The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, said at today's public hearing entitled "Every child has the right to childhood, let's stop child marriage", organized by the Parliamentary Committee for Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, that unions between minors slow down their development and their ability to get an education, and that these unions are not an expression of the will of the children, but primarily of their parents or relatives. For this reason, the Protector of Citizens insists on preventing the formation of unions between minors, and points out that these unions are not, as many claim, traditionally linked exclusively to the Roma community, but are also a phenomenon in other national communities.
Pašalić added that the Roma community is a particularly discriminated community due to the fact that this community does not have a home country, and that special attention must be paid to the realization and improvement of the rights of Roma men and women.
The Protector of Citizens also wished a happy upcoming International Roma Day, which is celebrated on 8 April, as well as today's great Passover holiday to all members of the Jewish community in Serbia.