This year the Ombudsperson for Children of the Republic of Croatia is the work coordinator for the Children’s Rights Ombudspersons’ Network in South and Eastern Europe – CRONSEE. Acting as the network coordinator, the Ombudsperson for Children Ivana Milas Klarić organises the Annual CRONSEE Conference: The Rights of the Child – between the Interests of the Parents and the Obligations of the State. The Conference will be held in Zagreb, on 28 May 2015, at the Old City Hall (room A), St. Ćiril and Metod Street 5, starting at 10 a.m. The Conference is under the auspices of the City Assembly of the City of Zagreb.
The choice of the topic for the CRONSEE Conference was determined by current discussions occurring in Croatia on the issues related to the mandatory vaccination of children, the introduction of sex education and civic education in the regular education curriculum, positions on corporal punishment, and others. The aim of the Conference is to provide a platform for discussions on the modes of realising the rights and best interests of the child in the cases when the interests of the parents appear to be in conflict with the child’s interests and the obligations of the government to protect the child’s well-being.
The CRONSEE is a network of independent institutions for the protection of children’s rights at the national, regional and local levels, established in 2006 with a view to cooperating and empowering the work of the offices of children’s ombudspersons in the South East Europe as well as of promoting and exchanging good practices. This regional network at present has fourteen members and includes the representatives of ombudspersons’ offices from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Srpska, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and AP Vojvodina.