ZAGREB, February 12, 2019 - As part of the campaign "A touch that means life", Pampers and UNICEF have raised 450,000 kuna (approx. 60,800 euro) for equipment to be used by parents staying with their children in the 13 neonatal intensive care units in Croatia.

"Premature birth is something parents usually do not expect and it causes a lot of stress," UNICEF Croatia Office head Đurđica Ivković told a news conference.

Around 2,000 children are born prematurely in Croatia every year, and 400 of them need special care. Early skin contact can help save their lives and facilitate their recovery.

Ivković said that until now parents at neonatal wards could only watch their children through the glass, while now they can stay with them and touch and hold them.

The campaign "A touch that means life" started in January 2018 ahead of International Hugging Day, when Pampers photographed people hugging and gave a kuna donation for each hug. In the second part of the campaign, by June 2018 it donated two kuna from each nappy box sold.

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

ZAGREB, February 8, 2019 - The Rainbow Families civil society group, which brings together same-sex couples and LGBTI individuals who have children or want to become parents, has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court asking it to assess if the new Foster Care Act is in line with the Constitution and calling for putting an end to discrimination against same-sex couples.

The Foster Care Act, in force since January 1, is discriminatory and paradoxical because it has left out same-sex couples from the definition of foster family despite numerous comments from experts and members of the public during the process of public consultation on the law, the association's coordinator, Daniel Martinović, told a news conference.

He warned that homosexuals can adopt and become foster parents if they are single but they cannot do so if they exercise their legal right to enter a life partnership. The same goes for bisexual persons, who can become foster parents if they are married but not if they live in a life partnership, Martinović said.

He added that the Foster Care Act also regulated the right to provide foster care for adults - elderly persons and persons with mental and other disorders - but that LGBTI persons in a life partnership could not apply to provide foster care even for the elderly members of their families.

The association's attorney, Zrinka Bojanić, said that if the Constitutional Court ruled that the current law was in line with the Constitution, interested couples would file individual lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights.

"If that court rules that their rights have been violated, Croatia will have to amend its legislation to implement the ruling. That is the way national laws are changed in situations when politicians are incapable of doing it for various reasons," said the attorney.

More news on the human rights issues in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 30, 2018 - Croatia's first SF film for children, "My grandpa fell from Mars", directed by multiple award-winning duo Dražen Žarković and Marina Andree Škop, will play in Croatian cinemas in spring 2019, and it is a heartfelt story about friendship, love and honesty.

The film was coproduced by Zagreb's Studio Dim with partners from Luxembourg, Norway, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The screenplay was based on Irena Krčelić's story "My grandpa is an alien".

The film is about Una, a little girl whose life changes in a second after her grandfather is abducted by aliens. In the basement of her house, she discovers that he himself is an alien whose spaceship crashed long ago. The ship's pilot, the small morose robot Dodo, has also stayed on Earth. Dodo and Una have less than 24 hours to find and rescue her grandfather.

While still in development, the film won the BeActive Award for best project and the Prime4Kids&Family Award for best project for children.

The film features state-of-the-art film technology and special effects seen in Croatian cinema for the first time.

"Our film's message is universal: love can inspire life. In today's world, which glorifies individualism, we want to show that it's important to point young people towards company, friendship and love, values with which they will enrich their lives," the directors say.

More news on the Croatian film industry can be found in our Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, December 27, 2018 - The Internet is the main source of information to Croatian children and is a crucial socialisation tool, with more than 90% of children using mobile phones on a daily basis, which is why the risk of becoming addicted to the virtual world is growing, it was concluded at a round table discussion held in Zagreb.

As many as 93% of children use mobile or smart phones, and they do it frequently without adult supervision.

Four in five children (83%) use personal computers and one in four (26%) play on a console every day, expert Danijel Labaš said at the event, citing the findings of the 2017 survey "EU Kids" which covered also 1,097 children from Croatia aged 9-17.

