Let’s declare National Day for the Elimination of Violence against Children

Saddened and appalled by the tragic death of three innocent children in Zagreb, the SOLIDARNA Foundation appealed to the Prime Minister and launched a petition to establish September 25th as the National Day for the Elimination of Violence against Children.

The crime committed against Ema, ​​Vito and Marko took place a few months after the horrible death of little Nicole, as well as the shameful verdict for sexual violence against a child and the terrible crime of throwing four children from the balcony. Children victims of sexual and domestic violence without real support from the system, just like child witnesses or victims of violence, left to their own devices will bear deep scars in adulthood and may never become self-aware and creative adults. We believe that now is the final time to establish a comprehensive system of prevention and support for children victims of violence.

We keep repeating that Croatia needs demographic renewal, but unfortunately we are not able to protect children who are already born.

Requirements for starting a systematic fight against violence against children:

To the Government of the Republic of Croatia:

1. Proclamation of September 25th as the National Day for the Elimination of Violence against Children
National Day for the Elimination of Violence against Children would be an annual opportunity for us as a community to remember all our children who lost their lives by violence, discuss this serious problem and identify weak links and opportunities for improvement to make the system of prevention and protection of children more effective.

2. Increase budget items for social support programs for children and families at risk of marginalization and violence
It is high time to use the opportunity in the preparation of the Budget for 2022. and increase items for programs to prevent, support and protect children from violence. Political will remains declarative if it is not visible in the budget, and funding is necessary to implement systematic changes that will prevent any future tragedy.

To the Ombudsperson for Children:

1. Establishment of Filicid Watch
We suggest that the Ombudsperson for Children follow the example of the Ombudsman for Gender Equality, who founded a group of independent experts who, within Femicid Watch, analyze all cases of murder of women by partners to determine whether and where a failure occurred in the chain of combating and sanctioning perpetrators. The Filicid Watch monitoring mechanism should analyze all child homicides in the past ten years in the same way in order to determine what needs to be changed urgently in the system – from prevention to sanctions.

We hope that you will accept our requests and that from next year we will mark September 25th as the National Day for the Elimination of  Violence against Children, with an effective monitoring mechanism at the Ombudsman for Children and sufficient budget funds for a comprehensive system of prevention and protection of children and youth and families. at risk of marginalization and violence.

You can sign the petition here.