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BiH Early Childhood Development Group: Violence among children can be prevented by providing adequate care during the first three years of life

The Early Childhood Development Group of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a multisectoral body initiated and convened by UNICEF, concluded their meeting today with unanimous agreement on an Action Plan that would implement the Strategy for Early Childhood Development adopted in 2007. The group consists of representatives from concerned ministries and NGOs from health, education, civil affairs and pre-school education sectors.

“In the light of recent events and the increased number of incidents and violence acts involving young people and children, who cannot be ignored, we recommend that programmes supporting Early Childhood Development become a priority for State and community investments. Institutions and penalty measures are merely treating consequences, while the underlying causes go recognised and untreated. We would like to stress that the first three years of life are the most important in determining the rest of one's life. This is the most intensive period of mental and physical growth and, if inadequately supported, can result in learning difficulties, violence, crime and social problems”, the working group agreed.

“While this country has made a remarkable recovery in many respects since the war, the social impact of conflict can last for generations. Very young children are particularly vulnerable in situations of crisis, instability and violence, and war-time conflict and stress can severely impact the physical, mental and emotional development of young children. Today’s youth are the generation born in war, and it is vitally important that the problems associated with them today are understood and addressed in this context. It is also critical that adequate investments are made in early childhood development now, to safeguard progress, and to ensure a peaceful, tolerant and productive society in the future,” said June Kunugi, UNICEF Representative in BiH.

Parenting skills, emotional support and communication with a child are of extreme importance during the first three years of life. UNICEF's experiences from all over the world confirm that timely interventions and investments into the development of young children give a 6-fold return — in other words, each 1 KM invested in the development of young children and preschool education, returns at least 6 KM to society.

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Joint letter to the Government

Urgent call for action to expedite implementation of the Strategy against Juvenile Offending for Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve the juvenile justice system

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