The round table discussion was organised at the end of a six-month campaign aimed at raising awareness of the risk of Croatian children becoming addicted to the virtual world. The campaign covered nine primary schools in Zagreb.

"Media literacy is the literacy of the 21st century, and children should be taught how to live with media but also how to use them properly to avoid addiction," Labaš said.

He also spoke about the lack of awareness among young people of the risks arising from making friendships online with strangers.

A third of the young people surveyed communicate with strangers online. Furthermore, one in four teenagers aged 15-17 have met in person with strangers after online contact.

Experts see poor communication between parents and children as the reason why children seek solace in the virtual world.

More news on the use of IT technologies in Croatia can be found in our Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, December 8, 2018 - The civil society association called "Rainbow Families", which brings together LGBT activists, will ask the Constitutional Court to assess if the new foster care law was in line with the Constitution, saying that the law was discriminatory against an entire population group, as it did not enable same-sex couples to be eligible to provide foster carer to children without adequate parental care.

The foster care law that has caused disputes in the ruling coalition was voted in on Friday, with 72 members of parliament voting in favour, four against and six abstaining.

MPs of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), a partner in the ruling coalition, who made their support for the bill conditional on the adoption of an amendment giving same-sex couples the right to provide foster care, abstained from the vote. Independent MPs Tomislav Saucha and Mario Habek abstained as well.

The opposition did not take part in the vote in a show of protest against the way the ruling majority functions.

MPs Dragana Jeckov and Boris Milošević of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) voted against the bill, as did Italian minority and independent MP Furio Radin, and Mirando Mrsić of the Democrats party.

Prejudices, political calculations and intolerance have prevailed, despite the appeal of over 200 Croatian scientists and experts, the NGO said in a press release, expressing hope the law would change as soon as possible.

For more on the LGBT rights in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 27, 2018 - The leader of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) caucus, Milorad Batinić, said on Tuesday that HNS would not support a foster care bill but abstain from voting if its amendment to allow same-sex partners either in a formal or informal life partnership to foster children is not accepted.

He explained that his party had, in the first reading already, sent the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the senior coalition partner in government, its amendment. "The foster care bill offers many improvements. However, we are a parliamentary democracy and our aim was, through parliamentary debate, for the bill to be amended and improved in order to enable life and informal life partners to have the opportunity to provide foster care," Batinić said.

He believes that HNS is not sending a dual message due to the fact that its ministers supported the bill in the government while its lawmakers won't vote for it in parliament. "We have a coalition meeting tomorrow when we will have a concrete response, I hope. The bill will be debated in parliament on Thursday and HNS will present its draft amendment. If the amendment is not supported, we won't support the bill but abstain," Batinić said.

He didn't agree that HNS would, in a way, support the bill as the party will provide a quorum for the ruling party. "That's your claim. We cannot support the bill if our amendment isn't accepted. We will abstain because the amendment does provide many improvements that didn't exist in the past law," he explained.

"When the foster care bill was put into procedure and during the public consultation, we made our stance known. However, the minister of demography did not acknowledge that. We are using democratic procedure and if our amendment is not upheld, we won't support the bill," he said.

Asked whether it was hypocritical of the HNS to endorse the foster care bill in the government but not support it in parliament, he said the "government answers to the parliament for its work." He didn't agree that the HNS talks differently in the government and in public, saying that was the impression reporters have and not a fact.

In the meantime, about two hundred Croatian researchers and experts, mostly psychologists, sociologists and pedagogues, who on Tuesday commented on the public disputes regarding same-sex couples being allowed to qualify for foster parenting, say that it is in the best interest of children and parents and society overall to acknowledge and accept the existence of various family forms and relationships in Croatia.

Ahead of the debate on the final draft bill on foster care which doesn't foresee allowing same-sex couples to qualify for foster parenting, more than 200 experts and professionals said in a joint press release that they support same-sex couples being allowed to be foster carers, underscoring that there is no significant difference in children's upbringing by homosexual or heterosexual parents.

