Empowering Children and Young People with Disabilities to Improve Responses to Child Abuse and Neglect

The need for comprehensive protection of children/youth with disabilities from all forms of violence, abuse and neglect in all environments. was the focus of the Empowering Children/Young People with Disabilities to Improve Responses to Child Abuse and Neglect project, which was launched in Serbia in June 2014, to run for 20 months and funded by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia through the The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) programme.

The overall aim of the Empowering project was to assist Serbian civil society and the government to combat discrimination against children/young people with disabilities and promote democratic reform by increasing their political participation in addressing their human rights. This built on the innovative approaches to child participation which were pioneered during TWIA and harnessed the experience and enthusiasm of the group of self-advocates which had been created during TWIA and supported after that project ended. The project also sought to refine and strengthen, through political and professional influence, the framework of child protection services that Serbia had developed since 2005.