whole event to show it in his YouTube vlog.

"I think we will manage to change something. There are a lot of us and I think this will help in stopping climate change, at least to a small extent," Igor said.

During their march from Europe Square to St Mark's Square, the seat of the government, the demonstrators stopped tram traffic in the main square Trg Bana Jelačića.

"We are here to show our resistance to the system that acts as if climate change does not exist. As a member of the European Union, Croatia is among developed countries and should treat the problem of climate change seriously," one student, Ana Žerjav said.

Another student, Laura Skala, who launched the Facebook page "School Strike 4 Climate Croatia" and initiated today's protest, in her address asked politicians what have they done to stop climate change. "Have you banned single-use plastic, have you made any investments in solar and wind energy? You haven't!"

She recalled that people had 11 years left to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent to stop further temperature increases globally.

Skala told Hina she had coordinated the protest with students from other Zagreb schools and was pleased with the support of students and school heads.

Similar protests were also held in several cities across the country, including Split, Osijek, Križevci, Varaždin, Pula and on the southern island of Vis.

The protests were supported by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Minister of Science and Education Blaženka Divjak, and Croatian scientists.

Protests in European cities were inspired by 15-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, whose strike for climate held outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm every Friday since August 2018 has triggered the global movement "Fridays for the future."

More news about climate change in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, March 5, 2019 - Young people in Croatia are especially unhappy with their status in Croatian society and occurrences in modern society while on the other hand they are satisfied with their personal environment, show the results of a survey conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Stifung Foundation (FES) and the Institute for Social Research (IDIZ) that were presented on Tuesday in Zagreb.

The empirical survey of the youth in Croatia was conducted in 2018 on a sample of 1,500 respondents aged between 14 and 29 while an international survey was conducted in ten countries in Southeast Europe and Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Serbia.

The youth were questioned about private aspects of their lives - family, friends, leisure time, education, employment, personal, social and political values and about mobility.

The first survey of this kind in Croatia was conducted in 2012 and Vlasta Ilišin from IDIZ said that the results of the latest survey hasn't changed that much over time.

"Some values are accepted more than before, some less - religiousness among young people has increased however it is not at the highest level in the period that the surveys were conducted in. On the other hand, exclusion has decreased toward people of different sexual orientation," Ilišin said and added that contradictory notions are emerging from modern changes to those showing a revival of traditionalism.

They are however exceptionally unsatisfied with their social status and process in contemporary society.

Compared to the other countries where the survey was conducted, young people in Croatia participate very little in sports activities. "Most young people in Croatia never participate in any sporting activities (40%) whereas in Slovenia only 2% gave said that," Ilisin said.

She claims that it was interesting to compare young people in Croatia and those in other countries who consider it to be justified to use people they know to resolve problems or to help them find a job. The highest percentage of those approving that behaviour was in Croatia in fact.

The survey showed that less than half the youth in Croatia are employed in their vocation and that half of them do not have a secure or permanent job and on average they work more than the regulated hours whereas they are paid less than the average pay in Croatia.

More than one-quarter of them live with their parents or other relatives whereas one in five are married or in a de facto relationship and 71% of them also live in their parents’ home, 15% live in their own accommodation or their partner's and 13% live in rentals. The survey also showed that young people still have faith in marriage and four-fifths consider marrying and having children sometime in the future.

Very few showed any interest or knowledge of politics. The results show dissatisfaction with the development of civic political culture among young people.

The survey also showed that overall, young people show more distrust than trust in institutions with 66% showing distrust in political parties, and more than half showing their distrust of the parliament and government.

Almost two-thirds said they did not wish to emigrate from Croatia while one-third said they wish to leave. This is an increase of 20% from 2012 of those who wish to remain in Croatia.

More news about Croatian politics can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, March 1, 2019 - The condition of a seven-year-old girl who was transferred from Zadar to Zagreb on Thursday due to severe injuries she sustained when her father threw her and her three siblings off the balcony of the house they live in on Pag island, is serious but stable and has not changed in the last 14 hours, doctors at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb said on Friday. The medical staff noted that they were satisfied with the condition of the child which was a victim of domestic violence. "The girl's condition is serious but stable," hospital director Ante Ćorušić.

The child is still critically ill and deeply sedated, but she is not in a state of induced coma, said Dr Milivoj Novak. He commended the chain of care for the child, saying that it had been the best possible.

The other three children, aged 8, 5 and 3, are in a hospital in Zadar.

The eight-year-old, a girl, underwent surgery for maxillofacial injuries on Friday morning.

The other two children, a five-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, are still at the children's surgical ward of the Zadar Hospital and their condition is stable.

The children's father, a 54-year-old, has been formally reported for attempted quadruple murder and has been detained in Zadar. He will be questioned at the local prosecutor's office on Friday.

