Mental health, digital risks and family conflicts among top priorities for new Children’s Ombudsman
As of this week, children in the Czech Republic have a new advocate: the country’s first officially appointed Children’s Ombudsman. The role is meant to strengthen the protection of children’s rights and give young people a stronger voice.
Bullying, risks on social networks, and mental health problems – children today face a growing number of challenges. To address them, Czechia now finally has its first Children’s Ombudsman. The role has been taken up by Martin Beneš, a former guardianship judge from the city of Most, who took office on Tuesday.
He says his main goal is to listen to children, especially those most at risk, including children in foster care, those growing up in socially excluded areas, or children from minority backgrounds.
When it comes to the issues he wants to address, Beneš says he will also draw on surveys conducted among children by the Office of the Public Defender of Rights.
“At the top of the list are issues related to children’s mental health, followed by matters concerning education. In my view, questions of social and legal protection of children are also important. These are therefore the topics I would like to focus on as priorities. Another issue that definitely needs to be added is safety in the digital environment.”
Children will be able to contact Beneš whenever they feel threatened or need help with problems they cannot solve on their own. He says he wants to act as someone who can pass on their concerns and help find concrete solutions.
As the Children’s Public Defender of Rights, he will review the actions of authorities dealing with children. This includes complaints about bodies responsible for the social and legal protection of children, conditions in children’s homes, or cases where people disagree with court decisions concerning child custody.
To better understand children’s perspectives, Beneš also plans to create an advisory group made up of minors.
“A council will be created by law, into which I would like to involve at least several dozen children from different backgrounds, including disadvantaged children. Not only those who are interested and active, but also children who would otherwise not get the chance to speak. That means children from socially excluded environments, from institutional care, and others.”
At the same time, Beneš says he wants to draw attention to shortcomings in the current system and work to address them. In the coming weeks he plans to meet with the minister of education and the minister of justice to discuss possible improvements.
He also intends to visit schools across the country to raise awareness among children about the existence of this office and to let them know it was created specifically to help them.
The position of Children’s Ombudsman was created last July. Until now it had been temporarily held by Deputy Ombudsman Vít Alexander Schorm. During that time the office handled more than 700 submissions, including over 70 directly from children. Most of those cases involved disputes within families or problems at school.