"We would like to turn attention to the incorrect use or in fact confusion in the definitions of adoption and foster care in the current debates. Foster care is a form of social service which foster carers provide for children who are accommodated with them. Adoption is a form of family-law care and protection of a child without proper parental care," the experts said.

They believe that it is in the best interest of children and parents and society overall to admit and accept that various family communities and relationships exist in Croatia. "Considering that scientific data provide consistent, mutually compatible empirical data that there is no significant difference in children who grow up in families with homosexual or heterosexual parents, we wish to believe that when Croatian institutions make decisions and regulate procedures, they in fact take into consideration scientific findings and not prejudices and stereotypes," the press release said.

They also noted long-term, comprehensive research that have not managed to prove that LGBT persons have lesser abilities than heterosexual persons to be parents, nor that the psycho-social development of their children was jeopardised compared to children of heterosexual parents.

For more on the children’s issues in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2018 - Primary and secondary school students in Croatia rarely participate in making decisions and giving opinions on relevant topics, a survey showed.

The results of the survey, entitled "Participation of Children in the Education System", were presented at a press conference on the occasion of Universal Children's Day.

The survey was carried out on the initiative of the Ombudsman for Children by the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences and the Department of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, covering 2,720 students and 461 teachers from throughout the country.

Project leader Ivana Jeđud Borić said that the survey identified shortcomings in encouraging children's participation in educational institutions in Croatia. She said that it is necessary to develop participatory methods of teaching and treat children as equal participants in decision making because children's right to participate is their basic right.

The survey found that children are not interested in participating in formal bodies because they do not believe they can have any influence. Primary and secondary school students rarely participate in making decisions and giving opinions on relevant topics, she said.

Jeđud Borić said that schoolchildren are much more involved in informal forms of participation. She said that the survey also revealed that a good adult-student relationship, which is a key factor in encouraging participation, is often neglected at the expense of other education outcomes and that schools lack adults who could serve as an example of participation.

Children's Ombudsman Helenca Pirnat Dragičević said that the results of the survey will be used in drawing up new proposals for developing an education system in which children will be able to fully exercise their right to participation.

For more on children in Croatia and their position and status in the Croatian society, click here.

ZAGREB, November 25, 2018 - A third of Croatian school-age children are smokers, and Croatia ranks third in Europe according to the prevalence of this problem in society, said participants in a roundtable discussion organised by the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) on smoking and drinking among youngsters.

During the discussion held in Zagreb, doctors supported the planned rise in excise taxes on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, as they believe that higher prices will make those products less available to pupils.

On the other hand, the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) insists that the higher prices of alcohol and cigarettes, the more prevalent illegal sale of such products.

Ivana Pavić Šimetin of the HZJZ presented some of the alarming statistics such as the fact that 4% of boys and 1% of girls have got drunk at least twice so far in their life. Pavić Šimetin spoke about the importance of making cigarettes and alcoholic drinks less available to underage buyers. "The HZJZ is not focused on a rise in income but on safeguarding public health against smoking and alcohol, having in mind the fact that the availability of alcohol and cigarettes to young people is 10% higher in Croatia than in other EU member-states," she said.

The ESPAD European survey on smoking and alcohol and drugs consumption among the youth in 2015 shows that every one in three Croatians below the age of 16 is a smoker, and 54.7% of those in this age cohort drank alcohol in the previous 30 days.

Danijela Štimac of the HZJZ warned that in Croatian cafes a shot of brandy costs 6 kuna and a glass of freshly squeezed juice 25 kuna.

Of all EU member-states, Croatia has the second lowest tobacco prices after Bulgaria, HZJZ director-general Krunoslav Capak noted.

Furthermore, in Croatia 25% of the population smokes on a daily basis, twice as much as in Finland, for instance, said Ivana Brkić Biloš of the HZJZ department for epidemiology and prevention of non-communicable chronic diseases.

