The right to safety of every child in Montenegro
UNICEF is calling upon the Government of Montenegro to focus on the prevention of violence and to urgently increase the number of social workers and school psychologists
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PODGORICA, 17 APRIL 2023 – In response to the recent cases of peer violence taking place across Montenegro, UNICEF is calling for urgent action by the responsible state institutions, as well as by society as a whole, to ensure that the safety of every girl and boy in Montenegro is guaranteed.
Every adult citizen, especially leaders, have the responsibility to model respectful and peaceful behaviour to children. As a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Montenegro has committed itself to guaranteeing for every girl and boy the right to live in peace and dignity, free from all forms of violence.
In order for every child to exercise the right to safety, UNICEF is recommending that the Government of Montenegro urgently undertake a series of actions to ensure the safety and well-being of children and to ensure that the system is better prepared for the prevention of and protection of children from, all forms of violence, including peer violence.
First, a violence-free society starts at home within every family.
Being a parent is one of the most important and also most demanding responsibilities a person can have. Therefore, support needs to be provided to every parent on how to raise children in a loving family environment without violence. UNICEF research from 2018 found that two thirds of Montenegro’s children aged 1 to 14 years had experienced some form of physical punishment and/or psychological aggression from adult household members during the previous month.
For this reason, with UNICEF’s support, parenting support programmes have been introduced in almost half of all Montenegro’s municipalities.
The parents who attended the “Caring Families” programme say that they are now managing to resolve issues with their children more easily without violent discipline, as well as that they are facing fewer problems in their children’s behaviour.
UNICEF is calling for the government to fund parenting schools and make them available to every parent in the country.
Second, schools must be a safe space for every child.
To achieve this, UNICEF calls for strengthening capacities of the education system to prevent and respond to violence more effectively.
In particular, the number of psychologists needs to be urgently increased, in order to provide support to children as well as teachers to ensure early identification of children at risk.
At the moment, only 73 psychologists support 120,000 children attending preschools, primary and high schools in Montenegro. Also, to prevent peer violence children must have the right skills.
It is essential to ensure that the Program for socio-emotional development of students “My virtues and values” is expanded and implemented in all schools as part of everyday teaching and learning.
This program was introduced into Montenegro’s education system in 2015 with support from UNICEF and the Bureau for Education. Currently, teams of teachers in over 100 primary and secondary schools implement the program, thus supporting more than 20,000 students to learn to recognize their own and other people’s emotions, to develop tolerance and empathy, and to solve problems without violence.
Furthermore, schools need to implement evidence-based actions. Therefore, UNICEF also calls onthe education system to continue regular data collection on the number and types of violence in schools and the measures undertaken by schools to prevent violence and support children when it happens, with a view of ensuring quality and effective actions at school and system levels.
With UNICEF’s support, a database has been introduced into Montenegro’s education system through which it is possible to track this information, but schools need to keep updating this database constantly so that the education system can use it to properly plan, implement and monitor policies against violence in schools.
Finally, in order to ensure the effective implementation and sustainability of these actions, the new Education system reform strategy to be developed this year will need to include these actions for prevention of peer violence and provision of adequate support to all boys and girls in Montenegrin schools.
Third, every community in Montenegro needs stronger social work support to children and family who need them.
Montenegro’s social work system is struggling with the limited availability of support to families and children at risk or victims of violence and the sustainability of the existing services is constantly in question.
For these reasons, UNICEF calls on the state for an urgent increase in the number of social workers in Montenegro and availability of services which support children and families at risk to prevent cases of violence through counselling, family therapy and comprehensive care plans to address their specific challenges.
UNICEF Analysis from 2018 showed that Montenegro’s centres for social welfare lack at least 50 additional social workers who should act as case-managers and ensure services to support children and families at risk are available in their community.
The new five-year strategy for the prevention of, and protection of children from, violence should be developed urgently and it should include all these actions.
It should particularly aim to strengthen cooperation between education, social and child protection, health, police and judiciary on preventing violence and responding to it effectively through child-friendly procedures. This strategy should also include trainings for local media to ensure that they report ethically on this child-right issue with full respect for children’s best interest, dignity and privacy.
Globally, half of students aged 13–15, about 150 million, report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and around school according to the 2018 UNICEF Report An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in Schools.
UNICEF works with governments in more than 190 countries and territories to support children worldwide to realize the right to grow up safely.
