Representatives of the National Assembly at the conference "Every Child Needs a Family"

Dubravko Jorgić, deputy Secretary General of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska and Secretary of the Committee on Children, Youth and Sports National Assembly Biljana Marić participated today in Sarajevo at the conference entitled "Every Child Needs a Family" organized by the Joint Commission for Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the European Union.

The objectives of the conference are to improve the knowledge of representatives of government institutions in the country, civil society, the media and the international community on the situation of children without parental care and improvement of the reform of child protection in BiH.

Jorgić said at the gathering that the Republic of Srpska is trying to solve the status of children without parental care as much as possible, that is, to facilitate their adoption and finding of foster families, by stimulating the adoption.

According to him, all laws in this area adopted by Republic of Srpska are in line with EU laws.

According to the data from 2016, there are 445 children without parental care in the Republic of Srpska, said Assistant Minister of Health and Social Protection of Srpska Branka Sladojević who also participated in the conference.

She said that all the children were placed under guardianship, that some 90 were placed in institutions, 89 in Home for children "Rada Vranješević" and rest of them in relative families and foster families.

The campaign is part of a project titled "Transformation of Child Care Institutions and Family Discrimination Prevention", implemented in BiH by UNICEF from 2016 to 2018 and financed by the EU.

The aim of the project is to ensure that children without parental care, those at risk of separation from the family and children with disabilities enjoy the same rights and position as any other in BiH.