Ombudsman: Child drug use is disturbing, child care centers are missing

The ombudsman under the exercise of competencies and his legal responsibilities has released the report with recommendations from Ex-officio, concerning the use of narcotic substances by children, where he has praised the decline in the age of users, which has been able to affect children aged 10 years of year.

According to a Lawyer's communique, the case is open under official duty in order to assess the current situation about the use of narcotics from children in Kosovo and addressing recommendations to relevant institutions, so as to take all necessary measures in preventing and treating children users of narcotics.

After reviewing the relevant legislation, international instruments, information received from various institutions and NGOs and data available to the people, estimates that the use of drugs by children is disturbing, adds to the fact that the violent decline of user age, which has been affecting children aged 10 year after year. In this report, the ombudsman also finds there is a lack of specialised centres for treating youth users of narcotic substances and lack of relevant awareness and prevention programmes, as well as a lack of services and treatment of narcotics users both for geographical and quality stretching. On the other hand, the ombudsman claims there is a lack of expertise, to employees of the Centres for Social Work to deal with cases of children using narcotics, under their legal mandate. Also, this report provides specific and concrete recommendations regarding actions the Ministry of Health, Kosovo Police, the Ministry of Labour and Social Goods, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Kosovo Judicial Council and the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, in the direction of improving the current situation”, said in the communique.

This recommended report has been forwarded to the responsible authorities and has been published on the official website of the Ombudsman.