Save the Children
Save the Children Romania is a public utility association, whose mission is to ensure equal opportunities for all children – by using its own experience, own programs, advocacy and by assembling civil society leaders, we wish to drive positive and long-lasting changes in children’s lives and protect them against danger.
For 32 years, Save the Children has been promoting children’s rights, as per the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and of Law no. 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child – 2,290,000 children were included in our educational, protection and medical-social support programs, and programs to foster participation of children in the promotion of their rights.
Save the Children Romania advocates for social engagement in the community’s life, making sure that its programs dedicated to children create long-term benefits for the entire community. This is the major role of subsidiaries (in Argeș, Caraș-Severin, Constanța, Dolj, Hunedoara, Iași, Mureș, Neamț, Suceava, Timiș, Vaslui) and local offices (in Brașov, Cluj, Dâmbovița) which, by defining the needs of the community and by identifying the available resources and social services, successfully provide local support to both children, and their families and to the public authorities with responsibilities in this area.
At the core of Save the Children’s story (of which Save the Children Romania has been a part since 1997) is the vision of Eglantyne Jebb, who drafted the document that became the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1924 by the United Nations League and a source of inspiration for the future Convention of the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 and ratified by Romania in 1990.
LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES
Improving the legislation and public policy on the child’s rights is a constant concern for Save the Children. Throughout its 28 years of operation in Romania, we have carried out various advocacy activities with a positive long-term impact on the children’s lives and wellbeing in Romania. Save the Children supports, protects, and promotes the rights of the child through activities directly dedicated to children and their families, by organizing public campaigns, by drafting reports on the status of implementation and observance of the rights of the child and, ultimately, by submitting points of view or legal proposals aimed at improving public policies targeting children and their parents.
Save the Children supports and monitors the fulfilment of the legal obligations of authorities and experts working for the implementation of the rights of the child. In this sense, Save the Children has submitted several proposals for legal amendments and, when needed, objected to changes that were in conflict with the interests of the children.
2001: THE FIRST NATIONAL PROGRAM TACKLING EXPLOITATION THROUGH LABOR
After supporting the process for the ratification of the International Labour Organization Convention no. 182/1999 concerning the prohibition of the worst forms of child labour, Save the Children has been carrying out the first national program tackling exploitation through labour, by ensuring access to education and psycho-social services to 500 children from Bucharest, Iasi and Craiova who were involved in severe exploitation through labour (beggary, sexual exploitation and labour exploitation, homelessness).
2004: PROHIBITING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT OF THE CHILD
Save the Children was able to achieve the interdiction of all forms of violence against children with Law 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, by forbidding physical punishment and humiliating or degrading treatment. In 2004, Romania became the 14th state to include a ban on corporal punishment in its legislation.
2006: 5 JUNE – THE DAY FOR TACKLING VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN ROMANIA
With the relaunch in 2006 of the campaign tackling violence against children, called “Bătaia NU e ruptă din Rai!” (Beating does not come from heaven!), the Romanian Parliament adopted Save the Children’s proposal to designate 5 of June “The day for tackling violence against children in Romania”.
2009: PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IN THE NEW CRIMINAL CODE
Considering the importance of the criminal regulations for the protection of children against sexual abuse, Save the Children drafted a series of draft amendments targeting art. 220 (Sexual act with a minor), art. 221 (Sexual corruption of minors), art. 222 (Recruiting minors for sexual purposes), and art. 374 (Child pornography). By providing both social and psychological arguments and using recommendations found in international documents on this matter, Save the Children’s proposals were integrated in the new Criminal Code, which entered into force as of 2011.
2009: CREATION OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE FOR CHILD PROTECTION WITHIN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
The recommendations expressed by the Romanian children during the National Children’s Forum, organized every year by Save the Children, were the basis on which Save the Children built its request submitted before the Chamber of Deputies, to set out a Parliamentary Subcommittee for the Rights of the Child, operating in the field of promotion and protection of child’s rights within the structure of the Committee for labour and welfare within the Chamber of Deputies.
2010: CONSULTING WITH CHILDREN ON THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS WITHIN SCHOOLS
Save the Children organized debates (focus groups) with parents, teachers, and children to identify their interests and takes on areas of improvement of the educational system. This information was further used to draft amendments and observations to the draft law on national education. One of Save the Children’s proposals was focused on ensuring the regulation of the principle of participation of children and youngsters in the decision-making process of schools. Consequently, Law 1/2011 on national education (art. 80, para. 1) now includes a provision according to which “All major decisions are made in consultation with the representatives of the main beneficiaries (pre-primary, preschool and pupils), consisting of the National Council of Pupils or other associations representing pupils.”
2013: PROTECTION OF CHILDREN WITH PARENTS GONE ABROAD TO WORK
Save the Children proposed law makers to introduce in chapter VI of Law 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, a special section on the protection of children with parents gone abroad to work. The new provisions, which were adopted by the Parliament, sets forth that, if both parents or the parent exercising parental authority on his/her own intend/intends to go abroad to work, they have the obligation to notify the public welfare services associated to their residence of their intention, and to appoint a person who will take care of the child. By decision of the court, the appointed person holds the parental authority temporarily.
2015: DOUBLING THE PUBLIC ALLOWANCE FOR CHILDREN
Save the Children requested, through public information and within the specialized committees within the Chamber of Deputies, the increase of the public allowance for children, raising an alarm on the high percentage of children in Romania exposed to a risk of poverty and social exclusion. As a result of Save the Children’s campaign, the Romanian Parliament adopted the law to increase the allowance from 42 to 84 Ron, and for children with disabilities from 84 to 200 Ron.
2015: DEPARTMENT FOR WOMAN AND CHILD HEALTH – MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Save the Children convinced the Ministry of Health to set out a department for woman and child health with an overall objective “To ensure the full and integrated implementation of policies for woman and child health, as well as to create, approve and implement a coherent system for the monitoring, assessment and adjustment of measures to address the key health-related priorities for future parents, pregnant women, mothers and children.”
2011 – 2019: CHILDREN’S OMBUDSMAN
The creation of the Children’s Ombudsman institution in Romania was one of the major advocacy objectives of Save the Children, which began to materialize in 2001, as various public events conducted to raise awareness on this matter, with the participation and support of high dignitaries and international representatives, including the Swedish Children’s Ombudsman (2001 and 2007) and the Commissioner for Human Rights within the Council of Europe (2007).
Save the Children also contributed to the drafting and submission, before parliamentary committees, of four draft laws focusing on amending Law no. 35/1997 on the organization and functioning of the Ombudsman institution, aimed at either directing the responsibilities on the rights of the child to a Deputy of the Ombudsman (2011, 2013, 2017), or at creating a legislative initiative to set out the Children’s Ombudsman as independent institution (2016). The fourth draft law (2017) was adopted by the Romanian Parliament by Law no. 9/2018 amending and supplementing Law no. 35/1997 on the organization and functioning of the Ombudsman institution. This created a new area of intervention, namely “the safeguarding, protection and promotion of the rights of the child”, coordinated by a deputy of the Ombudsman, called the Children’s Ombudsman.
2016: FULL SETTLEMENT OF TRANSPORTATION COSTS FOR PUPILS’ COMMUTE
Save the Children, in partnership with the Association of Pupils in Constanta and the National Council of Pupils, requested the Romanian Government to fully cover the transportation costs for the commute of pupils who study in a different locality than that where they reside. This request was followed by a petition to the Ombudsman invoking the exception of unconstitutionality of the measure to cap transportation costs for pupils. The request was approved by Government Decision on 12 October 2016.