Description: | The Special Rapporteur visited Romania from 1 to 10 September 2004. He went to Bucharest, Piatra Neamt, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, and Pitesti. Romania can register changes and many good news in child protection in the last years: the transformation of old-type residential institutions; a new package of laws on children's rights; the decentralization of the child protection system; a number of national action plans, which represent road maps for the implementation of policies on children's rights; a new generation of dedicated professionals working in the area of child protection. Many of these achievements were prompted by the external pressure exerted by the international community, especially the EU. At the same time, the urge of responding to the pressing priorities indicated by the international community concentrated most efforts and resources in the areas of residential institutions, intercountry adoptions, and transnational trafficking of human beings, and diverted the attention from other problems affecting children that are not being adequately addressed, notably internal trafficking and child prostitution. |
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