Comment: 'OSCE' reports that a two-day meeting was organized in Kyiv to support Ukrainian authorities' efforts to bring the country's adoption mechanism into line with international standards. According to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, more than 100'000 chilldren are either orphans or deprived of parental care, and a third of them are eligible for adoption. While the government prefers domestic adoptions and placements, there is still a significant amount of inter-country adoptions carried out without compliance with internatonally-accepted standards.

OSCE full text

Comment: A news relayed by 'Reuters', reported that The NGOs Federation for Children (FONPC) recently achieved a report about the respect for children's right in Romania. This report was drafted by 86 NGOs working in the field of human right's and was send to the United Nations commission on the Rights of Children, in Geneva. It is an alternative report to a Romanian's government one which the FONPC says failed to offer an effective analysis of the progresses made in the application of children's rights laws in this country. The text identifies some issues like difficulties in providing services, discrimination of some categories of the population and a lack of extra-curricular activities.

Reuters full text

FNOPC report

Comment: Serbian Interior Ministry, Ivica Dacic is satisfied with serbian police forces and added that Serbia is more secure now. On the whole, Cross-country agreement and strategic cooperation Law signed with Europol to fight crime and cross-border crime were sucessful , reported 'EMportal'. During this press conference marking the Ministry's first 100 days in office, Dacic said that: "All police forces in the region must put up a joint fight against organized and particulary cross-border crime through cooperation and exchange of information." Serbia is classified as a transit country to the European Union by the Traffic in Persons report published annualy by the US administration. Nevertheless, Dacic mentioned that the formation of professional police forces does not take borders into account.

EMportal full text

Comment: 'APA' News Agency reports about child labour in Azerbaijan and quotes both government and NGO representatives. While no one can provide exact numbers, according to calculations of international organisations there are 4'000 street children in the country, most of them working illegally, without contracts. According to a recent ILO research, the age for the boys was between 12-14, for the girls 12-16. The girls at this age were involved in prostitution mostly, while the boys were working as auto washers or bus conductors. 64.7 per cent of these children are living with the single mothers and brothers and sisters.

APA News Agency full text

Extract: In this edition, the Panel Secretariat encourages all juvenile justice actors to follow-up on the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. At its 49th Session, which ended in early October, the Committee made recommendations on juvenile justice to Bhutan, Djibouti, and the United Kingdom, covering both children in conflict with the law and child victims and witnesses of crimes. The Concluding Observations included, amongst others, recommendations on the need to reduce the use of detention (and to increase the use of alternative measures), as well as on the need to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility (currently set at 10 years in Bhutan and 8/10 years in the United Kingdom).

IPJJ Newsletter full text