President Milanović: We should raise our children to be free people who will be critical and ask questions
“We should raise our children to be free people, to be critical, people who will ask questions, who will not be afraid to withstand stupidities and greed. As a rule they acquire this at home because in spite of school and all institutions, all that is essential is learned at home”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović stated at a ceremony marking 20 years of the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children and World Children’s Day.
Speaking of children’s rights, President Milanović highlighted their rights to safety and a safe childhood as particularly important. “I wish you to continue this job, which is also a function, but also full of deep substance and meaning, and ultimately love, which instils security in children. We grew up in a safe city, in a safe country, even during the war the degree of insecurity was incomparable to what we are seeing in the Middle East and in other areas around the world. There is simply something in our culture, something giving priority to the safety of a community, a common place to live”, President Milanović explained.
“When we talk about children’s rights, we are actually projecting what we see as children’s needs because children are just children and they copy adults”, he noted, reminding that we are in a very fragile period of our more recent history in which we have to watch what we say. In that sense he said: “Just yesterday we got out of our bloody shoes, and here I’m not referring to war, I’m referring to society that – not only in Croatia but in most of Europe – was totally different from today’s, which we take for granted”.
As examples of such a society he mentioned the first two Croatian presidents who were imprisoned for their views. “The children who came out of that regime and that education – the children of Eastern Europe and a good part Europe – saw things that are unimaginable to us today. And that’s why there are no children’s rights without adults’ rights, without the right to freedom of thought, action, to freedom of creativity and awareness that you will, if you are different, at least remain free, not without a job, without freedom and be imprisoned or executed”, the President said.
On the occasion of 20 years of the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children in the Republic of Croatia and World Children’s Day results were presented of a research entitled “Kako ostvarujemo dječja prava u Hrvatskoj: mišljenja i stavovi djece i mladih u 2009. i 2023. godini“ (How we achieve children’s rights in Croatia: thoughts and views of children and youth in 2009 and 2023). Also speaking at the ceremony besides President Milanović and the Ombudsperson for Children Helence Pirnat Dragičević were the UNICEF representative for Croatia Regina M. Castillo, the Minister of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy and delegate of the Prime Minister Marin Piletić, and Member of the Croatian Parliament and delegate of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Anamarija Blažević.
Alongside President Milanović was the Adviser for Education Jadranka Žarković.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek