Finalidad y Objetivos de la Investigación

In 2007 the violation of children’s rights – as in previous years – most frequently presented itself indirectly in connection with cases concerning housing and social support, but we also received a complaint which expressly took issue with the activity of the child welfare and child protection bodies.

The violation of children’s rights connected to housing problems mostly frequently arose from the lack of financial resources and minimum living conditions.

A complainant belonging to the Roma minority turned to our office in order to solve their housing problem. Their house had become uninhabitable due to flood damage, and the complainant had not received any aid, despite requesting support several times from the local government to reconstruct it. The substance of the house had continuously deteriorated and the building control authority of the first instance later prohibited it from being used. The local government placed the family in temporary accommodation, which however was structurally very poor. The walls in every room were damp, and the complainant believes that their child developed asthma because of this. The complainant objected that the local government did not offer effective help to solve their housing problem in the long-term.

In view of the fact that according to the Constitution: ‘all children have the right to receive the protection and care of their family, and of the state and society, which is necessary for their appropriate physical, mental and moral development’ in the course of our procedure we made children’s rights the subject of a separate investigation.

It is the right of the child enshrined in law to receive protection against

environmental and social effects which are damaging to their development. The child also has the right to be given help to avert the situation threat- ening their development.

In connection with the child who became asthmatic as a result of the damp walls it can be established that the condition and environment of the temporary housing was unsuited to the child’s longer-term accommoda- tion, and was in violation of children’s rights and the right to the highest possible level of physical and spiritual health.

The housing problem of the child cannot be solved independently from that of the parents, since it is can be regarded as the most important basic principle of child protection that a child may not be separated from their family if they are only at risk due to financial reasons.

In the report on our investigation, in order to enforce the right to social security as well as protection of children’s rights and the content of the Child Protection Act, we initiated that the leader of the family help and child protection service place greater emphasis on surveying the area under their responsibility, paying visits to those persons and families requiring help, including cooperating actively with the local government and the complainant’s family to solve their housing problem and other social prob- lems. The leader of the service accepted our initiative and the indications so far are that the relationship and cooperation between the Roma families and the family carers has changed for the better.

Based on the Child Protection Act, the child welfare service is one of the most important institutions of the child protection system within the frame- work of basic care. According to the Child Protection Act and the related executive decrees one of the key duties of the child welfare services is to detect and indicate children who are at risk, reveal the reasons for this and prepare a proposal for their solution.

In 2007 too we had a case where the child welfare service did not perform its duty as set down in law.

A Roma woman was raising and caring for her three grandchildren in addition to her three children. The complaint objected among other things to the fact that she had not received any help from the municipal government in bringing up the children.

The municipal government wrote in its reply that the child welfare serv- ice has no possibility granted by statutory instrument which would result in preventing or stopping children being put at risk for financial reasons, ‘nat- urally they give clients who turn to them knowledge concerning managing their lives and household maintenance skills’. This attitude is unacceptable. According to the provisions of the Child Welfare Act, the child welfare serv- ice is a special personal service which defends the interests of children and whose tasks include preventing children from being at risk and remedying such situations using the methods and instruments of social work.

It also emerged that the family which was in an extremely difficult situa- tion had not been informed appropriately concerning the forms of support that could be claimed and they were not given assistance in managing their official affairs. For example, they did not receive house maintenance sup- port because the complainant did not submit such a claim. Nor did they receive the advance payment of child support by the state, or assistance to arrange this as soon as possible.

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