More news on the medical issues in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 28, 2019 - Of the four children, who were thrown from the first floor of their house on the island of Pag by their father, three are severely injured and the fourth child -- a seven-year old girl -- has been hooked to a mechanical ventilator at the intensive care unit of the Zadar Hospital, the girl's doctors told the press, adding that they would consider transporting her to Zagreb once her condition stabilised.

The 54-year-old man early on Thursday morning threw his four children, aged 3,5,7 and 8, from the first floor of their house on the Pag island. Two girls are in the intensive care unit and the other two children are in surgery.

"The condition of the seven-year-old girl is the most severe. She has numerous head and chest injuries so we had to put her on a mechanical ventilator. The child is not yet stable and we are in contact with the Health Ministry," the head of the Intensive Care Unit, Edi Karuc, said.

He said that the girl's eight-year old sister, who is also in the intensive care unit, is conscious and stable.

Demography, Youth and Social Policy Minister Nada Murganić will travel to Pag to get more information on this case of domestic violence.

The minister said that she would hold a news conference once she collected all information.

Early on Thursday morning, the Zadar police reported about this incident which shocked the country. A police investigation is under way.

More news about the children issues can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 27, 2019 - The Zagreb-based community counselling centre "Luka Ritz" held an open-door event on Wednesday to mark the national anti-bullying day and raise awareness of the importance of prevention as the most effective way to fight peer violence, with Mayor Milan Bandić and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović attending.

The counselling centre has operated as a city public institution since October 2017, providing counsel and support with the aim of eradicating factors that lead to peer violence and other behavioural problems in youth.

"Over the past year and a half, we had 800 clients and provided more than 3,000 services, with boys aged 10-17 and their mothers being the most frequent clients," said the head of the centre, Ivana Jolić.

According to the centre's statistics, most of those who sought counselling did so because they had problems related to parenting and problems in family relations, with 17.5% having been found to have experienced some form of violence.

Two-thirds of the centre's clients have experienced domestic or partner violence, while 34% have experienced peer violence.

After visiting the centre, President Grabar-Kitarović said that family had the key role in fighting peer violence. "Family and parenting is the foundation of everything, but we must not leave everything to parents because they are often confused and do not know how to react to what their child does or to what other children do to their child," said the president.

The Zagreb counselling centre was named after Luka Ritz, an 18-year-old from Zagreb who was beaten up by a group of five youths in 2008 and died in hospital several days later as a result of injuries sustained in the attack.

Anti-Bullying Day, also called Pink Shirt Day, is marked globally on the last Wednesday in February. It commemorates support to a boy who became a victim of peer violence for wearing a pink shirt as a sign of support for his ill mother.

Croatia has been marking Anti-Bullying Day since 2017.

More news on the children’s issue in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 25, 2019 - An expert conference was held in Zagreb earlier this week on the unacceptable behaviour of young people on social media and the Internet, hearing the challenges experts face in everyday work with children and youth as a result of their use of digital technologies, because of which one in three children in Croatia is exposed to inappropriate content and abuse, while many are exposed to cyber bullying.

The conference was organised by the association of judges for youth and families and experts on children and youth. It brought together about 100 social workers, educators, judges, psychologists, prosecutors, police, attorneys, teachers, physicians and representatives of government and non-governmental organisations.

Zagreb County Court judge Lana Peto Kujundžić said the development of ICT was a big challenge due to new forms of computer crime which was global and transnational in character. She underlined the need for as much education as possible.

Zagreb Municipal Court judge Dijana Rizvić said sexual abuse over the Internet had much harder consequences on victims than immediate crimes because they were additionally exposed to the public. She said youth were also threatened by Internet fraud and that the rise in cyber crimes was also due to the increasing computer literacy of youth.

Rizvić said the triggers of virtual crime could be boredom, making illegal gains, imprudence and reactions to social events. She underlined the importance of mediation instead of the criminal prosecution of youth and the adoption of a good law on unacceptable behaviour on the Internet.

Tomislav Ramljak, the only digital forensic examiner in Croatia and president of the Centre for Missing and Abused Children, said over 95% of children in Croatia had Internet access and that one in three were exposed to inappropriate content and abuse.

Ivo Jakić of the Interior Ministry said the Internet was responsible for the rise in crime. He said it was a medium with which children spent the most time and that some of them behaved imprudently because they were unaware of the consequences, revealing private information and sending inappropriate photos.

Jakić underlined the importance of raising awareness and said that 25% of children in Croatia had been victims of cyber bullying, while 75% had witnessed it.

Irena Rojnić Palavra and Ana Rakić, psychiatrists working in a Zagreb hospital for the treatment of Internet and video game addiction, said excessive computer use could have social, psychological-psychiatric and even physical consequences.

They said video games, social media and pornographic content had the biggest potential for creating addiction. Rojnić Palavra said few decided to undergo treatment and that this was due to insufficient information, fear of stigmatisation, the social acceptance of such behaviour and the fact that the consequences are less noticeable than with alcohol or drug addiction.

More news on children issue in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.