"Alcohol as a risk factor has been identified in more than 200 different diseases, and in the world 3.3. million of deaths are believed to be linked to alcohol consumption, and in Croatia 3,000 deaths annually. Smoking is believed to be the cause of seven million deaths in the world annually, and in Croatia every fifth death is linked to smoking," she said.

HUP officials said that in principle they are opposed to increasing prices of such products as they usually lead to the creation of the grey market.

For more on health in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 25, 2018 – MOST party leader Božo Petrov said on Saturday that children are born and raised in an emotional and physical union of a man and a woman and that the parliament should take that into account when making decisions on adoption and foster care. Commenting on a bill on foster care and the possibility of giving same-sex couples right to provide foster care, Petrov said that children's interests should be above any other interests. He stressed that children raised by "substitute parents" were stigmatised and that if raised by same-sex couples, they would be stigmatised even more.

If homosexuality was generally accepted in society, there would be no need for gay parades, he added.

Petrov also commented on the decision by the Conflict of Interest Commission to launch proceedings against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković who failed to declare his relationship with Igor Pokaz at the time of his appointment as ambassador to the United Kingdom and the fact that he was the best man at Pokaz's wedding, as well as on the Commission's decision to launch proceedings against Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić.

"I believe that an office-holder must not use their position to help people close to them get hired," Petrov said, adding that he hoped the commission would do its job at least in that case and that its decision would not be influenced by political pressure.

Petrov also said that considering the way the commission was formed, the latest case seemed to be more about power games within the ruling coalition than about a serious approach to dealing with conflict of interest.

As for current disputes in the ruling coalition, Petrov said that politics should not be about "blackmail potential".

For more on the MOST activities pn these and other issues, click here.

ZAGREB, November 11, 2018 - More than 3,000 Croatian children are currently in the alternative care system, 413 of them are fit for adoption while the number of potential adoptive families stands at 1,316, it was said at a conference organised by "Adopta", an association providing support to potential adopters.

Speakers at the conference spoke about problems and challenges encountered by people wishing to adopt or provide foster care.

Between the start of this year and the end of October, 85 children were adopted, while in 2017 there were 126 adoptions. More than 3,000 children are currently staying in foster families or children's homes. Of that number, only 413 meet formal conditions for adoption, while at the same time there are 1,316 potential adopters. "This shows that a family can be found for each of those children," said Adopta head Andreja Turčin.

Turčin said that better statistics in this regard required stepping up procedures to remove a child from parental custody, introducing incentives for adopting more than one child, notably in cases of children who are difficult to adopt, older children, children who are members of minority ethnic groups, or children with difficulties.

Turčin also called for the implementation of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy adoption protocol from 2016. Under the protocol, for each child for whom a foster family is not found within a period of three months, social care centres are obliged to make an anonymous profile on a protected website. Currently there are only 40 such profiles.

On 31 October, the government sent to parliament a final bill on foster parenting which treats foster care as a job by foster parents who have been unemployed and also provides for specialised foster caring for children with special needs, so that carers in all those cases are properly remunerated.

The Demography, Family, Youth and Social Welfare Minister, Nada Murganić, said then that the bill had been prepared in a bid to improve the current unsatisfactory state of affairs in the field of foster parenting, given that there are not enough foster families and that they are unevenly distributed across the country. The new law enables the continuation of traditional and kinship care, too.

The measures envisaged in the new legislation are meant to improve the conditions of foster carers and to enable younger persons out of work to become foster carers.

The state budget allocations to be set aside for this purpose will be increased by an additional 15.5 million kuna. Thus, a total of 228.5 million kuna will be set aside for foster caring services, and of that amount 183 million kuna will go to children covered by this care and 45.5 million kuna as remuneration to carers.

The new legislation, aimed at encouraging foster parenthood, is designed to raise the number of foster parents and promote foster care for children with special needs.

For more on children’s issues in Croatia, click here.