Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of a day that reminds us that over 200 million children around the world are exposed to adult abuse and that due to exploitation, they have no right to proper growth, development and a happy childhood. Child labour represents a violation of basic human rights, so we must work together to provide an environment in a society in which child labour will not be acceptable, either in the family, or outside it. The elimination of child labour must be our common goal, said the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pasalic, on the occasion of 12th June, the World Day against Child Labour.
Children-workers, pushed against their will into labour inappropriate for their age, have been excluded from the education system or have difficulty accessing schooling. Also, they have difficulty accessing services and measures of health and social protection and protection against violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, which is an assessment that the Protector of Citizens regularly repeats in his reports.
Because of their vulnerability, children are often exploited multiply, through multiple forms of exploitation. Most often, these are children from marginalized groups, who are engaged in begging, without parental care, isolated, they are visible on the street, but not always to the state.
Unfortunately, child exploitation is most common in the family, where the child is never aware that it is being abused. Therefore, the whole community must be educated, in order to understand that child labour must never exist and mustn’t occur anywhere.