The Ombudsman for Children has developed a special section “Together Against Coronavirus” on the website dijete.hr, to inform the public of their recommendations, the views of children’s rights organizations (ENOC office, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child ), to give answers to frequently asked questions and information on how to help children in times of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief overview of this information is regularly updated in the section “Children’s Rights and Coronavirus”.
Since the outbreak of the crisis, we have made a number of recommendations to the executive authority regarding the protection of the well-being of children in specific conditions of life in isolation due to the pandemic: regarding the protection of children from violence, prompt administration of justice, protection of the best interests of children in online learning, support of children with disabilities, additional measures for protection of the well-being of Roma children, ensuring regular video call contacts for children separated from their parents – if their parents are divorced or one of them is in prison, as well as a number of other recommendations that have arisen from the specific problems for which citizens turn to us.
We have also published a number of resources where parents can be informed about the protection against COVID-19, how they can support children, how to talk to them about the pandemic, where they can get psychological support for themselves and children, how to organize quarantine time with their child and illustrated materials for children and young people available in Croatian.