Children and youth issues

The actual condition of children in Bosnia and Herzegovina is especially difhcult. We will agree that children were, and still are, the prime victims of war and that, on the other hand, human rights and social inclusion start with children. ln other words, without children as its starting point, social inclusion is very unlikely to happen at all. Since 2003 IBHI - BiH has been implementing important UNICEF projects, namely the ”Improved Mechanisms for Child Protection completed in 2005 and the ongoing project “Promoting Reform of Child Protection Systems at Local and Central Levels in BiH Experiences gained while working in local communities with children and youth, especially in pilot municipalities Kakanj, Vares, Bugojno, Teslic and Gradiska, are very significant. They represent the fundamental attempt to start developing bottom-up policies in this field, by establishing Child Protection Advisory Groups within the relevant ministries in the Federation BiH and Republika Srpska. This book, entitled Problems of Children and Youth in the Context of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, uses these experiences as its starting point, but it also takes one step further. Namely, the problems of children elaborated in chapters to follow, promote and extend the concept of child protection so as to incorporate social inclusion and human rights. The philosophy of policies in this held is thus promoted in full accordance with the EU approach. This is of utmost importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina.