A Commission on the Rights of the Child to replace the State Agency for Child Protection

"The Commission on the Rights of the Child will replace the State Agency for Child Protection, stipulates the new version of the Child Protection Act," stated Ognyan Stoichkov, Chairman of the Parliamentary Education, Science, Children, Youths and Sports Committee for Focus news agency yesterday.

He explained that he would support such an idea because currently the Social Assistance Agency deals with the problems of the poor, pensioners and children altogether. According to the MP, this is a "legal nonsense".

"The departments for child protection, with their hierarchical dependence on Sofia, do not always react flexibly and often when a problem arises, a signal is sent to Sofia, and the Social Assistance Agency initiates an inspection. The State Agency for Child Protection, on its part, after a week also sends an inspection and the competent authorities literally overburden the children by inspections, but the end result is zero, "said the MP. He supported the proposal for the administration, which will deal with the protection of children, to be subordinated to the Council of Ministers, and not to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

"I would support the idea for greater decentralization of the local structures of this Commission on the Rights of the Child. Its regional offices and departments should have the local administrations as first assistants "said Stoichkov.

According to him, the delay of the new version of the Child Protection Act is close to a criminal inaction on the part of the institutions. According to him, even if the bill is debated in Parliament in autumn it will enter in force in 2012, and the problems of children in Bulgaria are pressing. Stoichkov stated that the law should be named Child and Family Act.

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