Today, 27 years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we are still talking about legally invisible children, children without a name and date of birth, children without identity. "You exist, but as if you were not present in this world.”, legally invisible R. B. from an informal Roma settlement near Belgrade would say.

The violation of the rights of girls and boys to the development and timely education are still justified by the common law of the Roma community, and we tacitly allow that child, early and forced marriages are an everyday life for a significant number of Roma children, denying them thus an opportunity to enjoy their childhood and the freedom of choice. ”You are a child, and then you are a woman. You are never a girl!”, M. A., a young girl from an informal Roma settlement in central Serbia would say.  M. A. “got married” when she was 13, and became a mother for the first time when she was 14. Today, she dreams that her daughter has a childhood, finishes the university, becomes a successful woman who had a chance to choose her future.

Thousands of refugee children are still exposed to numerous risks and dangers every day."I do not know what to do now, but I have no choice, I have to try to cross the border.", a sixteen-year-old unaccompanied minor, A. H. from Afghanistan said.

Children are children every day. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

For more information, see the related announcement here.