Children's commissioner lacking 'realistic budget'

Although the assistance of the Family and Social Solidarity Ministry was appreciated, Children's Commissioner Sonia Camilleri said yesterday her office still lacked a realistic budget enabling her to do all the work set by law.

Mrs Camilleri said there were five people working with her.

It results from her first annual report that in the year she has been in office Mrs Camilleri received 38 requests for help regarding lengthy court cases.

In the report she mentions the need for at least one more magistrate to handle Family Court cases, which average 450 a year. The report also mentions the urgent need of a back-up team, made up of psychologists, child psychiatrists, social workers and certified DNA testers, as well as more judicial assistants. The commissioner said exaggerated delays in such court cases were causing unimaginable suffering to children. She said the service of a children's lawyer was unknown to the public despite the fact that three lawyers currently offer such a service.

The report - which was presented by Mrs Camilleri yesterday and emanates from meetings she had with both children and their carers - shows that the office received eight requests for help related to child abuse, seven about education-related difficulties, six regarding bullying and three about anti-social behaviour, apart from a number of other requests. In all the office received 82 calls for help last year.

Maltese children were facing the same difficulties encountered by their European counterparts, she said, adding that society was changing very quickly, with such changes frequently leaving victims.

The report focuses on education, including illiteracy and bullying, and children's health issues.

Mrs Camilleri stressed the importance of giving a voice to children, adding that this was what her job was all about. She underscored the fact that the commissioner was an independent institution.

"Consistency is an important factor for children," she said.

She expressed her satisfaction that concrete steps to implement the United Nation's convention on children's rights have been taken in Malta which was one of the first 35 countries that appointed a children's commissioner.

She said a lot of progress had been made with regard to young immigrants who have been removed from Safi Barracks. However, some of them still did not have the necessary comfort.

Both Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina and Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro agreed that the work done during the commissioner's first year in office was short of a miracle because of the number of issues she managed to cover.

Referring to the importance of having a comprehensive Children's Act, Ms Cristina said this was her dream but it was more important to address some issues - like fostering - at the earliest instead of waiting a few years for this comprehensive law to come about.

Ms Coleiro stressed the importance of putting more emphasis on issues related to adoption. She said that in a few years' time the country would be faced with difficulties because of the decreasing number of carers for the 300 children in homes.

She appealed to the authorities to give the commissioner's report the importance it deserved. She underlined the importance of having concrete initiatives to address children's poverty, recalling that the latest Household Budgetary Survey showed that one in every five children were at risk of poverty.