Ombudswoman for Children to Beneficiaries: Learn Foreign Languages and Run Away Headlong

– Learn foreign languages and run away headlong, that is what I could tell (the children), stated the current Ombudswoman for Children Ivana Milas Klarić on Friday at the parliamentary Committee for Family, Youth and Sports, which proposed to the Croatian Parliament, with opposition votes, to accept the Ombudswoman’s report on her work for the past year.

Milas Klarić, who is leaving, did not apply for the position of Ombudswoman announced under the new law, accusing the parliamentary majority of having destroyed the independent institution of the Ombudsman at the Government’s proposal (with the new law).

The Ombudsman for Children in Croatia is no longer an independent body, she said with much bitterness and stated that she does not envy whoever will succeed her.

When the government dismisses you, it means you are doing well!

She also said that in ombudsman circles, there is a rule – when the government dismisses you, it means you are doing well!

She did not speak much about the content of the Report itself, noting that the representatives received it six months ago, so they had time to study it, that it, regardless of how it will be voted on, will not change, nor will the fact that the state of children’s rights is poor.

The content of the report has been similar for years (since 2003), according to them, nothing is usually done in all governments, except that some structure decides to make a precedent, destroy the independent institution, discriminate against children, and worsen their position, said Milas Klarić, also noting that in civilized countries, “which Croatia is not,” there is no voting on the report. In our case, it serves to dismiss the Ombudsman who does not correspond to the ruling structure, stated Milas Klarić.

The Ombudswoman is being removed because someone does not like her, says Ana Komparić Devčić (SDP), the ruling party did not have the courage to dismiss her, so they created a new law, adds Nada Turina Đurić (GLAS), she is the most media-exposed victim of the HDZ broom, it is a precedent to dismiss the Ombudswoman in the middle of her term, the new law was passed to “politically bury” Milas Klarić, adds Sabina Glasovac (SDP).

Mrak Taritaš: Who is next?

Anka Mrak Taritaš (GLAS) believes that a “serious” step backward is being made, that children are being used as a political instrument. We have absolutely destroyed the institution of the Ombudsman for Children, we are sending the message that children are not important to us, and I wonder who the next Ombudsman will be, said Mrak Taritaš.

Opposition representatives harshly criticized the Government also for the proposal of the new Family Law which was withdrawn from public discussion, and Glasovac had a message for the Prime Minister.

The fact that this scandalous proposal has been withdrawn does not mean that the Prime Minister has solved the problem, he will only solve it if he no longer “allows those who created it to be anywhere near creating a new proposal,” recommended the representative.

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The Committee, which did not have any members from the ruling party, supported the Report for 2016 with five (opposition) votes ‘for’, while HDZ’s Željka Jozić, who abstained, and independent Marin Škibola deposited their votes.

The Committee will hear five candidates for the new Ombudsman next week and then decide whom to propose to the Parliament. We must provide at least two names, and how many we will provide will be decided after we hear them, said Turina Đurić.

SDP, Glasovac announced, will not participate in “this farce,” because it does not want to bear the responsibility for turning an independent institution into a political one.

Komparić Devčić: Hrvoje Jukić is the new Ombudsman

It is already being talked about in public that the new Ombudsman will be Hrvoje Jukić, so it makes even less sense to participate in this farce, concluded Komparić Devčić.

There are five candidates for the new Ombudsman: lawyers Hrvoje Jukić, Tatjana Holjevac, Zdravko Miočević, Helenca Pirnat Dragičević, and doctor Vanja Slijepčević Saftić.

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The term of the Children’s Ombudsman lasts eight years, and a new one is elected following the new Law on the Ombudsman for Children which was passed last summer after the previous Constitutional Court deemed it inconsistent with the Constitution because it was passed by a simple majority, not by a majority of all parliamentary representatives. The new law has ‘moved’ the process of electing the Ombudsman from the Government to the Parliament, and since its proposal, the opposition has accused the government of having passed it only to dismiss Milas Klarić, who was elected to the position during the term of the left coalition, just over three years ago.