Article 23 Respect for Home and the Family
247. The Family Law establishes that a marriage is a common living of a man and a woman governed by law, that a marriage may only be contracted on the grounds of free will of future spouses and that the spouses are equal (Article 3). The importance of free will for the contraction of a marriage is especially stressed in Article 24 of the Family Law prescribing that a marriage may not be contracted by a person whose will is not free.
248. The Family Law prescribes that it is an impediment for the contraction of a marriage if, inter alia, a person with no capacity of reasoning wishes to contract it.
249. In the legal system of the Republic of Serbia there are no restrictions for the contraction of marriages concerning, inter alia, disability not affecting free will for a marriage.
250. The decisions on the exercise of parental right by one of the parents, on the method of personal relations between a child and a parent who does not exercise his/her parental right and the decisions on protection of other rights of a child are not conditioned by disability of the child or the parent concerned.
251. The Republic of Serbia wishes to point out to the information submitted in the Initial Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/SRB/1) paragraphs 94-99.
252. The Family Law prescribes special forms of protection of children without parental custody that are not conditioned or limited because of certain characteristics of a child concerning his/her disability (adoption, fostering, placement at social protection institutions and custody).
253. Further implementation of the development of specialized fostering has been in progress by means of which placement of children with behavioural difficulties would be ensured, as well as of disabled children, with the aim to decrease the application of institutional forms of protection.
254. Pursuant to the provisions of the Labour Law, one of the parents of a child in need of special care because of his/her severe level of handicap, except for the cases prescribed by the regulations on health insurance, shall have the right to take leave from work, upon the expiration of maternity leave and leave from work for the purpose of child care, or to work half working hours, not later than five years of age of the child concerned.
255. A parent or a custodian, namely a person in charge of care of a person disabled because of cerebral paralysis, paralysis in children, some sort of plegia or suffering from muscular dystrophy and other diseases, based on the opinion of the competent medical institution, may work half working hours under his/her request, which working hours may not be shorter than half of full working hours.
256. The Law on Financial Support to Families with Children 51 (LFSFC) prescribes the right to children allowance to be accomplished by one of the parents.
- Note #51
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Official Gazette of RS
, Nos. 16/02, 115/05 and 107-09 - Return
257. The compensation of costs of stay at pre-school institutions for children with disabilities is one of the measures of protection of this category of children as an especially vulnerable population. This measure shall encourage inclusion of such children into the educational system.
258. In 2010 the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy adopted the Rulebook on Additional Educational, Health and Social Support to Children and Pupils providing for the establishment of inter-line commissions in local self-governments. Also, since 2010 the Ministry of Health has been implementing A Child's Place is within the Family
Project in co-operation with UNICEF, starting from maternity hospitals and rendering support to parents with children with disabilities. Teams of experts consisting of gynecologists, neonatholigist, mid-wives, psychologists and social workers have been formed at maternity hospitals.
259. The Strategy for Improving the Position of Persons with Disabilities (SIPPD) stipulates certain special objectives: strengthening of families with persons with disabilities through the system of rendering adequate support by services and agencies helping the integration of persons with disabilities into the community and improvement of quality of services, as well as the measures for their implementation.
260. The opinion that children have the right to be within families and that big social welfare institutions are not suitable for their requirements, both physical and cognitive and psychological has been lately adopted. This refers to children with disabilities in particular.
261. As from 2001, the process of deinstitutionalization has been implemented, which is one of the priorities of the social protection reform. Concretely, the activities to improve the state and protection of beneficiaries have been initiated at all institutions. Soon afterwards, the need for a special approach in redefinition of the existing network of institutions for children also posed, which also implies the change of their role, in order that they become capable of meeting the requirements of the community through rendering of local services. In the period following, significant efforts were made in the field of development of services in the community for all groups of beneficiaries. However, such services have not always been available to the most vulnerable groups, such as children with major and severe disabilities or children at residential institutions.
262. The results achieved by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in the reform within the last three years may be viewed at two levels: the first one refers to the results achieved in protection of children, and the second one refers to the systemic changes – adoption of solutions placing a child in the centre thus also strengthening the institutional framework that is capable to respond in more adequate manner to the needs and the implementation of the rights of the child, of children with disabilities in particular.