Government of Serbia formed the Council for the Prevention of Peer Violence

Government of Serbia formed the Council for the Prevention of Peer Violence

The task of the Council for the Prevention of Peer Violence will be, among other things, to ensure the organization of mobile teams for peer violence through protocols between centers for social work and other services, such as educational and health institutions and the police, which will respond urgently when this type of incident occurs.

The Council will be headed by the President of the Government of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, while the Deputy President of the Council will be the Minister for Family Care and Demography, Darija Kisić, it was stated in the government statement. The council also consists of the ministers of the interior, justice, health, information and telecommunications, the minister of labor, employment, veterans and social affairs, then for state administration and local self-government, for human and minority rights and social dialogue, the minister of tourism and youth, a representative of the Ministry of education, UNICEF, Association "Mothers are Law" and the Center for Missing and Abused Children.

The Government passed the Decision on the establishment of a Working Group for the support of mental health and safety of young people, whose task is to prepare a proposal for a program to support the mental health and safety of young people, with a special emphasis on the establishment of multi-sector cooperation that would include educational and health institutions and other organizations and social communities that deal with or have an impact on the mental health of that population.

These programs require a multi-level approach with different platforms such as digital media, health or social institutions, schools or other communities, as well as different strategies of access and communication with adolescents, while the overarching goal of these programs is to strengthen the individual's capacity to regulate emotions, improve alternatives to risky behavior, build resilience to manage difficult situations and adversity, and promote social environments in which the adolescent feels safe and protected.

The members of the government also adopted the Decision on the formation of the Working Group for the Safety of Children on the Internet, which in the next month will consider the introduction of measures to ban access to sites such as the Darknet and similar ones, which contain advice on how to commit murder, obtain drugs or firearms, and propose appropriate measures to the Government solutions.

The working group will consist of representatives of the cabinet of Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, the ministries of justice, interior affairs, information and telecommunications, education, then representatives of the court, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Security and Information Agency and civil society, the announcement stated.